Wednesday, May 28, 2014

ROUND THREE:  And we are back.

1:45p: Since when did Foley (as in "Foley artist") become a word?  Beefalo?

2:25p: Nine errors so far; we're still in the "yeah, if you're going to win this competition, these words are in your bailiwick" part of the competition. A little less foodie than normal (just Gouda so far), and these kids are handling it well.

2:32p: Krypton! Gothamite! I detect a theme.



3:09p: 114 correct, 14 errors in the first half.  It's gonna be a brutal cutdown later today.

3:39p: Speller 161 steps to the microphone, asks his mom to relax. Cute. Then he misspells the word, spi-ruh-LEE-nuh. Ouch.

3:47p: Speller 177 asks if he can refer to Bossy-But-Cute Dr. Jacque Bailly as "Doc Jacque." (He declines.) When you disrespect the Spelling Gods like that, the ding surely follows on muh-FIHT-ICK. (Foul-smelling.)

4:20p: A few of the oh, come on! words of this round: Wordsworthian, Kodiak, usurper, Francophone, Gothamite, fisticuffs, tupelo.

5:10p: 223 spellers remain at the end of round three. Semifinalists to be announced soon.

34 comments:

  1. Wow, there's a kid from China?! That's impressive.

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  2. Adam B.2:12 PM

    Ouch. o-n-w-e-i is not ennui.

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  3. Marsha2:32 PM

    Yinglish? YINGLISH?????

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  4. Marsha2:40 PM

    (Catching up after lunch...)


    I'm very sad about the demise of Zander Patent, who is a Chicagoan with an awesome name.

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  5. BeeFan3:03 PM

    The whole point of sentences is to hear the word used in context. Using words as jokes wastes time (the time limits, remember!) and adds nothing that I can see (except to Dr. Bailly's possible delusion that he has a future as a comedian.)

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  6. meco19993:16 PM

    When do we start a "howdy" drinking game?

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  7. meco19993:20 PM

    I'm wondering if maybe they're regretting adding the funny sentences now that a whole lot of kids are starting to ask for the "funny sentence."

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  8. victoria3:21 PM

    Dude, Prune Man is even lamer than we dreamed.

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  9. Marsha3:25 PM

    I am loving Eboseremhen (#145). Doesn't waste any time, doesn't ask any questions, just BAM! Correct spelling.

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  10. Marsha3:26 PM

    And now every kid is asking "is the sentence funny?" - I bet they stop with the funny sentences.

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  11. meco19993:26 PM

    And doesn't ask if the sentence is funny.

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  12. meco19993:30 PM

    I kind of miss the 90s when many of the kids were genuinely super-awkward/weird. Now they seem so well-adjusted and camera-ready.

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  13. Adam B.3:32 PM

    It's great when it works. It's painful when the kid rushes and screws it up, as with the misspelling of Qatari in round one.

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  14. Marsha3:35 PM

    True. Too true.

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  15. Devin McCullen3:36 PM

    Obviously you're not that big of a comics nerd, or you would have included Legionnaire in the theme.

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  16. Adam B.3:39 PM

    And Templar, perhaps.

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  17. Marsha3:42 PM

    How adorable is Bettie! "Is this a fish?" She's so poised - it's hard for me to imagine my almost ten year old being that poised *ever* much less in the next year.

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  18. Marsha4:04 PM

    I don't think I've ever heard plehn-uh-poh-TEN-chee-eh-ree without "extraordinary and" preceding it.

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  19. Genevieve4:04 PM

    Leo Rosten uses it in The Joys of Yiddish! It's no recent coinage.

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  20. Charles4:05 PM

    It feels like a good number of spellers are attempting to become viral video stars, with their funny/clever comments. I never would have dreamed of saying such things when I was a contestant (but that was in the '80s, when the Bee was much more traditional anyway). I'm impressed that they can pull that off and then be poised enough to spell a complicated word correctly.

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  21. Marsha4:06 PM

    When you look at the other words these kids are getting, Yinglish is a ridiculous choice for this round.

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  22. bristlesage4:21 PM

    And then Lord John Marbury just being half in the bag all over the place.

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  23. Marsha4:21 PM

    I just want to take Hussain home. So, so cute. And in second grade, which I didn't even know was possible. That is a kid to watch. He's EIGHT.

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  24. BeeFan4:23 PM

    Wasn't Lori Anne Madison (two years ago) a first-grader?

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  25. Marsha4:25 PM

    Oh, I forgot about her - she was 6 and in first grade.

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  26. Genevieve4:44 PM

    That is true. Though weevil is about as easy.

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  27. Genevieve4:46 PM

    What, fisticuffs?
    Also, carabao. I've liked this word since I first saw carabao in the fields. I believe I have inadvertently eaten carabao (what were we thinking, ordering beef in a country that was not known for cattle?).

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  28. Genevieve5:03 PM

    And a speller goes out on a word I learned from The Joys of Yiddish - luftmensch. I'm fond of that word. The speller will not be.

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  29. Marsha5:16 PM

    They MUST stop showing the fainting kid. Yes, it's impressive that he got back up and spelled, but these are KIDS. That was a scary, terrible moment, and it isn't in any way amusing, and it's time to retire that video. Show me sardoodledom and numnah all you like, but please, please stop showing the fainting.

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  30. Scott5:17 PM

    "Using his Microsoft Surface tablet..."

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  31. BeeFan5:32 PM

    Yeah, they keep running that in a compendium of "humorous" clips and I wonder if they've ever watched Sesame Street: one of these things is not like the others, folks.

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  32. victoria5:36 PM

    Same with neophiliac -- there is no way anyone was going to miss that word.

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  33. Samir6:52 PM

    Actually, I think the Bee sort of encouraged it: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/05/28/national-spelling-bee-funny-sentences/9679441/

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  34. Marsha10:16 PM

    Interesting! I feel better about it now. I doubt the semifinalists will ask with the same frequency tomorrow...

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