She also won the gold medal in the Super Quiz and essay components. I've done essay judging since I began serving as coordinator in 2000, and Emma's essay was one of the best I've seen.

Many other schools have strong programs, too, but Rick Pillsbury's Casa Grande teams are exceptional. You can tell by the way his students present themselves: They all dress properly, act appropriately and have resumes and other materials neatly typed.

They have much larger student bodies to select team members from, and some of them have as many as eight coaches for different subjects.

The interest is so intense at some Southern California schools that students might start rioting if their school didn't have an academic decathlon coach. At many of these schools, students begin studying the materials when they come out in May. They've been pushing decathlon at these schools for years.

It sounds like to me it's a secondhand store.

I was not a very good mother. I was always running out to do a movie or something. If I had to do it over, I would either have a career or children. I wouldn't do both unless I could work in my home. I spent 20 years feeling guilty, which is not a very nice emotion.