Wednesday, May 27, 2015

THE 2015 SPELLING BEE POOL: Forty-nine amazing spellers remain.

Our rules are similar to those in years past -- we have one remaining five-timer (Vanya Shivashankar), and three spellers returning for their fourth year (Gokul Venkatachalam, Dylan O'Connor Katharine Wang). The use of these veterans will be restricted.

So: pick two spellers, only one of whom can be one of the four spellers above. While individual spellers can be used more than once, you cannot repeat the same pairing that someone else has already submitted. First come, first served, and you cannot choose a speller once s/he spells tomorrow morning.

You will get one point for each word your spellers correctly spell during tomorrow's rounds of the Bee, which resumes at 10am eastern on ESPN2. In addition, each speller will receive an additional point for reaching primetime, to account for the computer-based cutoff after tomorrow's three live rounds. Most points wins; tiebreaker will be whoever has the individual speller going the furthest. Do not edit your entry after you've made it; if you need to make corrections, reply to your original comment.

It's my blog, so I go first: Gokul Venkatachalam, the vet who went the longest last year, and Sara-Beth McPherson, the 26th and final Jamaican national champion coached by the late Rev. Glen Archer. [I came really close to picking Tejas Muthusamy, but I cannot bring myself to picking a sixth-grader.]


Previous pool winners are Elicia Chamberlin in 2006 (Close/Hooks), Professor Jeff and Amy tied in 2007 (O'Dorney and Thomas/Horton), KJ in 2008 (Mishra/K Shivashankar), Cagey (K Shivashankar/Pastapur) in 2009, Bob Loblaw/Jenn tied in 2010 (Veeramani and Chemudupaty/Denniss); 2011's winner was Nupur Lala (the Roy/Ye Keystone combo); Bobby in 2012 (Nandipati/Mahankali); Sara Miller in 2013 (Mahankali/Sivakumar), and Bobby again in 2014 (Venkatachalam/Hathwar).

49 comments:

  1. Marsha9:00 PM

    Gokul Venkatachalam and Dev Jaiswal.

    Going with my "perfect on the written" pair.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adam C.9:00 PM

    Three entries, for me and the kids:

    Me: Gokul & Cole

    Molly C.: Gokul & Sai

    Noa C.: Vanya and Jairam

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gokul and Samuel Pereles, please. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. BeeFan9:02 PM

    Vanya
    Orentlicher

    ReplyDelete
  5. Adam C.9:03 PM

    I came very close to going with Sam instead of Cole.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Heather k9:03 PM

    Vanya Shrivashankar and Muriel Cotman

    ReplyDelete
  7. Charlotte9:04 PM

    I would like Vanya Shivashankar and Dev Jaiswal, please. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Adam B.9:05 PM

    I considered Sam and Cole pretty strongly as well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Genevieve9:08 PM

    Vanya and Ankita Vadiala, please.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Adam B.9:08 PM

    My daughter Lucy is taking Gokul Venkatachalam ("because he likes the X-Men") and Cy Orentlicher ("he has broccoli head.")

    ReplyDelete
  11. Charlotte9:08 PM

    I was debating between Vanya and Gokul, but knew I wanted Dev as my second choice. Thanks for making my decision, Marsha! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I will be very interested to see how Cole does. I'm always excited when somebody who flies under the radar (comparatively) does much better than we're expecting. Exhibit A: Ansun last year.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Charlotte9:11 PM

    Sound reasoning.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Barbara Williams9:12 PM

    I'm gonna go with Vanya and Tejas.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Also, I missed that the Reverend Archer had died.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Genevieve9:16 PM

    Ankita is my Virginia vote, plus she came in 13th last year. Could've gone with Sam Pereles for another Virginian (came in 12th), but I went with closest to my home town. I love that Sam used some of his prize money to fund a Little Free Library.

    ReplyDelete
  17. BeeFan9:17 PM

    First I'd heard of it too. Almost as much an institution as Dr. Cameron was.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Scott R9:18 PM

    Gokul and Paul Keaton. Is it my year? Who's to say.

    ReplyDelete
  19. BeeFan9:20 PM

    Nobody's picking River Blount. Is it because a kid who lives without television is anathema on an entertainment blog? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Gokul and Shobha Dasari!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Marsha9:26 PM

    I almost picked Tejas. He's got a great shot.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Going with an against-the-grain pairing:

    Dylan O'Connor and Paul Keaton

    ReplyDelete
  23. Devin McCullen9:34 PM

    Lily Mears (reasonably close to my sister in Michigan, plus writing Elvish script and "81 Batman characters") and Katharine Wang (4-timer, and the only NJ rep).

    ReplyDelete
  24. Genevieve9:40 PM

    Because sixth graders almost never win.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Rachel9:41 PM

    Vanya and Eesha Sohail are my picks

    ReplyDelete
  26. Barbara Williams9:45 PM

    If not this year, then some other year soon!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Sara Miller9:45 PM

    Gokul and Ankita Vadiala

    ReplyDelete
  28. Barbara Williams9:46 PM

    Yay Katharine! If I could've picked her and Vanya I would have. :)

    ReplyDelete
  29. Sara Miller9:49 PM

    I wonder why Dev was not in the Bee the past 2 years?

    ReplyDelete
  30. Cooper Komatsu and Melina Gabele

    ReplyDelete
  31. Vanya and Siyona

    ReplyDelete
  32. Adam B.10:03 PM

    Statewide runner-up in 2013, and if there's only one finalist from the whole state, that's tough.

    ReplyDelete
  33. lisased10:46 PM

    Katharine Wang and Ankita Vadiala, please!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Vanya + Sam!!! Oh man, next year will be said when I can't pick a Shivashankar.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Jacob Devine11:30 PM

    Oof... all my teams I was thinking of were taken, but let's go crazy and say:


    Gokul and Tejas. (I don't think Tejas will win, but dang, he got REALLY far last year.)

    ReplyDelete
  36. Donna J.11:44 PM

    Cole and Jillian. Her hobbies are rifle shooting, tap dance, and classic TV. The girl's got RANGE!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Vanya Shrivashankar and Srinath Mahankali

    ReplyDelete
  38. Barbara Williams1:04 AM

    I almost picked this pairing. I think it's a great one!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Bobby2:44 AM

    I love this competition every year and look forward to defending my championship! I'll go with Vanya and Shobha Dasari

    ReplyDelete
  40. victoria6:45 AM

    Vanya & Paul Keaton

    ReplyDelete
  41. Maggie6:54 AM

    Katherine Wang and Cole Shafer-Ray

    ReplyDelete
  42. Christy in Philly7:50 AM

    Katharine and Dev please!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Dev and Arjun

    ReplyDelete
  44. julen9:04 AM

    Oooh, made it in before the deadline!

    I pick our awesome local spelling hero, Sam Pereles, and - because nothing beats a voracious reader who will hand-paint her bedroom - Michelle Yakubek.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Adam B.9:39 AM

    As always, the deadline is this: once a speller is called to the microphone this morning, he or she can no longer be selected. So 10am EDT isn't a hard deadline for everyone, but you'd better be typing quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I think I'm in under the wire:

    I'm picking:

    Vanya Shivashankar

    Sai Vishundhi Chandrasekhar

    ReplyDelete
  47. Sara Miller10:24 AM

    I want to change my pick to Dev and Shobha Dasari.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Sara Miller10:25 AM

    Neither have spelled yet this morning.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Adam B.10:28 AM

    I am uncomfortable with changing spellers, or even keeping the choices open at all, now that the rankings are out.

    ReplyDelete