A reader makes the following observation about spelling bees, following my diary comment:

Mr. D. — I’m an above average speller too, but you know how useless the spelling bee is as anything more than a feat of memorization. But more importantly, you can make the same point with a more valuable competition.
Mathcounts is the major middle school math competition; here’s a link to their national results page from this May. Of the 12 finalists, 8 of East Asian ancestry (none of South Asian ancestry though, interestingly), and only 1 girl. Again … nothing to see here.
I also note that every time the spelling bee rolls around, I wish we televised the final round of Mathcounts in the same way.

Well, you’ve got me wishing it too, sir.

I do, however, think that spelling bees, and feats of memorization in general, have some larger appeal that math contests don’t. I think we all have this sketchy notion that we could be memorists, too, if we just applied ourselves. We all have memories, don’t we? Math talent we see as more of a “gift.” Some of us have it, some don’t; and for those of us who don’t, no amount of application will get us there.

There was a movie about the National Spelling Bee 4-5 years ago, that I remember as being rather good, though I can’t recall the name.

It seems to me these kinds of contests used to be more popular than they are. In my childhood radio days there were several: Brain of Britain (which adults all scoffed at as “Brian of Britain”), the various ancestors of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and lots of sports-memorization features. There was one fellow — this would be late-1950s — known nationwide for his memory of sport facts. He could tell you which horse placed fourth in the 1896 Derby, with the names of the jockey, owner, and trainer thrown in for good measure — that sort of thing. He used to go round the country giving exhibitions, probably made a decent living at it. More fun than blogging, I’ll bet.