Laodicean

Well, another Indian kid won the National Spelling Bee. Kavya correctly spelled "Laodicean," which apparently means "indifferent to politics." Whatever. Scripps-Howard is just making up words now. I can adjectify proper nouns, too.

The 13-year-old girl from Kansas wants to grow up to be....wait for it...a neurosurgeon. Bet you didn't see that one coming.

Are Indian kids just innately good spellers, or are they innately gifted at beating a given task to death? Winning a national spelling bee goes beyond natural talent. All the championship words, and most of the other words in the Bee, are words that you will never be able to use in conversation or on a job resume. It's like being the world's best thumb-wrestler. Yay! You did it! Now what? I guess it proves that you can relentlessly focus on a mind-numbing task with total disregard for everything else. That must be useful to someone.