COULD YOU USE THAT IN A SENTENCE, PLEASE? Welcome to Round 3, each speller's second guaranteed chance before the microphones. Last year it was at the same level of difficulty as Round 2, so we'll see.
After this round, we'll find out who the up-to-fifty spellers are who'll proceed to tomorrow morning's semifinals. (Up to 25 points from yesterday's computerized round, +3 for each of today's words.)
1:53 pm: 37/41 correct so far; one of the errors was on a word I've used in Words With Friends, and which a member of this community doubted was real. Heh. And, Marsha? They just used lahk-shuhn.
1:58 pm: Happy birthday, Philemon from Ghana! Now spell dynamogenesis! (He did.)
2:07 pm: Early nominee for the annual Dominic Errazo Award for the easiest path to Thursday: Simon Ricci has had fuh-SEE-shuss and mo-TEEF thus far.
2:21 pm: If it's Wednesday, it means some kid's getting pehr-uh-STROY-kuh. Apartheid is sure to follow.
2:28 pm: Fact! Today's words came from a list of ~1600 words provided to all spellers.
2:29 pm: Paging Trudy McLeary! This year's Jamaican, too, says "Thank you, sir," after Dr. Bailly honors each request. (And, hello Marsha, it's kibitzer time.)
2:41 pm: 90/100 correct thus far, and fans of the Shivashankar clan will be delighted that Vanya's two-for-two.
2:53 pm: Dr. Bailly invokes the honey badger in his sentence about the juhr-BO-uh.
2:56 pm: Just heartbreaking watching this kid who's trying to pronounce, and spell, kih-[throat-clearing-sound]uhl. It did not go well. And then the next speller gets Bolshevik.
3:03 pm: The annual return of oo-blee-eht, and since the speller didn't request a sentence, we don't know if Dr. Bailly was prepared to put the lotion in the basket.
3:12 pm: We're at halftime. The moment of the round was when Michigan's Jack Pasche, having already erred on his first word today, ended up spelling "idiosyncratically" as I-O-Q-R-S-Z-quatro. It was brilliant.
3:31 pm: "Are you ready, Dr. Bailly?" "Well, this time I'm not. I need some words." And we're back.
3:36 pm: Sabermetrics returns! It's from an English-derived acronym. (This, and day-TAHNT, are a bit easier than the rest of the round.)
3:44 pm: It's CHACH-kuh time. Also, some real spelling heroism from Eboseremhen Eigbe on "exophthalmic." Yikes.
3:56 pm: We all remember the first time we were asked to spell MAH-duh-lihn (or MAH-duh-layn).
4:06 pm: Shy Nejat nails schadenfreude, and yes, it's Avenue Q time.
4:33 pm: Philadelphia's Lena Greenberg spells thalian in about five seconds without asking for any clues, then runs back to her chair as though she were being chased by Spelling Dementors.
4:47 pm: Jacob Evers of South Carolina asks, "May I have an easier word?" No, but ophelimity poses no problem. And, as promised, Speller #233 gets apartheid.
5:16 pm: Another of my favorite Bee words returns: voortrekker. And the Estep-Madison crimefighting duo is just around the corner ...
5:23 pm: Samuel Estep, no problem on wedel. Madison, however, misses ingluvies by one letter; it's safe to predict she'll be back in the future.
5:30 pm: The round is over; we'll post the list of semifinalists, and the rules for the pool, as soon as it's available. I'm planning on opening the pool at 8pm.
As usual, Time Warner Cable is refusing to cooperate with me. If anyone has a login they wouldn't mind me using, send it along please? Thanks. [SamirPatelNLC at gmail]
ReplyDeleteSo in round two we get limpid spelled as limpet, and in the third we get limpet? That's got to be unusual.
ReplyDeleteKuchen and lokshen? That's a lot of phlegm for Dr. Bailly.
ReplyDeleteAnd echt.
ReplyDeleteAwwwwwww. ("Is this your birthday?")
ReplyDeleteIndeed! (Though echt is less tasty.)
ReplyDeleteOne might say Incredible.
ReplyDeleteDon Knotts could not be reached for comment.
Can I just assume that you've all heard my rant about Yiddish and Hebrew before and that there's no need to go over it again?
ReplyDeleteWhen I got nullibicity, I heard it was "nullibisony" and confused it as something similar to oligopsony until my mispronunciation was corrected. Oligopsony showed up the next round. And that kid misspelled cnemial as mnemial, and of course mnemonic just showed up.
ReplyDeleteMalie Curren [55] hopping up and down: "that's one of the Japanese words I do know!"
ReplyDeleteThat was pretty adorable.
Given that we had Saryn Hooks show up during last year's primetime liveblog, no, there is no need to review why all English spellings of Yiddish and Hebrew terms are more or less arbitrary.
ReplyDeleteThere's at least two kids who botched both their morning and afternoon words so far. That's gotta sting.
ReplyDeleteMotif, really? Compared to meiji, that's pretty easy. [Meiji is fairly phonetic, but only if you know Japanese phonetics.]
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if these words are sourced from a list the spellers already have, or are they truly random?
You mean that those words are all way too easy for a bee at this level? :-)
ReplyDeleteGiven that my law school classmate's daughter was the one who took 4th because of "shaitl/shaytl/shaytel/shaitel/etc/etc/etc," I remain bitter on the entire subject.
ReplyDeleteI once watched a regional bee where the word "McCoy" (as in "the real McCoy") was used. There was a speller in the bee named McCoy!
ReplyDeleteNo, McCoy didn't get the word "McCoy". The kid who did missed it (MacHoy, I think he spelled it)
Is there any better illustration of how differently mature kids can look at the same age than this competition? Some of the 12 and 13 year old boys look like adults, some like kids. Not to mention how different they sound...
ReplyDeleteIs it just me, or do you guys also like the Bee better WITHOUT the ESPN commentary?
ReplyDeleteOK, I'm wrong about the cnemial/mnemial thing. This is what happens when you get called into meetings and can listen with only one ear ...
ReplyDeleteMarsha, will my cooking lessons include kuchen?
ReplyDelete[On an entirely Bee-unrelated note, I made a quiche the other day. You should be proud of me!]
Ooh, I am very proud of you! Quiche isn't beginner cooking.
ReplyDeleteYes, I can teach you to make kuchen. Still waiting for you to actually take me up on the lessons...
I remember spellers gasping when one of our fellow competitors got both "mauve" and "miscellaneous" in rounds 6 and 7. Granted, this was in 1986, but those words weren't difficult then, especially that far into the Bee (afternoon, second day). The "motif" kid is probably still in a daze over his/her luck.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I don't make it up to Chicago much. But send me your email [mine's in the first comment] and I promise I WILL take you up on it next time I'm in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteThey have a list of 1,600 words for today. Word variance is irrelevant, IMO.
ReplyDeleteI know it's random and all that, and that non-European origin words are considered harder, but I can't help but find it unfair that some kids get "engastrimythic," "chaetophorous," and "lobscouse" in the same round that others are getting "mulligan," "batik," and "motif."
ReplyDelete(I should also note that the weekly newsletter at my kids' school is called the Kibitzer.
You're too young to remember, but once upon a time (1980, to be exact) NBC broadcast an NFL game without announcers. They picked up the PA announcer, crowd noise, field noise, etc. They put up a graphic if they had to point out something statistical.
ReplyDelete(The next day's headlines read "Jets Silence Dolphins 24-17".)
I think the Bee is even more suitable for that treatment.
Yeah, but it's like my old Tiers of Idol theory: this unfairness may mean a kid makes it to Thursday who shouldn't, but the kids who are going to be there Thursday night can ace any of these words today.
ReplyDeleteI know, I know. I guess it's more that I don't understand how anyone can put "mulligan" on the same list as "pickelhaube."
ReplyDelete(And how much you want to bet that Dr. Bailly has in front of him the phonetic spelling of "Rihanna.")
Hey look, eigenvalues. I thought I'd left those behind in Physical Chemistry.
ReplyDelete"You're too young to remember..." - I'm pretty sure he wasn't born.
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, neither was I.
Has anyone ever run across "piobaireachd" in a spelling bee? Or would they use the anglicized spelling "pibroch"?
ReplyDelete... the honey badger may not care? Dr. Bailly did NOT just say that. Seriously?
ReplyDeleteSo you don't remember it either.
ReplyDeleteWe did have TV then. Honest we did.
For Lori Anne fans, have you seen this item on the Official Media page?
ReplyDelete"Understandably, six-year-old Lori Anne Madison has drawn the interest from media outlets across the country. The stack of requests to interview her grows and grows. It would be difficult for an adult to handle such attention. Despite her ability to out spell many grownups, she is still just a child. Her parents and Bee officials have her best interests in mind as they offer a media opportunity to give people a chance to see and hear Lori Anne beyond her spoken and spelled competition words.
The Bee is coordinating, with the approval of Lori Anne’s parents, a 30-minute news conference in which Lori Anne Madison will take questions from attending media. This is the only interview time that the Bee can offer to accommodate the numerous requests. The news conference is set for Thursday, May 31 from 9-9:30 a.m. It will take place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. Media can set up beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the National Harbor 3 room. The interview will not extend beyond 30 minutes and reporters interested in asking questions can present their business cards to be randomly selected to ask a question. This process will allow for a very calm and orderly environment for Lori Anne. We appreciate your cooperation."
Speller 126 goes down with a flourish (spelling idiosyncratic with both random strings of letters and a few numbers).
ReplyDeleteWell, Jack Pasche, if you're going to go down (and that's both words he missed), then go down with a smile...
ReplyDeleteHad no idea that HOB-el-dee-hoy was a real word.
My goodness, Elisa Stahl is typing her answers on an imaginary keyboard. That's AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteThat's how I always did it (and still do).
DeleteWow.
ReplyDeleteJust wow.
that was so amusing.
ReplyDeleteDid they really misspell "outspell" on their media page?
ReplyDeletesee: speller 132
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many news outlets will care if she misses the cutoff.
ReplyDeleteIt says "<span>ioqrsz3" on the official page. That's not a typo.</span>
ReplyDeleteOr, conversely, how crazy it will get if she wins (unlikely as that seems).
ReplyDeleteDid they include the "quattro?"
ReplyDelete<span>Except that after the 3, he said "cuatro" Possibly they didn't have a Spanish keyboard with which to enter that number.</span>
ReplyDeleteOld. O-L-D. Old.
ReplyDeleteOh. Cuatro. Right. I guess I just spend too much time daydreaming about Audis.
ReplyDeleteAaaaaaand we're back.
ReplyDeleteThat kid has a built-in career as a radio announcer. Like right now. If he wants it, it's his.
ReplyDeleteSABERMETRICS!!!! Squee! Between this, the Yiddish, and the food words, I'd swear they were spelling directly for me.
ReplyDeleteI pointed out that word to my speller this year, and we had a good chuckle over it. Scripps avoids variant words, to keep things simple. So no, you won't see either "piobaireachd" or "pibroch" in a bee.
ReplyDeleteAnd I missed it! Damn my luck. I really, really hope someone posts it on YouTube soon. That's gotta rank up there with "numnah/numbnut," or at least the Napoleon Dynamite reference.
ReplyDeleteKi-HACK-ul was indeed heartbreaking. Until the speller started dissolving, I was hoping Dr. Bailly would invoke that famous sentence of his from years ago: "The thought of someone kvetching about her _______ gave Meryl the shpilkes." Funniest sentence ever. But that was truly sad. I felt terrible for the poor guy.
ReplyDeleteI guarantee you it's going to be replayed, I'm guessing 5 or more times, on ESPN in prime time tomorrow night. You may be watching then?
ReplyDeleteI'm at the bee itself. Must have happened when I stepped out to heed nature's call. So I'm not sure if I'll be able to see the event until afterward.
ReplyDeleteOHMIGODSHEISSOADORABLE! Go Nejat!
ReplyDeleteI worry for these kids (like #183) who take a catch breath between every letter. The longer the word is, the more I think they're going to hyperventilate and pass out.
ReplyDeleteI have developed a serious rooting interest in Sunny Levine. "Ooh, is it a dwarf primrose? I just love this word!" I lurve happy spellers.
ReplyDeleteSpike, we've never had anyone write about the Bee from a coach's perspective. If you ever want to, we'd love to read it.
ReplyDeleteShe and Malie Curren both have the happy-speller vibe going on.
ReplyDeleteMarsha, during the 2010 Bee:
ReplyDelete"<span>I want to take Sunny Levine home with me. Ditto Margaret Peterson."</span>
That was me, sorry.
ReplyDeleteShe's just adorable. Frickin' adorable. And yes, I shall take Malie Curren home too.
ReplyDeleteNicholas Rushlow is just too fabulous for words.
ReplyDeleteDo they get free cooking classes too?
ReplyDeleteFor heaven's sake, Sunny Levine "is a skilled balloon twister, budding magician and entrepreneur who can make over 500 balloon sculptures. She and a friend formed the “Wicked Twisters,” a balloon art and magic business."
ReplyDeleteLOVE.
Sure! There's my niche, Samir - I teach spellers to cook. Perhaps y'all can teach me to spell.
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy to! Let me know what I need to do. You'd get a double-whammy...a coach's perspective tinged with the perspective of a former winner. Really, the only bee roles I've never are that of a parent and a bell-ringer (and even that's arguable.)
ReplyDeleteJust email it to me at acbonin at hotmail dot com.
ReplyDeleteOhio didn't fare well in Round 3 - 5 misses from the state.
ReplyDeleteAaaaaaaand there's apartheid.
ReplyDeleteTexas spellers coming up. 1/3 categories I'm rooting for: the other two are homeschoolers and the "little ones." [Call it a Napoleon complex if you like. I just think the miniature spellers are adorable.]
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed that the "tritium" sentence didn't contain a Doctor Octopus reference. But the Texan spellers are rocking it! =)
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they'll keep the cameras rolling for the announcement of who goes on?
ReplyDeleteRose, right? She was awesome. Hope she's doing very well these days.
ReplyDeleteIs there a rule for what words are not allowed for content reasons? I'm not talking about good old anglo-saxon curse words, but words like alcoholic drinks (caipirinha made with cachaça) or sexual terms or terms describing violence or violation that you just wouldn't want Dr. B. to have to discuss with 13 year olds (let alone Lori Anne).
ReplyDeleteI know they're working off a word list here, I'm just thinking about tomorrow's rounds.
I'm actually a little surprised they used "amniocentesis." I mean, it's scientific and all, but the whole needle-into-uterus thing seemed to push it a little [considering some of these kids are like 10].
ReplyDeleteScripps generally makes a point of not using any words that contain any sort of sexual content. I think I've seen alcohol words get used, though I could be wrong.
I think that's right. I don't recall any Loathsome Diseases being in the Bee, for instance.
ReplyDeleteYay 256 (Kayla Lynn Corredera-Wells) clapping to the correct spelling.
ReplyDeleteI used to do that in spelling competitions. Still do, when I'm thinking of the right spelling.
ReplyDeleteAnd on the opposite end, speller 265.
ReplyDelete"Orgeat" from last year, while not being alcoholic itself, is primarily used only as a mixer in alcoholic drinks. It's like grenadine in that *technically* you could drink it on its own, but I have no idea why you'd want to.
ReplyDeleteawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
ReplyDeleteIndeed. How adorable is she?
ReplyDeleteAnd one speller in her row (I think was 267, Victoria Whited) goes out of her way to give her a high five on her way back. I heart you, Victoria. (unless it was 266?)
ReplyDeleteThey seem to be high-fiving each other as they pass as a matter of course. Which I love.
ReplyDeleteIf Lori Anne's parents don't skip her any more grades (clearly, she's been skipped if she's a 6-year-old second grader) then she could be a 7-timer. Then again, given her bio, there's a decent likelihood that she'll disqualify before that because she'll be taking too many high school or even college classes.
Only perfect score on Round 1 - Vanya Shivashankar (is anyone surprised?)
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I've ever listened to the announcement of the semifinalists before - very interesting.
ReplyDeleteFor those not listening - the written test was harder this year, and the only person to get a perfect score was Vanya Shivashankar.
Lori Anne didn't make it. Based on Paige's comments, I'm guessing she'd have made it if she had spelled that second round word correctly.
When they said one perfect score, and then said Shivashankar, I was like of course. I don't know why it was necessary for them to discuss Lori Anne not making it. I get that it is remarkable that she qualified as a six year old but I feel like it gives her unnecessary attention. Also, all the focus on a 6 year old getting in, makes the fact that a ten year old was the only one with a written score seem almost mundane. But that too is remarkable. Also: Vanya is adorable.
ReplyDeleteJust heard Sunny Levine: Marsha must be excited!
Both five-timers are in. Sunny Levine is in, Lena Greenberg, Vanya ... at least one Canadian ...
ReplyDeleteYay Sunny Levine! Yay Gifton!!!
ReplyDeleteAw, heck, yay everybody! They're all so awesome!
23 points qualified? Damn, that must have been a hard computerized round. (17 + 3 + 3).
ReplyDeleteThey needed a prelim score of 23 to qualify. Which means Vanya could have blown BOTH of her words today and still made the semis.
ReplyDeleteDid I miss Sam Estep's name?
ReplyDeleteThat was my question as well.
ReplyDeleteRESULTS [will be on spellingbee.com within an hour, but I figured I'd post it here for those unable to view the broadcast. Adam, feel free to add it to the body of the post.]
ReplyDelete[[in random order.]]
[[[apologies if I misspelled any of the names.]]]
[[[[not guaranteed to be error free, but I'd estimate this is at least 95% correct]]]]
Qualifying score: 23 (of 31)
Only one speller achieved a perfect score: 92 Vanya Shivashankar
Lori Anne Madison did not qualify ;’(
SEMIFINALISTS (50)
92 Vanya Shivashankar
155 Nabeel Rahman
174 Ty Korsmo
198 Dharani Kotekal
202 Max Lee
1 Kevin Lazenby
30 Frank Cahill
213 Lina Greenberg
49 Rachael Cundey
141 Gokul Venkatachalam
239 Mark De Los Santos
241 Sivateja Tangirala
131 Roshini Asirvatham
19 Snigdha Nandipati
20 Siddharth Kulkarni
40 Grace Remmer
162 Arvind Mahankali
42 Vaidya Govindarajan
148 Sanjana Malla
193 Nicholas Rushlow
244 Thomas Rubio
79 Gina Solomito
50 Simola Nayak
262 Jae Canetti
105 Jack Nolan
136 Jordan Hoffman
254 Vismaya Kharkar
238 Abigail Spitzer
11 Apolonia Gardner
127 Kavyapranati Pratapa
156 Sruti Akula
185 Sunny Levine
31 Rahul Malayappan
201 Vishnu Nistala
145 Emma Ciereszynski
130 Antony Joseph
25 Jennifer Mong
60 Marlene Santora
43 Christal Schermeister
27 Mignon Tsai
113 Amber Born
94 Emily Keaton
44 Stuti Mishra
204 Noah Cassidy
58 Simon Ricci
5 Sumaita Mulk
93 Emma Steimle
237 Chetan Reddy
89 Gifton Wright
66 Pranav Sivakumar
I was taking notes, and I don't have him down on my list. I may have messed up on one of the foreign names, but I'm pretty sure I would've noticed a Samuel.
ReplyDeleteSo: both five-timers return, 2/3 of last year's prime-timers return, 3/4 of the four-timers return.
ReplyDeleteDid any of the kids misspell either of their words? Seems that could be possible again, what with the cutoff so low.
ReplyDeleteI've felt that omphaloskepsis is a bit questionable, but it's been given multiple times recently.
ReplyDeleteHave you given that a lot of thought?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Samir!
ReplyDeleteSo many great kids in the finals. Yay!
I probably won't pick him for the pool since it's his first year, but I've got a rooting interest in Jae Canetti from Reston, VA (the closest that the NoVa suburbs get to participating). Plus I like his bio (a Little Leaguer and voted "most compassionate student") and he's got a great smile.
Words Scripps tends to avoid:
ReplyDelete- variants
- words with controversial meanings (sexual, violent, disturbing, etc...although "vivisepulture" was a winning word)
- words longer than 15 letters long (exception this year: "idiosyncratically"...and we all know how well that went down.)
Alcohol is free game. Daiquiri, zwetschenwasser, gewurztraminer, liebfraumilch, and curacao have all been given before.
Amy: why would omphaloskepsis be questionable? It just means navel-gazing or deep contemplation.
What do people think about the difficulty of the test words? I don't think they were that hard ... *shrug*
ReplyDeleteThe "matter of course" is the five to the next speller in line. Lori Anne stopped to talk to the first kid in her row on her way back after her afternoon ding. Apparently she was asked to go sit down by someone waving off camera. On her way back, one speller near her number stopped her for an unexpected high five, even in the face of the waving, which Lori appeared to like and which was the source of my hearting of 266<span>½</span>.
ReplyDeleteAnd she lives near Wicked Twister, a roller coaster at Cedar Point.
ReplyDeleteI note that Adam's nominee for the Dominic Errazo Award (Simon Ricci, speller #58) is among the semifinalists. I am amusing myself now by imagining the other semifinalists humming Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky" as he comes up to spell tomorrow. Although if it's true that one could have actually made it without spelling both words in the live rounds, that sentiment may be muted.
ReplyDelete<span>It surprises me too. Assuming you got both your bonus words in Rounds 2 and 3, and given that 'rife,' 'alternate,' 'befuddle,' 'demolition,' 'alacrity,' and 'specimen' should be considered "basic" words for NSB-caliber spellers, you're left with needing only 11 out of the other 19 words. That's 58%. If you go a little farther, 'doxic' and 'statuesque' shouldn't really give good spellers much trouble. Out of the others, the only REALLY hard ones [in my opinion] are 'Thucydidean,' 'outrecuidance,' 'tomalley,' 'quelea,' and 'muesli.' Even if you miss all five of those, you're left with three points to play with -- out of fourteen words. I dunno. You're right, I'm really having a hard time conceiving a scenario in which a top notch speller would have trouble with qualifying. </span>
ReplyDelete<span> </span>
<span>But then again, we're older and we've been through it already and we're not there right now in the pressure of the situation. So perhaps through an actual speller's lens, the test might be a little more challenging.</span>
I think the written test this year was significantly harder than last year. The words last year:
ReplyDeletefourteen, drowsy, wasteland, secrecy, generate, normalize, youthquake, unswerving, remembrance, electromagnetic, appointee, oracular, theatricality, benediction, quietive, jiggety, infobahn, calenture, bonobo, pinealectomy, Kafkaesque, monodomous, vitelline, acetarious, hukilau.
I'm not saying that it's not significantly harder than last year -- it is. But yeah, I'd have expected the cutoff to be in the 25-27 range.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised it was as low as it was, too. Kinda makes me wonder how tomorrow will go.
ReplyDeleteI'll do a separate post on the written round later tonight. I've got two spellers here to tend to first.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Spike, congratulations.
Wasn't there a protest from some anti-smoking group years ago when "cheroot" was in the bee?
ReplyDeleteI was mildly surprised Gamblers Anonymous or someone didn't complain about panguingue and barbotte in recent years.
Thank you! I'm absolutely thrilled and over the moon.
ReplyDeleteSpike, will you tell us in your posts tomorrow who your speller is? I'm assuming you can tell at some point, don't know if you can before the Bee is over.
ReplyDeleteWhat in the world happened to Sriram Hathwar? He was like 11 last year, no way he graduated and went to high school, right?
ReplyDeleteJust answered my own question; Sriram Hathwar was defeated in the apparently super-tough Campbell, N.Y. regional competition by Sruti Akula, who has made the semifinals. Watch out for Sruti.... Sriram was a top 10 finisher last year and probably would have been a top favorite with Rushlow, Vanya, and Arvind simply by qualifying for the bee.
ReplyDeleteI would like to LIKE this one hundred thousand times. Where's the BBC Bailly tumblr, y'all?
ReplyDelete