Sage Steele is hosting with Paul Loeffler, 1990 Bee finalist, returning for color commentary. In handicapping the favorites, Loeffler mentions Tim Ruiter and Canadian Laura Newcombe.
Mary Brooks is looking snazzy in a black glittery jacket, and introduces the first speller, Rory O'Donoghue from Fairbanks, Alaska. He goes down on "ostrichism."
I admire Dr. Bailly's ability not to crack up when he is reading the pithy sentences written to illustrate the meaning of the word. "Nepenthe" takes Anjali Nair of Arizona out.
Esther Park correctly spells "scholium," bringing us to Brandon Whitehead from California, who plans to participate in the AARP Spelling Bee later in life. He correctly spells "aleatoric."
Super-tall Jeremiah Cortez approaches the mike next. He's one of those eighth-graders who looks like he's 22. The judges want to ensure that he's pronouncing the end of "consuetude" correctly. He is, and he also spells it correctly.
"Diaphanie" seems to shake Anvita Mishra up a bit -- she begins to spell and then stops, asking for more information. She finally spells it correctly, and finishes with a "Yes!"
Commercial break, promising Canadians and Erin Andrews after the break!
And we're back. Erin Andrews introduces a segment on the spellers' activities during Bee Week. I wish they had had the "Bee Keeper" books when I was in the bee! We had autograph books, but these are glossy with photos and a nice binding.
Barbecue, karaoke, the computerized test, the live rounds 2 and 3, and the announcement of the 48 semifinalists, including some smiles and some tears appear in a nice montage. Erin then finishes by Vanna White-ing the giant cup that the winner will take home.
Back to spelling!
Sarah Gadre is up now, contemplating "phillumenist." She forgets an "l" and goes down smiling. We get a profile piece on Laura Newcombe before she spells. She swims! She dances! She loves origami! She very slowly, but correctly, spells "thalassian."
Second-timer David Phan of Colorado approaches the mike. He misspells "bilophodont." He's greeted at the side of the stage by one of the escorts/huggers.
Brian King, also from Colorado, gets a word meaning "of or relating to weasels." He correctly spells "musteline." The next speller, one of our favorite Bee bloggers is just 10 and yet is a third-time Bee participant. He quickly but incorrectly spells "paracusia."
Grace Remmer gets right to spelling her word, "inconcinnity," and gets it correct! Her lucky shirt is working.
Vaidya Govindarajan is next. He spells "scalare" on the back of his name placard, and is correct. Commercial break!
Erin Andrews has a quick interview with the absolutely adorable Vanya Shivashankar, and we get back to the business of the day.
Caducous, venturi, forzato, all spelled correctly. "Longueur" trips up Michaela Minock from Illinois, but "officinal" and "pongee" seem easy for Gina Liu and Modhura Chakravarty. (Heather)
I’m up! I’m awake. It’s 7:20 am on the West Coast and I’ve just bundled my child off to my sister’s house at DAWN to get ready for school so I can focus on the Semifinals. Yes, my name is Shonda and I’m a Bee-aholic.
I’m jumping in late but right off the bat, I feel better about these kids than I did yesterday. Overall, they are still a cute bunch of kids but the movie star sheen is gone. No little Brad Pitts or Julias to make me nervous that children these days are going to get to be both supermodels AND smart – which would be total defiance of the rules of fairness. No, these are the REAL kids, true kids, kids who spell as a good time, profound and proud in their geekiness in spite of societal pressure to assimilate. These are the kids who will rule the world. Sigh. I love the Bee.
I might love Laura Newcombe most of all right now (I am pre-coffee so I reserve the right to change my mind). But at this moment, with her origami and her great glasses and her ballet and her slow-moving smile, I love her. She’s got a quiet spelling confidence and, after her bio video, one gets the feeling that she’s only this still when she pauses to spell.
There’s Vanya Shivashankar! They’re getting her on TV come hell or high water because the tiny kid and the sister of a champion is money, baby. Here’s the thing though: being tiny and unbelievably puppy-bunny-pixie-cute is NOT a reason to STOP THE BEE AND INTERVIEW HER. IN FRONT OF THE ACTUAL CONTESTANTS. They sit watching, nervous in their chairs as microphone is shoved in Vanya’s face. She is not a contestant – she was ousted. And while I know one day she will hoist a trophy, let’s give the attention to the kids who deserve it – the ones spelling their hearts out today.
Speller 48 is Julia Denniss is spelling “venturi” – which means a short tube that has a constricted middle section forming a…um…well, it has a really long definition but it doesn’t really matter because, for those of you who don’t read the same books as 12 year olds, I can tell you that I am pretty sure that “venturi” is also a word used in the Twilight books to describe those scary Vampires in Italy who don’t like Edward. Or was that the Voltari? Yeah, I read the books. So what? Clearly, Julia’s read the books too because she spells it quickly and easily. (Shonda)
I love the musicality of Jamaican speller Owayne Rodney's voice, and Dr. Bailly's sentence namechecks World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, he goes out on "desipience."
Dr. Bailly wishes Sonia Schlesinger a happy 14th birthday, and OMG, she is given the word I misspelled in 1983 to end my run at the Bee! She, however, gets it right.
Cachepot poses no problem whatsoever for Maryland’s Emily Keaton, and we’re at yet another commercial break.
41 of 48 semifinalists remain. Lanson Tang’s polo is buttoned all the way up to the top, but he’s cool, calm and collected in spelling “flabellum.” The youngest remaining speller, Shivani Angappan, is up next and is tripped up by “pneumonectomy.”Kanban is no problem, and then Elizabeth Platz approaches the mike and asks Dr. Bailly if he has any more homonyms for her. Her word doesn’t have any, but she spells “arsedine” correctly anyway.
“Tiralee” then trips up cute little Dakota Jones. Anjithaa Radakrishnan seems nervous about her word, and then hears the dreaded ding for "Barbizon."
Hannah Evans breezes through arcanum. Sederunt seems easy for Neetu Chandak, and we’ve got 17 spellers left in Round 4. Arvind Mahankali is smooth on “effleurage,” and our Kiwi speller, Tom Winter, misses on “phytoplankter.” I’ll miss his lovely accent. (Heather)
Cossette and osteomyelitis pose no problems, and we get yet another package, this time about Nicholas Rushlow, who receives the ballet term “devant.” He repronounces the word several times, and his mom is on split-screen looking agitated and worried. He finally begins to spell, and is tripped up on the “e.”
Fughettabout it! No misspelling by George Jose on “fughetta.” (Heather)
Connor Aberle is featured in a piece about his love of music performance and composition, and then unfortunately misspells “goniometer.” Joanna Ye gets “alary,” much to her own surprise, and then it’s time for my hometown speller, Neel Mehta. He’s sponsored by the Norristown Times-Herald, which sponsored me waaaay back in 1983. He misspells “troco,” and I am sad.
Sukanya Roy gets “samizdat” and its Russian origin doesn’t throw her at all. Our Puerto Rican speller, Julianna Canabal-Rodriguez, white-knuckles the microphone and sighs as she spells “revirescent” correctly. Sean Calhoun is psyched after his correct recitation of “pelean.” We’re almost done, folks!
Aditya Chemudupaty is chill as he spells “undine” and returns to his seat. His family, however, is ecstatic. Sarah Allen wastes no time in spelling “brummagem,” and fan favorite and 2009 runner-up Tim Ruiter is up next. OH NO! Ruiter is down! I repeat, Ruiter is down on “fustanella!” He gets a standing ovation as he leaves the stage.
Karen Laska misspells “sautoir,” and we’ve got one speller left in Round 4. Andrew Grose of Wisconsin wraps up today’s first round by correctly spelling “mesclun,” after asking Dr. Bailly if it’s a type of salad green. We will have 33 spellers going into round 5, and that means I’m turning control of the blogging over to Rafael.
It’s been a blast, and I will be here commenting for the rest of today’s spelling and will be participating in our CoverItLive blog of the finals tonight!
Thanks for indulging me and my overly wordy updating. (Heather)
As we sit down for this morning's festivities, we already find ourselves wondering about what makes thematically appropriate dinner for during this evening's final round. All suggestions appreciated.
ReplyDeleteSomething with honey? :)
ReplyDeleteLove the glitzy intro. I bet we'll see it again tonight, but I don't care. I like Loeffler.
ReplyDeleteFor dinner tonight: honey-baked ham or honey-glazed chicken? Ratatouille? Some Yiddish food where the way one specific dictionary does the transliteration will axe a speller?
El Centro? Poor kid. If there is a more depressed town in America, I'm not sure of it. 30%+ unemployment. Although I once applied for a job there.
ReplyDeleteOoh, good idea! Honey was the first thing that came to mind, but I honestly don't know how I didn't think of ratatouille (which has been in the Bee several times) and all those Yiddish words.
ReplyDeleteChicken cacciatore would be good too, I suppose.
Round 4 was the toughest round for me in 1991. Like Anvita, I was shaken & surprised I spelled my word correctly. For many, once you get that first word spelled correctly, it's easy to get into the zone.
ReplyDeleteI love how some of the words circulate and pop up again over the years. "Nepenthe" and "scholium" were on the list that we could study for the initial rounds in '86.
ReplyDeleteDinner suggestions: How about foods that begin with vowel letters? A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y. Or make it simple and choose A and Z foods.
Love the name check for Puerto Rico (where I come from). Puerto Rico won the Bee in 1976, I believe.
ReplyDeleteAnd just like that, one of Colorado's two spellers goes down.
ReplyDeleteI love the vowel food suggestion!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say thanks for the play by play. I am keeping track of spellers and words online at work, but the color commentary makes it more fun!
There's kugel, and schnecken, and, of course, pfefferneusse.
ReplyDeleteQuick question: what's with the priest at the table? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he has to give his <span><span><span>im-pri-MAH<span></span>-ter on the results?</span><span></span></span></span>
ReplyDeleteYep, same here. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI was on the Bee staff that year. That was the never-ending Bee, when the last two spellers both spelled correctly in some rounds and incorrectly in others, keeping them both in the competition.
ReplyDeleteWhy are they interviewing Vanya? Did you see the faces of the kids on the stage? Talk about stealing their spotlight!
ReplyDeleteHe's the associate pronouncer, I believe.
ReplyDeleteHe's the assistant pronouncer. He's the guy that says "I don't see that here". He's Orthodox, not Roman Catholic.
ReplyDeleteI want to be an associate pronouncer!
ReplyDeleteMy guess? Because they filmed the video package and felt compelled to use it.
ReplyDeleteAnd one of Isaac's favorite architects (IIRC) gets a shoutout.
Ouch! I'm out already. David Phan let me down!
ReplyDeleteForzato. Murderously hard.
ReplyDeleteAs long as a hechsher was involved.
ReplyDeleteWon by Joanne Lagatta with "antipyretic". I remember that well.
ReplyDeletePongee, officinal: not so much.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that. A buddy of mine from college did her dissertation on that architect.
ReplyDeleteAnd Owayne goes down...sadness. :-(
ReplyDeleteWell, sure, when cooked by a sabra in a sheitl. Playing dreidel.
ReplyDeleteJAMAICAN IS DOWN! DOWN! Ack! I went to get coffee and I missed it!!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of good luck charms, I *still* have the lucky sweater I wore at every bee during my run in 1991. Obviously, it doesn't fit anymore.
ReplyDeleteIt's sort of like "Honey To The Bee," right?
ReplyDeleteSorry, Shonda. Unfortunate timing.
ReplyDeleteSo, we're already down to no more than 40 spellers after this round.
Oh, poor Dakota Jones. A musical terms I've never heard before, and imitative to boot. You just gotta guess, and he got it wrong. Yuck.
ReplyDeletearcanum! I totally know that word. Singular of arcana.
ReplyDeleteThat's a nice bit of trivia. Seventh straight year that an Evans has been in the bee. I assume the Shivashankars will surpass that quickly.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny......just hearing the TV in the other room...and I'm instantly brought back to the ballroom, and the nervous flips in the pit of my stomach. I'm nervous for these kids. I know how hard most of them have worked, and I want them to have a good outcome. I remember sitting in the audience, saying a quick prayer before each turn my daughter took at the microphone. I never prayed for her to win, just for her to have a good experience, something she could look back on with pride and feel good about setting a goal for herself, and working hard to accomplish that goal. And that's exactly what she got. I'll always be grateful to the Scripps folks for the wonderful experience of Bee Week. They do an outstanding job of making ALL the spellers feel special, not just top few. My hat is off to them. Spelling Bees are such an unforgiving sport....you can study for years, and win all your prelims, but then, miss one letter, and your out. No do-overs here.
ReplyDeleteWishing all the spellers the best of luck. We're proud of each of you!!!
The definition in W3 is the more commonly used sforzando. It does seem like the words are either CWL moderates or never been beed before.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Cat will be appalled when she gets home from school and sees the typos/misspelled words in my comment above. That's why she's the speller, and I'm not! Sorry, Cat!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we'll have 38 spellers left at most. Also, please, no more Russell Brand.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing like it! Years later, I am still unable to concentrate on anything else on Bee days.
ReplyDeleteI used to pray that my kids wouldn't get a word ending in -ent or -ant - so hard!
Looks like we'll have no more than 38 spellers moving on to Round 5, if my count's correct.
ReplyDeleteYou can't tell me Tom Winter is only 13.
ReplyDeleteNeetu Chandak is a rock star. I love her braces and her geeky bouncy joy.
ReplyDeleteOh, no! Tom Winter goes down - Middle Earth loses its representative (The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, where Tom hails from).
ReplyDeleteWow. And he's down...
ReplyDeleteIn Tom's defense, I didn't look 14 when I spelled in 1991. Also, is it just me, or does he bear a passing resemblance to John Kerry?
ReplyDeleteLooks like Nicholas Rushlow is a Caddyshack fan. Also, I dig that he's a violinist like me.
ReplyDeleteYou remember incorrectly. I'm not that fond of him.
ReplyDeleteTough out. What a bummer.
ReplyDeletehmm . . . by the pronunciation, I would have thought the ending was vent
ReplyDeleteI feel so for the parents. These are little kids and it seems that the parents feel helpless and horrifyingly anxious. Being the parent able to only sit and watch is a helpless feeling. I get how hard that must be.
ReplyDeleteRushlow is down!
ReplyDeleteI can get anxious watching the Bee on TV, trying to spell along with the contestants. It's so easy to flash back to those moments on the stage--a blend of excitement, apprehension, and post-traumatic stress!
ReplyDeleteI imagine the former spellers who are here now didn't have to deal with these delays for commercials and video profiles. Would they have totally messed with your concentration?
ReplyDelete@Adam: Hard to say. Speaking from my experience doing Academic Decathlon/Quiz Bowl in high school, where we had similar delays, it didn't mess with my concentration. When it comes to playing sports, music, I tend to zone the world out.
ReplyDeleteIt's individual, of course, depending on how well you tune out distractions. But it actually can help to have the pace slowed. Every year we have seen kids rush towards the end and as a result make mistakes they would not have made earlier in the Bee.
ReplyDeleteApparently the gone-o-meter has rung for Connor Aberle. (Sorry.)
ReplyDelete@Adam Same here. Sitting there for so long waiting for your turn in the early rounds is really boring, so I would just go into my head until it was time to spell.
ReplyDeleteLove that Joanna Ye is from WITF. The "I" stands for "in."
ReplyDeleteHuepa! I have to root for a fellow boricua. Next up, Julianna Canabal Rodriguez.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking the speller from Puerto Rico won't be competing in any geography bees. (She keeps referring to Puerto Rico as her country.) But her favorite word is dacquoise, because it has to do with dessert, so she's ok by me.
ReplyDeleteHad to delete my similar but less well-worded joke.
ReplyDeleteSi se puede! She moves on, having spelled "revirescent" correctly.
ReplyDeleteThere will be a maximum of 34 spellers left after this round, with fourteen down (through Mehta of Pennsylvania). Is this a typical number to go down in this round?
ReplyDeleteMarsha -- your revolutionary terms are back (samizdat).
ReplyDeleteActually, speaking as a fellow Puerto Rican, we tend to refer to PR as a country, because it really is. There's not a lot that Puerto Rico has in common with the U.S., starting with the language and extending to the history, customs, and legal system (based on the Napoleonic Code).
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to see these word choices as random after a while...
ReplyDeleteA surprise delay helped unnerve me right before I misspelled. I had just stepped to the microphone when the judges called a delay to review a protest. Since the rules state that a protest has to be filed before the contestant in question would have spelled again, I was worried the protest was about me--especially since I had struggled through my previous word. It wasn't, of course, but I had to try to regain my concentration after that. I can't fathom how the spellers deal with it now, but perhaps they get used to it quickly. At least the rounds don't go on for hours nonstop like they used to!
ReplyDeleteSean Calhoun books another round for Yancton, South Dakota, inching closer to convincing Swearingen and the Deadwood contingent to throw their lots with the Dakota territory rather than Montana.
ReplyDeleteI defer to you, of course, and take it back. (But if she does compete in a geography bee, I'm guessing "country" would be wrong.)
ReplyDeleteIs anyone else having trouble with the ESPN feed? I have audio but not video - it keeps happening after commercial breaks.
ReplyDeleteNice ice-cold turn by Sarah Allen with "brummagem".
ReplyDeleteSeems like it's going awfully fast this year. Seems we usually book a lot of rounds before they hit the cut for finals. At this rate we might only need one or two more.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, it would, I think.
ReplyDeleteBye bye, Tim. Sigh. I thought he was going to go all the way.
ReplyDeleteArggh! Tim Ruiter is down on fustanella. I hate that schwa sound!
ReplyDeleteOh no! Tim Ruiter!!!!
ReplyDeleteWOW. Tim Ruiter gets taken out.
ReplyDeleteIt took just three day-rounds last year to get to the primetime group.
ReplyDeleteWe in Central PA, land of Blue Ball, Intercourse and Virginville, are aces at naming things.
ReplyDeleteAnd here's why I didn't fixate on Tim for the pool: I assume that there's 30 kids who are "good enough" to make it to prime time, but it's completely random as to who's going to get the words which won't trip them up. IIRC, Kavya had a long run of French-derived words last year, but all it takes is that one 15-letter German word or word-from-a-proper-name you didn't memorize and, bam.
ReplyDeleteYou left out Paradise.
ReplyDeleteIt's by far the hardest thing I've ever done.
ReplyDeleteI keep having to refresh to get video back.
ReplyDeleteAnd we begin Round 5 momentarily. See you all there.
ReplyDeleteOof. That took a good many of us out of the running in the pool.
ReplyDeleteDon't tell my husband. That is where we got married. Really.
ReplyDeleteAnd to clarify, I do NOT take back my love of her love of "dacquoise."
ReplyDeleteThey just ran the commercials while people were spelling when I was in the bee. There was one guy in my bee who got preempted every word he spelled!
ReplyDelete