SOSD: Poway speller Julia Brown’s brother, Lucas, 12, wasn’t in the Scripps 2006 National Spelling Bee, but he achieved a level of notoriety nonetheless. In the eighth round, contestant Saryn Hooks of Taylorsville, N.C., was eliminated after being told she had misspelled her word � �hechsher,� a rabbinical endorsement or certification.?

She left the stage, but Lucas, who was tracking words in a dictionary on his laptop from the middle of the ballroom, noticed the judges were wrong.

The bee’s official word list had spelled the word �hech-scher.�

Lucas told his father, who brought the matter to bee officials, said his father, David Brown.

By the end of the next commercial break, Saryn had been reinstated. She ended up third in the contest, lasting until the 12th round.

Afterward, Lucas talked to Saryn. Asked whether she thanked him, he said: �Oh, yeah! .? .? . She said she owes me big-time.�