A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E: So Carolyn Andrews, Dr. Jacque Bailly and the gang seem to have come up with a completely different strategy for 2007, because the Round 2 everyone-gets-a-word words are shockingly easy -- just look at last year's list for comparison. This puts all the pressure on the written round to determine who makes it past the cut.

The first three words were INN-suh-den-tuhl, uh-LOO-mih-num and fee-ASS-ko, and 47 of the first 48 have aced their words without a problem. Among Shonda's favorites, Arizona's Jonathan Horton got reh-MEM-buh-ruhns, and the East Bay's Evan O'Dorney was asked to spell BOWN-duh-ree. Four-timer Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan of Colorado, who's happy to spell "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" for you, just spelled JESS-tyuhr. It's that kind of round.

e.t.a.1: We're now up to 89/95 correct. The errors, if you're playing along at home, were on uhn-SENN-surd, eh-LEHK-trow-kyoot, NOGG-uhn (see! Watching Jack's Big Music Show pays off!), FEHL-uh-nee, MASS-teh-dahn and fuhn-duh-MEHN-tuh-list.

e.t.a.2: Kavya Shivashankar had no problem counting out the letters in ee-NOO-muh-RAYT, and we're up to 114/122 146/156 correct. Add RAY-zuhn-ee (the state of having too many dried grapes), pro-FAYN (dirty), NUHP-chuls/NUHP-shuls (clean) and duh-TEHR to the list of errors, and on the last one it looks like someone forgot to ask for a definition, because he correctly spelled the verb of "trying to persuade someone to do something else" rather than "a person who owes someone else money," which is what was asked. (fixed)

Reporter Sean Mussenden is inside the room on behalf of Media General News Service, and is liveblogging here: "Diana C. Morales of Miami gets asked for warrant. Definition? An instrument, issued by a magistrate, authorizing an officer to make an arrest, seize property, make a search, or carry a judgment into execution. Alternate definition? The single greatest rockband of all time. She’s obviously a fan of 80’s hair bands. She nails it."

e.t.a.3: 179/190 at the end of the second of three groups in the big room (and apparently, it's after they do this that they go and do the written round). Add kuhn-SEED and pahl-BAYR-uhr to the list of errors, both of which are darkly appropriate for a kid to get wrong in his one time at-bat. Sean adds: "Prateek Kohli of New York is asked to spell Martian, which Dr. Bailly defines as 'hypothetical inhabitants of the planet Mars.'" Hypothetical?

e.t.a.4: Fifteen spellers and Nixon's coming; four spellers doomed from Ohio on ree-pruh-DOO-sih-buhl, MAH-gut, ihn-kehn-VEEN-yent (ain't it the truth) and FUHR-vehnt. 194/209 correct in the round.

And just like that, four errors from the Keystone State to match, as representatives from Bucks County, Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, Philadelphia and Reading err on GAHR-buhld, NO-tuh-rize, PRIH-vuh-lihj and kuhn-FYOO-zuh-buhl, respectively. It's not going to be easy making the cut without the +3 here. And Shanoff fave Jasmine Shaquielle O'Neal Willis just spelled fuh-NAH-tik much closer to the Phillies mascot than the actual word.