E-x-c-e-l--l-e-n-t

I hope you and 30 million other people tuned in to ABC last night to watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

I hope millions of people flock to Blockbuster today with the intention of renting Spellbound and The Bee Season only to find out that millions of other people got there first and took those very movies home already.

I hope millions of other people wake up this morning, march straight to their Netflix account and load these two movies into their queue.

I hope spotlighting a kid's intelligence becomes a mainstream trend.

The spelling bee was unlike anything I've ever seen on the television and I hope to see more.
The thirteen teenagers who'd made it to last night's final rounds, although under tremendous pressure, were impressively self-composed, confident and demonstrated maturity beyond their years.

Not to mention humble. As a mother who goes a little bonkers when her boy hits the ball out of the ballpark, I couldn't help but notice how both parent and child took the spelling of such words as tmesis, hukilau and dasyphyllous in stride, as if it were no big deal. Spelling ursprache is the baseball equivalent to hitting a grand slam. Believe me, when my kid accomplishes that feat, you'll be hearing me scream and shout all the way to your neighborhood. Without the benefit of broadcast on national television.

By the way, do you even know what these words mean? I know I they've never been uttered in conversations with my friends and family. And that was the impressive part. These kids probably hadn't heard or seen many of these words before either, but because they have been spending their spare time studying word origin and all the wacky rules that one must consider in such endeavors, Kerry Close, Finola Hackett and their fellow competitors could rely upon their knowledge and spell just about anything.

Don't get me wrong. I am a sports fan who can't log enough time on the bleachers watching my kids participate in gymnastics, baseball or soccer. I am tremendously proud of them. You know that.

But really, our society is out of balance when it comes to priorities. I doubt the network big wigs thought twice about broadcasting the Little League World Series. Can you imagine the conversations and lobbying that went on in the boardroom at ABC when they were considering whether or not to broadcast the spelling bee? In prime time no less!

Congratulations to ABC for making the courageous decision to give Americans the opportunity to cheer on some big- time -smarty adolescents as they went head to head (or should I say mind to mind?) in an intellectual kind of sport. What a refreshing change of pace.

And congratulations to Kerry Close, who in her fifth appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, took home the big trophy and well over twenty thousand in cash and prizes. You go girl, you "stellar speller," you!