Faizan Zaki wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee a year after finishing runner-up
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Faizan Zaki nearly threw away his opportunity to go from runner-up to champion at the Scripps National Spelling Bee with a shocking moment of overconfidence. Given a second chance, he seized the title of best speller in the English language.
The 13-year-old from Allen, Texas, who lost in a lightning-round tiebreaker last year, outlasted eight other accomplished spellers to win the title on Thursday night, including two that he let back into the competition after his own careless flub.
Told to take a deep breath before his final word, 'eclaircissement,' he didn't ask a single question before spelling it correctly, and he pumped his fists and collapsed to the stage after saying the final letter.
Two rounds earlier, Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane misspelled their words, clearing a path for Faizan, but instead of making sure he knew the word, 'commelina,' Faizan let his showmanship get the better of him.
'K-A-M,' he said, then stopped himself. 'OK, let me do this. Oh, shoot!'
'Just ring the bell,' he told head judge Mary Brooks, who obliged.
'So now you know what happens,' Brooks said, and the other two spellers returned to the stage.
Upon his return to the microphone, Sarv chimed in: 'This is surprising!'
But Sarv misspelled again, followed in the next round by Sarvadnya, and Faizan stayed just calm enough to ensure his competitors wouldn't get back to the microphone.
It was a riveting conclusion to a competition that started in 1925 and appears to have a bright future. Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company, had a few dozen former champions on hand to celebrate the centennial of an event that began when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington.
Faizan lost to Bruhat Soma last year in a tiebreaker known as a 'spell-off.' He became only the fifth runner-up to come back and win and the first since since Sean Conley in 2001.
With the winner's haul of $52,500 added to his second-place prize of $25,000, Faizan increased his bee earnings to $77,500. His big splurge with his winnings last year? A $1,500 Rubik's cube with 21 squares on each side.
This is the last year the bee will be held at its home for the past 14 years, a convention center just outside Washington on the banks of the Potomac River. In 2026, the competition returns to the nation's capital at Constitution Hall, a nearly century-old concert venue near the White House.
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Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.
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Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Review: Giancarlo Guerrero steps into new Grant Park Music Fest role with a pair of genial and dynamic programs
Talk about a perfect storm. On Wednesday, Giancarlo Guerrero's much-fêted debut as principal conductor and artistic director of the Grant Park Music Festival was dampened by relentless rain. Audiences scrunched under the Jay Pritzker Pavilion fringe, only to play musical chairs dodging the structure's many (and ever-changing) leaky spots. When they weren't doing that, seat shuffles and squabbles competed with the evening's violin concerto. But if Guerrero appeared unflappable onstage, it's because he's been there before. He made his sophomore appearance with the orchestra in 2014 under nearly identical circumstances, down to the solo string showcase and contemporary American opener. Despite the lousy weather, that appearance impressed festival musicians enough to fast-track Guerrero to the top of their director wishlist a decade later. While last week's storm never erupted into thunder, musical lightning struck twice here with yet another exuberant, water-resistant stand by Guerrero on Wednesday, followed by a masterful account of Mahler's Symphony No. 1 on Friday. Wednesday's concert included two harbor works: 'An American Port of Call,' by Virginia-based composer Adolphus Hailstork, and Leonard Bernstein's 'On the Waterfront' suite. Conducting with his pointer fingers rather than a baton, and sporting a new goatee, Guerrero led a sparky, whistle-clean run of Hailstork's eight-minute curtain raiser. But when the music dissipated into quietude — recalling a boat drifting far off from shore, surrounded only by blue horizon — Guerrero guided the music with expansive ease. Bernstein's 'Waterfront' benefited from the same balance of gusto and intuitive pacing. Patrick Walle's horn solo up top sounded suspended in time, before an increasingly feral orchestra jerked us back to street level. Amid the ferocity, the Grant Parkers always sounded whetted and clean, moving through the works' shifting meters with fearsome precision. In the final windup to the end, electric energy gave way to ringing, Mussorgskyan grandeur. Between the Hailstork and Bernstein, Jeremy Black returned to the festival as both concertmaster and featured soloist, offering up the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Even the brunt of the evening's downpour couldn't wash away the strong impression left by this filigree, soulful performance. Black's sound in the opening theme and balladic second movement was sugared but never treacly. Meanwhile, the Allegro molto vivace coasted along serenely, Black's bel canto phrasing and pristine intonation never betraying its finger-flying briskness. Promisingly, Guerrero's orchestral accompaniment was every bit as tasteful. Negotiating solo string balance in the park is always just that — a negotiation — but Guerrero hit the sweet spot of clarity and restraint. The orchestra was able to be a bit more gutsy under Friday's soloist, Pacho Flores. The Venezuelan trumpeter has a sparkling sound, which he dispatched with doting attention to phrase and line in Arturo Márquez's lively, if unseasonal, 'Concierto de Otoño' ('Autumn Concerto'). The work was specifically composed for Flores in 2018, taking unabashed advantage of not just the trumpeter's lyricism but his gatling-gun articulation, unflappable stamina and chameleon flexibility. (He traded four different horns across the 20-minute piece: C and D trumpets in the outer movements, then a flugelhorn and soprano cornet in the middle.) Flores also knows how to work a crowd. Rather than shooting to the stratosphere in his third-movement cadenza, he crawled to the bottom of his range — an amusing subversion of trumpet tropes. He then turned his bell directly at Guerrero and playfully pppththhed at him through his horn, prompting a teasing 'what gives?' shrug from the conductor. That said, it's hard to endorse Márquez's concerto beyond a mere virtuoso vehicle. The orchestral backing is often trite, cycling through the same progressions for what feels like minutes at a time. If the concerto's many flavors of theme-and-variation were engrossing at all, it was entirely thanks to Friday's soloist and orchestra, both playing with tempera-rich color and joie d'vivre. For pops-adjacent music under a more skillful hand, look to Flores himself. He opened and closed his appearance with two self-penned numbers: 'Morocota' (named for a $20 Venezuelan coin) and 'Lábios Vermelhos' ('Red Lips'). Originally recording both with guitar accompaniment for a 2017 Deutsche Grammophon release, Flores sang through his horn with a suave melodiousness that would have done the Rat Pack proud, with just a shimmer of vibrato where it counted. His lush orchestral arrangements would have been right at home in that milieu, too. At one point in 'Lábios Vermelhos,' section trumpets got in on the fun, with a sneering little interjection. Yet another short, Latin-inspired curtain raiser opened the concert: 'Baião n' Blues,' by Chicago composer Clarice Assad. A staple of the Carlos Kalmar years, Assad's inclusion in Guerrero's opening week bodes well for the new festival chief's attention to local composers. Ultimately, though, this performance had some of the same early-season jitters as last week's opener, with a scraggly opening and subdivision disagreement among the violins. 'Baião n' Blues' already isn't Assad's most compellingly structured piece, but a more honed performance might have made a better case. While Mahler sought to depict the world's natural beauty and bizarre juxtapositions in his music, he perhaps didn't anticipate contending with throbbing helicopters, the squeal of a coach's whistle, and hot rods sputtering down Lake Shore Drive on Friday. The Grant Park corps rose above the usual downtown backing track with a fresh, focused Mahler 1. Guerrero cued the unearthly, whistling first bars with an ambiguous gesture that invited the orchestra to melt in freely. Offstage trumpets were piped through the crown of the pavilion stage, sounding mysteriously heaven-sent. When the theme arrived in the cellos, Guerrero maintained their levity and grace throughout the movement — and, in fact, throughout much of the piece, bringing an aerodynamic lightness even to the symphony's final cadence. Because Grant Park 'does things a little differently,' per Guerrero, Friday's performance reinserted Mahler's discarded 'Blumine' movement. Through a complex change of hands, the only surviving manuscript copy of 'Blumine' ended up in in New Haven, Connecticut, where it was rediscovered as part of the Mahler renaissance of the 1960s. If 'Blumine' is heard at all, it's usually as a standalone piece, for good reason: It's arresting but nearly always out-of-place amid the lustiness of the rest of the symphony. Friday's performance gave the same impression — gauzy and subtle, but stopping short of the richness and emotional abandon that would make a better case for its inclusion. Elsewhere, other idiosyncratic touches intrigued and often convinced: more perky staccatos by oboist Alex Liedtke, orchestral accents like bitter twists of a knife in the funeral march, and a slower reading of the klezmer-band interludes. In all, it endorsed Guerrero's warhorse chops as enthusiastically as his new-music acumen. Rain or shine, Grant Park is looking like a fair place to be under his baton.
New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
‘Jumanji' city marks 30th anniversary of iconic movie with nostalgic costume race
Madeline Murphy remembers the instructions she was given on the set of 'Jumanji' when she was an extra some 30 years ago: 'Pretend you're frightened and you're screaming because an elephant's coming after you.' So, that's what she did in the Central Square of Keene, New Hampshire, running back and forth, over and over, on a long day in November 1994. 'I was pretty tired by the end of the day, and it was cold,' said Murphy, 61. She got a check for $60.47 — and several seconds of screen time. 4 Actor Jonathan Hyde enjoys a moment with the crew during filming of 'Jumanji' on November 17, 1994, in Keene, a city that is celebrating its tie to the film by saluting the film's stampede scenes with a 'Rhino Rumble Road Race.' AP Murphy was one of about 125 extras cast in the classic Robin Williams film, which is marking its 30th anniversary. It's spawned several sequels, including one planned for next year. The city of about 23,000 people in the southwestern corner of the state is celebrating its ties to 'Jumanji' this weekend. A featured event is a 'Rhino Rumble Road Race' saluting the film's stampede scenes of elephants, rhinos and zebras on Saturday. Runners in inflatable animal costumes are sprinting about a quarter mile (less than half a kilometer) around the square. There's also a cast party, a parade, and a scavenger hunt, among other events. Keene gets picked thanks to coffee craving Based on the 1981 children's book by Chris Van Allsburg about a mysterious jungle adventure board game, the movie version of 'Jumanji' is set in the fictional small town of Brantford, New Hampshire. Veteran location manager Dow Griffith was crisscrossing New England in search of the right spot. A coffee lover who grew up in Seattle, he recalled feeling desperate one day for a good brew. He was a bit east of Keene at the time, and someone suggested a shop that was near the square. 'I took my cherished cup of double dry cappuccino out to the front porch, took a sip, looked to my left — and by God — there was the place I had been looking for!' he told The Associated Press. 'So really, we have coffee to thank for the whole thing.' Scenes were filmed at the square that fall and the following spring. The fall scenes show a present-day town that had declined. Extras played homeless people and looters, in addition to panicked runners fleeing from the jungle animals. 4 Scenes were filmed at the square that fall and the following spring. AP Joanne Hof, now 78, had needed her son's help to spot herself behind the elephants, running with her hands up. Hof, a reading specialist, bought a videotape of 'Jumanji' and showed it to the kids she worked with. 'They were very impressed that I was in the movie,' she said. The spring scenes, appearing early in the film, depict the town in 1969. Extras drove classic cars around the pristine-looking square and others walked around, dressed for that time period. 4 Actors walked around, dressed for the 1969 period. AP 'I told the makeup person, 'Do you know how to do a French twist?'' recalled Kate Beetle, 74, of Alstead, who said she can be seen for 'a micro-second' crossing a street. 'They just found me the right lady's suit and right flat shoes, and then the hair is kind of what I suspect did it.' The city helped transform itself The 'Jumanji' crews worked well with the city in getting the permits to transform Central Square into a dilapidated, neglected piece of public property, recalled Patty Little, who recently retired as Keene's clerk. 'They brought in old, dead shrubbery and threw it around and made the paint peel on the gazebo,' she said. Items such as parking meters and lilac bushes were removed and a large Civil War-era statue was brought in to cover a fountain. Graffiti was on the walls and crumpled vehicles in the stampede scene were anchored in place. Everything was restored, and fresh flowers were brought in the following spring, she said. Crews spent a total of about a week in the city for both settings. Little, whose classic 1961 Ambassador is caught on camera, could see everything happening from her office window. 'Did I get a lot of work done? I don't know during those days,' she said. Locals watch and meet Robin Williams A crowd turned out to watch a long-haired, bearded Williams run down the street in a leaf-adorned tunic. In the movie, he had just been freed from the game that had trapped him as a boy for years. 'He's shorter than I thought he was!' one viewer said, according to local chronicler Susan MacNeil's book, 'When Jumanji Came to Keene.' Others said, 'He has great legs — muscular, isn't he? But so hairy!' and 'Isn't he freezing dressed like that?' The mayor honored him with a key to the city. Williams, noticing the mayor was a bit shorter, suddenly announced at the presentation, ''I am the mayor of Munchkinland,'' with a voice to match, City Councilor Randy Filiault recalled. 4 A long-haired, bearded Robin Williams was in the movie. AP He stayed in character for 15 to 20 minutes, 'just bouncing off the walls,' approaching people in the audience and pulling their hats over their eyes. Eventually, he stopped, ending with a solemn 'Thank you,' Filiault said. 'I am really seeing something cool here,' Filiault remembered thinking. 'How fortunate we were.' When Williams died by suicide in 2014, people left flowers and photos beneath a painted 'Parrish Shoes' wall sign advertising a fictional business left over from 'Jumanji.' Former Keene police officer Joe Collins, who was assigned to watch over then-child actors Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce, also died by suicide, last year. Festival organizers planned a discussion about mental health and suicide prevention to pay tribute to Williams and Collins. 'I think Robin would have been impressed with that,' said Murphy, who met Williams and shook his hand. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to
Hamilton Spectator
3 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Dolce & Gabbana embrace wrinkled romance for spring-summer 2026
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