Akeela ...

When I was a boy in The Bronx most all the coveted NYState Regents Scholarships went to Jews. These days, Koreans, Chinese and Asian Indians win most.

I would guess that Jewish kids have moved to the sububs and do well there.

I just saw a most remarkable DVD: Akeelah and the Bee.

A young African American girl from a bad crime-infested neighborhood in South Los Angeles gets all the way to finals of the Bee in WashDC.

She and a Chinese (?) boy, who is under enormous stress from his father, end up with perfect scores on some words that are beyond belief, rooted in Latin, French, Ancient Greek and more.

She masters them because a black English professor from UCLA tutors and insists that she not memorize from rote, but understand the derivations in our incredibly rich language.

There was one girl in the finals who looked Jewish --- some Jews look Jewish, some don't --- but she didn't make the cut.

It was a tear-jerker of the first magnitude. Even I --- allegedly hard-headed, no-nonsense me --- bawled.

Ben