Grant Flora, speller 215, is from Indiana, so this probably wasn't as funny -- or offensive -- to him as it was to some of our spellers who took the stage yesterday.
For "mauvette," a pale purple that is redder and paler than average lavender, he heard this sentence:
Officials at the University of Alabama rejected Paul's petition to have the school's nickname changed to the Mauvette Tide.
(It's crimson, you know.)
Grant got it right. The audience got a laugh.