Dear spellers, you are now officially the hippest people on earth

Yesterday morning bobbyblue and I spoke to radio station KTYD in Santa Barbara, which apparently does a lot of reporting on spelling bees. Also on the line was another special guest -- current ESPN Scripps Howard spelling bee winner Anurag Kashyap.

Hosts Matt and Julie attempted several times to get Anurag's last name right, and then they asked him to spell a word that they couldn't actually pronounce, but Anurag figured out what they meant and spelled "ichthyopathy." (Not sure about that -- it was hard to hear, but the word wasn't "ichthyology"; it was definitely an "-opathy" word).

Bobby and I discussed the bee, the kinder-and-gentler three strikes policy, and how drunk people tend to get at the bee (not much; I think most people tend to save the real drinking for after the competition).

This adult-spelling bee trend is blowing up in the media. We're a little weirded out by it. Good Morning America is producing a two-minute spot and will be taping at the finals.

If any of you have met a date at the spelling bee, or were former child spelling champs, or are avenging a child spelling bee loss, or have some other unusual spelling bee story, and would be willing to talk to the press about this, please email me at jen (insert-appropriate-preposition-here) jenisfamous.com