"How are you?" Dr. Bailly asked Shria Halkoda, speller 115, an Illinois eighth grader.
"Good," she replied, tentatively.
"Are you sure?" Dr. Bailly countered.
"Not really," she said.
"I hope this will help," Dr. Bailly replied, giving her the word omnilegent. It means reading or having read everything : characterized by encyclopedic reading.
Shria misspelled and is out. So is Sophia Clark, speller 119, a Maryland sixth grader who misspelled zucchetto, a small round skullcap worn by Roman Catholic ecclesiastics in colors that vary according to the rank of the wearer.
