District of Columbia - Halftime festivities at the Scripps National Spelling Bee included a ceremony for Noam Chomsky, who was inducted into the Linguistics Hall of Fame.
Preceding a live stage performance by American Idol winner Jordin Sparks with Public Enemy -- during which Flavor Flav accidentally caused her wardrobe to malfunction -- and a lengthy spoken word piece by Henry Rollins, Mr. Chomsky took a moment to reflect on the annual event:
"I would tend to say that the 1930's and 1940's were emphatically lackluster decades in terms of word difficulty. I mean, 'promiscuous', 'sanitarium', 'therapy' and 'psychiatry' are hardly what we would describe today as even remotely challenging. But, frankly, I think some of the words you are using today are just plain made up."
Following the halftime festivities the Spelling Bee was aired in its entirety, preempting the Stanley Cup finals.
