The other evening my husband was scrolling through the channels when he came across the finals of the Scripps Spelling Bee on ESPN. Yes, the quintessential sports station also carries coverage of that kind of competition, complete with color commentators and filmed profiles of the finalists’ lives (10- to 14-year olds). Because I work with (and enjoy) words every day, and because we both have a bit of a competitive nature, we settled in to watch. Of course, we also made efforts to spell some of the words that were presented to these amazing kids. Watching the bee afforded one a whirlwind tour around the world, with words plucked from every continent and language group, from Latin and Greek, German and French to Finnish, Sanskrit, Basque, Japanese, Maya, Inuit and Tagalog. Most of the words were ones I’d never heard before and labeled unusual musical instruments, articles of clothing or scientific terms. Harry and I found we could successfully spell a few of them — usually, the ones with roots in languages with which we were somewhat familiar and could guess at the letter patterns for certain sounds. Others, we just looked at each other in complete puzzlement as to where to even begin, while the young contestants sailed through the spelling, often not even asking for “other pronunciations” or the definition, part of speech or use in a sentence. I was pleased to recognize (and correctly spell!) a couple of words I had recently come across in my editing work: Huipil (a traditional Mayan blouse or tunic worn by women) and capoeira (a Brazilian art form combining martial arts, music and dance). Just another benefit of being immersed in articles about the diverse destinations and cultures encountered by global travelers! After an unusually long battle among the five finalists, 14-year-old Sukanya Roy of Pennsylvania was the last speller standing, taking home $40,000 in cash and prizes. I must say that I’ll be looking forward to next year’s competition (ESPN has found it so popular that it televises both the semifinal and final rounds each year) — and keeping a sharper eye out for those unusual words that pass before my eyes in my daily work. — Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor