Latest news with #Cincinnati-based
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
How eating lots of waffles can help you support Cincinnati Pride this June
Looking to support the LGBTQ+ community this Pride Month? Buy a waffle! Taste of Belgium, the Cincinnati-based eatery founded by native Belgian Jean-Francois Flechet in 2007, is donating a portion of its waffle sales to Cincinnati Pride during the month of June. 'At Taste of Belgium, we aim to provide an inclusive environment where our people can grow and thrive, and we've always celebrated authenticity and individuality. That's why this partnership with Cincinnati Pride means so much to us,' Flechet said in a press release. 'This is about more than food; it's about community, inclusion and acceptance,' he continued. 'They fully support our mission and share our belief that authenticity, inclusion and community should be at the heart of everything we do," Cincinnati Pride Director of Development Jake Hitch said about Taste of Belgium. "This campaign is a celebration of those shared values." The restaurant, which has locations in Over-the-Rhine, The Banks, Rookwood and Findlay Market, is also offering special packs of its signature Belgian waffles called Love Packs. The packs will be available for purchase in person and online for $13 per pack, with $2 from each sale going toward Cincinnati Pride, the volunteer-run nonprofit dedicated to hosting the Pride festival and parade every year. Each Love Pack includes traditional, lemon poppyseed, red velvet and birthday cake waffles. Cincinnati's Pride festival and parade take place downtown Saturday, June 28. However, there are events all throughout the month. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Taste of Belgium to donate portion of waffle sales to Cincinnati Pride
The Age
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
One 15-letter word stood between Faizan and the title of best speller in the English language. He nailed it
But Sarv misspelled again, followed in the next round by Sarvadnya, and Faizan stayed just calm enough to ensure his competitors wouldn't get back to the microphone. It was a riveting conclusion to a competition that started in 1925 and appears to have a bright future. Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company, had a few dozen former champions on hand to celebrate the centennial of an event that began when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. Faizan lost to Bruhat Soma last year in a tiebreaker known as a 'spell-off'. He became only the fifth runner-up to come back and win and the first since Sean Conley in 2001. With the winner's haul of $US52,500 ($81,700) added to his second-place prize of $US25,000, Faizan increased his bee earnings to $US77,500. His big splurge with his winnings last year? A $US1500 Rubik's cube with 21 squares on each side. This is the last year the bee will be held at its home for the past 14 years, a convention centre just outside Washington on the banks of the Potomac River. In 2026, the competition returns to the nation's capital at Constitution Hall, a nearly century-old concert venue near the White House. Other finalists – Aishwarya Kallakuri, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Concord, North Carolina, and winner of the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee. – Harini Murali, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Edison, New Jersey, a finalist last year and the younger sister of Navneeth Murali, who would have been a top contender in the 2020 bee had it not been cancelled because of COVID-19. –Esha Marupudi, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Chandler, Arizona, who is competing at the bee for the first time. –Oliver Halkett, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Los Angeles and a two-time bee participant. –Sarvadnya Kadam, a three-time speller and a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Visalia, California. –Sarv Dharavane, an 11-year-old from Dunwoody, Georgia, who made the semifinals last year as a fourth-grader. –Brian Liu, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Great Neck, New York, who was a semifinalist two years ago but didn't make it to the bee in 2024. –Akshaj Somisetty, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and a two-time speller who leapt from quarterfinalist to finalist.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
One 15-letter word stood between Faizan and the title of best speller in the English language. He nailed it
But Sarv misspelled again, followed in the next round by Sarvadnya, and Faizan stayed just calm enough to ensure his competitors wouldn't get back to the microphone. It was a riveting conclusion to a competition that started in 1925 and appears to have a bright future. Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company, had a few dozen former champions on hand to celebrate the centennial of an event that began when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. Faizan lost to Bruhat Soma last year in a tiebreaker known as a 'spell-off'. He became only the fifth runner-up to come back and win and the first since Sean Conley in 2001. With the winner's haul of $US52,500 ($81,700) added to his second-place prize of $US25,000, Faizan increased his bee earnings to $US77,500. His big splurge with his winnings last year? A $US1500 Rubik's cube with 21 squares on each side. This is the last year the bee will be held at its home for the past 14 years, a convention centre just outside Washington on the banks of the Potomac River. In 2026, the competition returns to the nation's capital at Constitution Hall, a nearly century-old concert venue near the White House. Other finalists – Aishwarya Kallakuri, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Concord, North Carolina, and winner of the SpellPundit National Spelling Bee. – Harini Murali, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Edison, New Jersey, a finalist last year and the younger sister of Navneeth Murali, who would have been a top contender in the 2020 bee had it not been cancelled because of COVID-19. –Esha Marupudi, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Chandler, Arizona, who is competing at the bee for the first time. –Oliver Halkett, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Los Angeles and a two-time bee participant. –Sarvadnya Kadam, a three-time speller and a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Visalia, California. –Sarv Dharavane, an 11-year-old from Dunwoody, Georgia, who made the semifinals last year as a fourth-grader. –Brian Liu, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Great Neck, New York, who was a semifinalist two years ago but didn't make it to the bee in 2024. –Akshaj Somisetty, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and a two-time speller who leapt from quarterfinalist to finalist.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Faizan Zaki wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee a year after finishing runner-up
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Faizan Zaki nearly threw away his opportunity to go from runner-up to champion at the Scripps National Spelling Bee with a shocking moment of overconfidence. Given a second chance, he seized the title of best speller in the English language. The 13-year-old from Allen, Texas, who lost in a lightning-round tiebreaker last year, outlasted eight other accomplished spellers to win the title on Thursday night, including two that he let back into the competition after his own careless flub. Told to take a deep breath before his final word, 'eclaircissement,' he didn't ask a single question before spelling it correctly, and he pumped his fists and collapsed to the stage after saying the final letter. Two rounds earlier, Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane misspelled their words, clearing a path for Faizan, but instead of making sure he knew the word, 'commelina,' Faizan let his showmanship get the better of him. 'K-A-M,' he said, then stopped himself. 'OK, let me do this. Oh, shoot!' 'Just ring the bell,' he told head judge Mary Brooks, who obliged. 'So now you know what happens,' Brooks said, and the other two spellers returned to the stage. Upon his return to the microphone, Sarv chimed in: 'This is surprising!' But Sarv misspelled again, followed in the next round by Sarvadnya, and Faizan stayed just calm enough to ensure his competitors wouldn't get back to the microphone. It was a riveting conclusion to a competition that started in 1925 and appears to have a bright future. Scripps, a Cincinnati-based media company, had a few dozen former champions on hand to celebrate the centennial of an event that began when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. Faizan lost to Bruhat Soma last year in a tiebreaker known as a 'spell-off.' He became only the fifth runner-up to come back and win and the first since since Sean Conley in 2001. 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 is the last year the bee will be held at its home for the past 14 years, a convention center just outside Washington on the banks of the Potomac River. In 2026, the competition returns to the nation's capital at Constitution Hall, a nearly century-old concert venue near the White House. ___ Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Boston Globe
To win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, contenders must also master geography
Advertisement Along with SAT-style, multiple-choice vocabulary questions, geographical terms have altered the way spellers prepare for the bee, which began Tuesday and concludes Thursday at a convention center outside Washington. Mastering them can require an out-of-fashion skill: rote memorization. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Geographical words can be super hard sometimes because there's no roots to break it down or sometimes you don't get a language of origin. It will say 'unknown origin' or the dictionary doesn't say,' said Avinav Prem Anand, a 14-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, who's competing this year for the fourth and final time. 'Basically, you have to memorize them because that's the only thing you can do.' Avinav put his preparation to use in Tuesday's preliminary rounds when he breezed through Sapporo, the capital of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Others were not so fortunate: 12-year-old Eli Schlosser of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, heard the dreaded bell because he was unfamiliar with Terre Haute, the western Indiana city. He went with 'terrahote.' Advertisement Last year, the Randhawa family of Corona, California, saw its decade-long spelling journey end when Avi misspelled Abitibi, the name of a shallow lake in northeastern Ontario and western Quebec. 'It's beyond the pale of what anybody would consider a reasonable geographical word, a small lake in Canada that not even my Canadian friends had heard of. Not even a top-50 size lake in Canada,' Rudveep Randhawa said. 'It's just bizarre. In all the years with geographical words, we had seen words of some significance, they may be capitals of smaller countries, or they may be some port city that had significance, things of that nature.' Yet for those who might find geographical terms unfair, Scripps has a message: Study harder. 'Per our contest rules, all words listed in Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, except those that are labeled 'archaic' or 'obsolete,' are fair,' said Molly Becker, the editorial director at Cincinnati-based Scripps and a member of the panel that selects words for the competition. Scripps considers encouraging intellectual curiosity as part of the bee's mission, and if kids with designs on the trophy have to learn more geography in order to prepare, that's arguably a good thing. 'You never know what word will stand out to a speller and spark a lifelong interest or introduce them to a new concept,' Becker said. Longtime spelling coach Grace Walters, a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Kentucky, cringed at the memory of Abitibi. 'Geo is definitely something that is feared by spellers,' Walters said, calling it 'a daunting task to study.' Advertisement 'But if geo is unfair because it doesn't have patterns, that would mean other categories like trademarks and personal eponyms and words of unknown origin would also be unfair,' she said. Some spellers embrace the challenge. Faizan Zaki, last year's runner-up who's competing again this year, was thrilled to hear Abitibi and Hoofddorp — a town in the Netherlands — in 2024 because he had seen those words before. 'There's actually a section in Merriam-Webster that is dedicated to just geographical words, so sometimes when I'm tired from studying normal words, I take a break and I browse through that list of geographical words that they have,' said Faizan, a 13-year-old from Allen, Texas. You heard that right: When Faizan gets tired of studying, he 'takes a break' by studying more. 'Pretty much, that's my life,' he said. 'But yeah, it's definitely enjoyable. I don't hate it or anything.'
