There’s real pathos behind these seemingly two-dimensional characters.

Today a select group of the world’s wordiest tweens take the stage at the annual lexicon smackdown known as the National Spelling Bee. Almost 300 students will spend the next two days at the Grand Hyatt on H St. competing in written and oral tests of their spelling skills, culminating in Thursday’s final round, to be aired nationwide on ABC. The Examiner has a profile of one of the circuit’s best-known competitors, facing his…

Written by DCist contributor Menachem Wecker. The city’s going to get a little bit wild this Sunday when the National Gallery of Art opens Jungles of Paris, Henri Rousseau’s first retrospective in twenty years. But even if you haven’t seen his work recently in exhibitions, Rousseau is everywhere. You can find references to his work in many children’s book illustrations, like Henry Hikes to Fitchburg or Madeline, in a Joni Mitchell song, and even in…