TRUE WINNERS: When the six Pulaski Academy quiz bowl team members recently attended the Questions Unlimited Junior National Championship Tournament in New Orleans with their coach Jacob Harris, the students didn't win the competition. No matter. They'd already achieved something far greater -- upholding honor and integrity.
The team, made up of seventh- and ninth-graders, made it to the finals. But soon into the game, the students spoke up, unprompted, after realizing they recognized some of the questions being posed, their coach later told the players' parents in an email.
The questions were the same as those that had been purchased for practice.
Many of the coaches and parents from the other teams praised the students for their honesty. After a long delay during which a new set of questions was put together, the competition continued, Harris wrote. The hard-fought, close competition against St. Ignatius Catholic School of Mobile, Ala., ended with the other team defeating Pulaski Academy by a one-question margin.
"It's a real testament to their character," Harris said of his students to Paper Trails.
ARKANSAS' GOT TALENT: Triple Threat, a singing trio of 21-year-olds from Benton, appeared Tuesday on the premiere of the 10th season of NBC's reality competition, America's Got Talent. Caleb Conrad, Will Richey and Tyler Davis, who say they met after all being injured on a football field and had to sit out games, discovered they could sing together and hope to make a career of it. The group, which the show dubbed a "beautifully nerdy boy band," was a hit during the audition episode, landing a yes from all the judges to continue competing. The season's winner will score $1 million.
BROADCAST NEWS: The New York Times' May 24 edition included a pair of familiar faces among its wedding announcements -- Roger Susanin and Stephanie Simoni, both former KATV, Channel 7, reporters who recently wed in Newport, R.I. Susanin, 32, is currently an evening news reporter with CBS affiliate WFSB in Rocky Hill, Conn., while Simoni, 31, who'll keep her name professionally, is a morning TV anchor and reporter at ABC affiliate WTNH in New Haven, Conn.
Visit tinyurl.com/oxukop3 to see Susanin's touching proposal at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tenn.
GROOVY ADDITION: Harrison resident Jerry Yester of the 1960s pop/rock group The Lovin' Spoonful is now performing live from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays in the bar of his city's 1929 Hotel Seville when he's not touring with the revived band. Yester also owns Willow Sound studio in Harrison and has performed at various locales in Eureka Springs.
MAKING A SPLASH: Hot Springs' Magic Springs makes BuzzFeed's online list of "31 Ridiculously Cool Water Parks to Visit With Your Kid." The list notes it has "one of the most epic splash zones for little kiddos you've ever seen."
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or lhaymes@arkansasonline.com
SundayMonday on 05/31/2015