E.S.P.N./A.B.C. + Spelling Bee= M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

A few hours ago, the Scripps National Spelling Bee just finished up its fourth round of competition, with 43 contestants still remaining. (The morning competition was actually stopped before the end of round four--you know how it goes, Spelling Bees can't take time away from the N.B.A. Playoffs P.G.A. Golf...)The scheduling move aside, (The Bee was actually stopped on E.S.P.N. in order to prepare for tonight's A.B.C. broadcast--during the N.B.A. Playoffs.) It's obvious that Disney's finally paying attention to this spelling-bee trend: two of their TV channels will be covering the Bee--E.S.P.N. has had round-by-round live coverage (no more of that 3 A.M.-broadcast stuff this time) leading up to this morning, and A.B.C. will broadcast live the final rounds of the competition tonight, adding in that necessary dose of interviews, vignettes, etc., of course. It all seems a little too late, though (really, how many movies can you make about spelling before it gets old?).

(For the full story check out this Wired News article.)

UPDATE: And it's in HD, too!

UPDATE to the UPDATE: With this news that gamblers could now bet on the Bee, I'd say spelling has officially become a sport! *oBST will be putting a few of our hard-earned business $$$ on two bets: the last word will have an "e" in it, and the final contestant will not have glasses. We'll be watching to see what happens (or at least 1/3 of us will).


UPDATE to the UPDATE to the UPDATE: Katharine Close of New Jersey wins the Bee by correctly spelling "ursprache"! Wow, what a night for the Germans: first Nowitzki unleashes his 50-point fury on the Suns, and now German words are getting their props (six of the final-round words--including the winning word--were German)! Oh yeah, and hopefully all the loyal *oBST blog readers followed our CAN'T FAIL/GENIUS betting picks (non-glasses-wearing winner; last word to have an "e") because we were a PERFECT 2 for 2!

The Power of the Internets: Can Bring Down Drunk, Horny College Co-eds

Apparently, our fellow members of the blogosphere really can change the world--if by changing the world you mean getting a college girls' soccer team suspended for hazing. According to this story at foxsports.com, school officials began investigating the Northwestern girls team after coming across photos taken by the girls on the night of the "alleged" hazing, on the sports blog badjock.com. (Bad Jocks says they came across the posted photos on the photo-sharing site webshots.com.) You can still see 12 of the 50 original photos at their site. They include, among other things: photos showing bondage, girl-on-girl simulated-sex "skits," and lap dances (performed for the Northwestern guys' soccer team). If you're in to this sort of thing, Bad Jocks has a whole section on college-hazing incidents, with, of course, PLENTY of photos from the Top 10 college-sports offenders. The winner? Catholic University's women's lacrosse team, of course--cuz they went all out and hired a male stripper. (Really, WTF is up with lacrosse teams and hiring strippers?)


Northwestern soccer team studyin' hard for finals...

*oBST Media Recommendations: Podcast Edition

If you haven't seen, heard, or d/led "The Ricky Gervais Show" video podcast, you're really missing out! We here at *oBST recommend you check it out (iTunes has a nice selection of nine episodes from season two in video podcasts and season one's twelve episodes in audiobook form). And if you haven't seen any, or all, of Gervais's work, you should check out the three "The Office" seasons on DVD and "Extras" reruns on H.B.O.

*oBST watching RGS on iTunes.

Copa Mundial, 2006

Apparently a little event called the World Cup will be in action during *oBST's European Summer Tour. Sadly, we won't be anywhere near Germany on our trip, so no chaotic/drunken-European-celebration photos (winners) or chaotic/drunken-European-riot photos (losers). What we will make sure to take pics of, is each country's sports-pub scene. (I'm guessing England's soccer fans will be the craziest--and least sober.) But, judging from the reaction to some measly Champions League game in France, we'll probably be in for some surprise soccer outbursts all over Europe.



Germany's spending the big $$ on stadiums.