5/8/2023 - Huge News for People Who Love Huge News
Hear ye, hear ye, the 2023 Scripp’s National Spelling Bee speller bios are live and ready to be discussed!
If you’ve been around the Reply Ali block a few times, you know that every year in late May/early June we drop everything and become a Spelling Bee blog. The first harbinger of this sacred season is when Scripps updates the Meet the Spellers page and we get to know the 231 children who will be spelling for our entertainment this year. I have combed through them all, posted some highlights to my Instagram story, and have chosen who I will be rooting for and against once May 30 rolls around.
Meet the Spellers
Ali’s Faves
#82 Nayara is a “budding naturalist who derives joy from observing the birds and animals in her own backyard” and her favorite pandemic pastime was watching two squirrels she named Chubby and Cuddles
Big fan of #98 Clara, who likes to read books that make her laugh out loud, chose LeBron James as her favorite athlete, and just looks impossibly friendly!
#149 Olivia lists her favorite movie as Knives Out, and her favorite book as "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart. My sister, an elementary librarian, has told me that I’d love that book too, and I’ve requested it from my library!
#225 Eli is a radio DJ on a the local college radio station! How fun for him. He also likes cooking vegetarian food and would like to travel the world.
#77 Isabella is wearing a hat.
Other Notables
Love to see some they/them representation (for maybe the first time?) from #215 Ruby (plays the drums) and #141 Peyton (likes crafts and DIY)
Thrilled beyond words that not one but TWO children have listed National Treasure as their favorite movie. What I wouldn’t give to pick #107 Roberto and #186 Audrey’s brains about the recent National Treasure Disney+ series.
Cool girls I’d like to be friends with include: #134 Lora, #24 Chuxia, #122 Iris, and #150 Luna
You do have to hand it to #117 Sonia for this masterful bio-writing, which verges on annoying but never fully crosses the line:
“At times she is a fish in the pool; on other occasions she is a scrappy sparrer on the tae kwon do mat. Sometimes she is a night owl watching words float by; on other occasions she is a social butterfly in daylight. At times she is a perfectionist making her own round and golden brown pancakes, but at other times she is opening her mouth wide to fit a Chick-fil-A sandwich into it.”
Whenever #184 Aiza travels, she likes to see art museums and find small, local bookstores or cafés.
There are four 9-year-olds in the Bee this year (most kids are 10-14), including #222 Siya who has the kindest face and really good braided pigtails.
#225 Joy-Den has a beautiful name, and loves to travel with her parents, spend time at the beach and stay with her granny on weekends.
My Sworn Enemies
#75 Tyler loves John Deere, assembles barbecue grills for his grandfather’s business, and just looks like he would be really mean to me.
I cannot legally tell you what I first thought about after seeing #163 Andrew’s face for the first time. He has written perhaps the worst Speller Bio I’ve ever read:
“What did you think about after seeing Andrew Macdonald's face for the first time? According to a Google Form, 62% thought of a cross-bred Chimpanzee/Tyrannosaurus rex, 17% saw a nerdy teenage boy without any knowledge of personal space, and 21% saw "other". However, Andrew's parents saw someone who was kind, thoughtful, thankful, and smart. (Boy, were they wrong!) But in all seriousness, Andrew enjoys building Legos, playing dumb online games, and rickrolling people.”
#223 Charlotte is the complete opposite of my usual Spelling Bee enemy archetype (insufferably precocious tween boys). I’ve selected her as an enemy simply because I’m a little afraid of her.
2023 Spelling Bee Broadcast Schedule
Once again, the various rounds of the Bee will be aired on a handful of obscure tv channels that require just a tiny bit of rocket science to access. What’s nice is that they’re the same channels as last year, so I think I have all of the correct Roku apps downloaded already.
Tuesday, May 30:
Preliminaries from 8am-6:30pm CST (ION Plus and Bounce XL)
Wednesday, May 31:
Quarterfinals from 7am-noon CST (ION Plus and Bounce XL)
Semifinals from 7-9pm CST (ION)
Thursday, June 1:
Finals from 7-9pm CST (ION)
Oh Also, Eurovision!
I’m actually getting a little ahead of myself here on the calendar of my hyperfixations. Eurovision Song Contest is this week!! Semifinal Group 1 is tomorrow!! Each episode will air live on Peacock (hosted by Johnny Weir) at 2pm CST, but Neeraj from Peacock customer support has assured me that it will be available to watch on demand afterwards as needed.
Tuesday, May 9 - Semifinal Group 1
Norway, Malta, Serbia, Latvia, Portugal, Ireland, Croatia, Switzerland, Israel, Moldova, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Czechia, Netherlands, Finland
Thursday, May 11 - Semifinal Group 2
Denmark, Armenia, Romania, Estonia, Belgium, Cyprus, Iceland, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, Georgia, San Marino, Austria, Albania, Lithuania, Australia
Saturday, May 13 - Finals!
the finals will include the 10 highest ranked countries from each semifinal, plus the Big Five (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) and last year’s winner (Ukraine)
My two favorites this year are Norway and Austria, with honorable mentions going to Portugal, Finland, Romania, and Poland.
Happy to have you aboard for both Eurovision and Bee Season 2023. It’s just really fun to love things, you know?
xoxo,
Ali