Dr. Bailly likes gyros and the Pantheon -- but that didn't help the spellers.
"Kostas thinks that nothing tastes as good as a fresh, hot gyro. I agree," Dr. Bailly said.
Still, Raza Hidayath, speller 106 and a Florida third grader, misspelled the word for a sandwich especially of lamb, beef, tomato and onion on pita bread.
And Kayla Barnes, speller 104 and a California seventh grader, misspelled "coffering," a system or structure of recessed panels usually forming with other panels a continuous pattern in a vault or ceiling.
"The interior dome of the Pantheon in Rome features five rings of coffering, each with 28 identical panels, an ancient architectural marvel that was extremely difficult to achieve," Dr. Bailly said. "It's well worth seeing."