After a Good Spell, Word Champion Is P-o-o-p-e-d

--Jon Pennington, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Shiremanstown, Pa., won the National Spelling Bee in Washington when he correctly spelled “kaolinic” and “odontalgia” and broke into a broad grin as the audience stood and applauded. Jon outdistanced Kenneth A. Larson, 13, a seventh-grader from Tequesta, Fla., competing for the third time, who was stumped by “kaolinic,” misspelling it as “chayolinic.” Under the rules, when Kenneth missed, Jon was asked to correctly spell “kaolinic” and then he had to correctly spell one additional word, which turned out to be “odontalgia.” Kaolinic refers to a clay used in ceramics and odontalgia is a synonym for a toothache. “All I can say is it’s great,” Jon said about winning. When asked how he felt, he spelled, “t-i-r-e-d.” The winner of the two-day contest, sponsored by Scripps Howard newspapers, takes home $1,000, and the runner-up wins $500. Third prize is $250, fourth through eighth are $100 each, the next 10 are $75 each and the remaining 156 prizes are $50 each. Participants ranged in age from 9 to 14 and represented 171 newspapers from every state, the District of Columbia, Guam, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

--Ousted Haitian leader Jean Claude Duvalier and his family will leave the hilltop town of Grasse, 10 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, probably today and move to nearby Cannes on the French Riviera, real estate agents said. Duvalier, his wife, Michele, their children and aides have been living in a 10-room villa with swimming pool and tennis courts since March 7. The lease expires Saturday, agents said. Duvalier fled Haiti Feb. 7 on a U.S. Air Force transport. France offered him temporary asylum until he could find permanent exile in some other country, but none has offered to take him. The French Foreign Ministry says a search to find another country for Duvalier continues.

--Bells pealed across a sun-sprinkled Dorchester Bay as a veterans’ group presented a carillon to the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston on what would have been the late President’s 69th birthday. In a ceremony spiced with military pomp, about 200 people, including the late President’s daughter, Caroline, and nephew Edward M. Kennedy Jr. watched the American Veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam dedicate the musical instrument, consisting of 49 tuned bell rods. “As the bells ring out over the sea (Kennedy) loved, we will be reminded of his patriotism. He did not fear the weather. He did not trim his sails. Instead, he challenged the wind to change direction and blow more softly,” said former Kennedy aide David Powers, curator of the J.F.K. Museum.