
Your champion speller (or at least the guy who stayed awake the longest) is a local to the Nations Capitol, Michael Petrina Jr., 64, of Arlington, Virginia. According to the AARP press release, “ Petrina won the championship by correctly spelling “woad” and out-spelled 45 other spellers from more than 25 states who competed in the record-breaking Bee that lasted 46 rounds.” (30 of which were the final rounds between Petrina and second place finisher Scott Firebaugh, 55, of Knoxville, Tennessee.)
Well done Mr. Petrina, you’ve earned $500, a trip to New York (to appear on TV) and a life time supply of sugar packets from Denny’s.
Let’s hear it for our senior spellers....(insert applause here)...wait what were we talking about?
Seriously though, I think that all the contestants should be congratulated. Winning a spelling bee at any age is a tremendous accomplishment and I should know. I have personal experience in the heartbreak of not winning one, when I was in the fourth grade, I was eliminated early on (in the first) round with a misspelling of our. Go figure! (for the record I spelled it h-o-u-r).
And while this is a great accomplishment perhaps the seniors can next flex their mind muscles by doing other things, for example, they could come in and tidy up my office desk, or maybe the can visit Al Rava over there in San Diego and deliver a little message for me, or even better, they could take the dog out for a walk. This is senior living at it’s best folks. You either love it or you live it.
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