内容摘要：Daisy Edgar-Jones and Diego Calva in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Daisy Edgar-Jones and Diego Calva in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

The most poised and mature of the final three, Sarvadnya — who’s from Visalia, California — ends his career as the runner-up. He’s 14 and in the eighth grade, which means he has aged out of the competition. It’s not a bad way to go out, considering that Faizan became just the fifth runner-up in a century to come back and win, and the first since Sean Conley in 2001.Including Faizan, whose parents emigrated from southern India, 30 of the past 36 champions have been Indian American, a run that began with Nupur Lala’s victory in 1999, which was later featured in the documentary “Spellbound.” In honor of the centennial, dozens of past champions attended this year and signed autographs for spellers, families and bee fans.

With the winner’s haul of $52,500 added to his second-place prize of $25,000, Faizan increased his bee earnings to $77,500. His big splurge with his winnings last year? A $1,500 Rubik’s cube with 21 squares on each side. This time, he said he’d donate a large portion of his winnings to charity.The bee began in 1925 when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. For the past 14 years, Scripps has hosted the competition at a convention center just outside the nation’s capital, but the bee returns downtown next year to Constitution Hall, a nearly century-old concert venue near the White House.Faizan has been spelling for more than half his life. He competed in the 2019 bee as a 7-year-old, getting in through a wild-card program that has since been discontinued. He qualified again in 2023 and made the semifinals before last year’s second-place finish.

“One thing that differentiates him is he really has a passion for this. In his free time, when he’s not studying for the bee, he’s literally looking up archaic, obsolete words that have no chance of being asked,” Bruhat said. “I don’t think he cares as much about the title as his passion for language and words.”Faizan had no regrets about showing that enthusiasm, even though it nearly cost him.

“No offense to Bruhat, but I think he really took the bee a little too seriously,” Faizan said. “I decided to have fun with this bee, and I did well, and here I am.”

The story has been updated to correct the number of consecutive words spelled correctly by six spellers to 26, from 28, and to remove a reference to Nupur Lala being among the past champions who attended.Follow Marc Levy on X at

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager has admitted his role in the theft and sale of human body parts — including hands, feet and heads.Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Pennsylvania to interstate transport of stolen human remains, federal prosecutors said. He could face up to 10 years in prison.

The thefts from the morgue in Boston occurred from 2018 through at least March 2020, prosecutors said. Authorities have said Lodge, his wife and others were part of aof people who bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard and a mortuary in Arkansas.