It's that time of year again.  Call it "Revenge of the Nerds" or "The Geekpire Strikes Back," but definitely call it exciting, impressive, exhilarating, intoxicating, and roborant.  That's right, the National Spelling Bee returns and now it's time to see what America's finest home-schooled, ADHD, highly functioning autistic kids have locked in the dank crevices of their rickets-riddled craniums. 

Each year, America's finest spellers get together in NYC and battle on the fields of consonant vowel relationships, odd word origins, and grammar usage.  Antidisestablishmentarianism isn't even a challenge to these phonetic wizards.  Let's get down to Russian origins, old English derivatives, and flummoxing French pastoral idylls.  Last year competitive spelling's Lebron James, Samir Patel, failed in his last attempt to capture the crown.  Avid fans fondly recall 2003 the year that 9 year old Samir burst on the spelling scene and finished third.  "The firmament is the delimitation," is what the pundits said, but sadly Samir never lived up to his advance billing.  The 2008 field is wide open and the contestants should be warming their vocal chords for the mental joust that lies ahead.  The excitement is palpable.  The language is superfluous.  The kids have highwater pants and oddly patterned sweaters befitting of an aged Bill Cosby.  The National Spelling Bee is here and now it's time to crown a champion.

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