Howard Scripps Spelling Bee

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Its like the entire United STates of America in their obsessive and multi cultrual glory. The country that invented geeks, complusive experts in their fields, and made a sport of everything could there be anything better ?

― anthony, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i admit it: i was a spelling bee 'champion' when i was twelve (i was a dork)

i have like 10 "webster collegiate dictionaries" and a pile of savings bonds from those days - also they gave away free A-Z encyclopaedia britannica hardcover uber-sets - how pimping is that? nowadays they probably just give the CD-ROM - weak!

if you win first in the nationals you get mad money. i'm talkin' like $40K maybe.

― geeta, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Geeta you are my new hero

― anthony, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was bigger on the geography bee. I was poised to win state but was disqualified on a question I later realized was actually loaded and incorrect. Thus I came in third and instead of a college scholarship I got a geography board game that I didn't want to play, having had plenty of geography questions for the time being.

― nabisco%%, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Nitsuh tell me more about the question and the scandal

― anthony, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, those crooked geography bees!

This year's involved a scandalous time call by Alex Trebek that would have eliminated the eventual winner.

― felicity, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It involved the tsetse fly and I don't want to talk about it.

― nabisco%%, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"i was a spelling bee 'champion' when i was twelve" - Geeta is now the coolest person on ILx. By a mile.

― J Blount, Friday, 31 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The proof that spelling bees are in fact a key nexus point for our appreciation of the pangs and pleasures of modern life = it was the plot device for A Boy Named Charlie Brown.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 31 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I, also, was the best speller in my school for a year, at Mount Olive Elementary School in 1984. The previous year I'd lost on the word "nautilus."

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 31 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I lost at the state level, on "oppugn." I'd never heard that word before. Got a nice dictionary (which I still use) out of it, though.

― Douglas, Friday, 31 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I got to regionals when I was 10, and I didn't actually misspell the word I missed. I did that damn s/c thing.

― Melissa W, Friday, 31 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eleven months pass...

Revive!

(Inspired by hilarious new documentary Spellbound)

I won the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-grade bees at my elementary school. In 5th grade, while still at the classroom level, I got cocky and accidentally spelled medicine with an S instead of a C. I pouted for the rest of the day and made a big show when this girl Martha fumbled over "tuberculosis" (sniff, I coulda spelled it!)

My best showing was in 6th grade, when I took it all the way to the county finals and finished fifth. The word I missed: "nasturtium." In 8th grade, I was on a roll at the district level when I got cocky again and quickly spelled tentative with an I instead of an A. I actually teared up on-stage. My dreams were dashed forever.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 19:37 (twenty-two years ago)

A couple kids from my 5th-grade class continued to taunt me about "medicine" throughout high school.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 19:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm a spelling bee winner too... there was actually some controversy surrounding my first schoolwide bee.

OK, so me being JBR and all I've always had what school administrators and guidance counselors like to call "discipline problems," and of course I made myself well known at the principal's office. But I was also really smart -- smart enough to qualify for the spelling bee, at any rate. I was looking forward to it.

However, the week of the spelling bee, I managed to get myself suspended from school for five days. Oops! And they had to pick someone else, a classmate of mine, to "stand in" for me at the bee.

My mom was a master negotiator, though, so she worked something out with the principal, and on the morning of the contest, she woke me up and said "Get dressed, you're going to the spelling bee." (Me: "What? Uh, OK. Wow!")

Nobody was happy that I'd returned to school. No one thought I deserved to be there. The girl who was supposed to stand in for me was LIVID -- pouting, crying, screaming "It's not fair! I hate her!" She glared at me as I got up on the stage, and continued to glare the whole time.

I won.

Then I won the district-wide bee. Then I just narrowly missed the borough-wide bee.

I don't think I knew the word "schadenfreude" yet, but hoo boy I sure did understand the feeling.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 19:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha, JBR -- Did you know that "schadenfreude" was the winning word at the nationals a year or two ago?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw "Spellbound" last weekend and really enjoyed it. Truth is sometimes funnier than fiction - it totally blows away "A Mighty Wind", which I saw a couple of weeks ago.

I won a couple of classroom-scale spelling bees in my youth, but the only school-wide bee I was in I got out on "friend" which I spelled "freind" - I don't remember what grade that was in.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 20:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha, JBR -- Did you know that "schadenfreude" was the winning word at the nationals a year or two ago?

I probably would have gotten that word right if I were asked -- I'm good at spelling things in foreign languages.

As I said in the other thread, the word I lost on was "license." I'm still very embarassed about it.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I have sort of unpleasant associations with the geography bee. In 8th grade, I actually pled for my social studies teacher to do the geography bee in our class, even though he wasn't planning on it. (What bothered me was that another class was doing it -- probably because they had more smart kids. And I was confident I could win.) I'm sure he thought it was a total waste of time, and that most kids could've cared less, but he caved anyway. (I think my dad also complained.)

Of course, I didn't even win. And to this day, I'm convinced that the geography bee is a lesser bee because it's way too luck-of-the-draw. Obviously, spelling bees rely on chance, too. But I was a kid who was good at capital cities and names of rivers, and I got totally burned on questions that were more about geology and economics. So yeah. F that.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 20:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I spelled nautilus "naughtiless". My parents joined a gym the next year and the word rebuked me from every surface.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm good at spelling things in foreign languages.

This is, in fact, a key strategy for one of the kids in Spellbound. Course, it helped that her parents could afford to hire her foreign-language tutors.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

In 6th grade, it was down to me and this girl Cheryl for winner of the school. (It actually wasn't such high stakes, because I was already guaranteed to advance to the next level. But.) The final word I got: "rapport." This was actually a vocabulary word my class had studied not long before, but I couldn't for the life of me remember how it was spelled. All I knew was that it was sort of an unexpected spelling that my classmates had laughed about. I thought about that for a few seconds. My conclusion? "R-A-P-O-R" -- because I thought kids would've snickered at its similarity to "rape." (!!)

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)

nine months pass...

revive from the Spellbound thread

I made it to the final two in my school every grade from first to sixth, and lost every time. I was the Buffalo Bills of Swift Elementary.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 27 February 2004 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I was in the team that came second in the Dublin Public Libraries Childrens' Quiz. Second comes right after first.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Saturday, 28 February 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I was the spelling bee champion of my elementary school for like six years, I guess, and did pretty well at regionals and went to state and stuff. I've been watching this "Celebrity Spelling Bee" thing the past few Fridays and am really appalled. Augmentation? Impugn? COLLAGEN?

― kirsten (kirsten), Saturday, 28 February 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, last night, the !!!National Spelling Bee Champion!!! spelled "bustier" with an O. Boustier.

― kirsten (kirsten), Saturday, 28 February 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

haha, I too earned my stripes keeping it real in the spelling hustle, back in 5th grade.. came in 3rd for NY state in 1985.. it was in the part of MSG known back then as the "Felt Forum."

― Jay Smooth (jsmooth995), Saturday, 28 February 2004 23:14 (twenty-one years ago)

man ilx is dork central!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Sunday, 29 February 2004 07:59 (twenty-one years ago)

seven years pass...

the spelling bee has been insane this year

― b.o.s.e. (banned ones still envy) (J0rdan S.), Friday, 3 June 2011 02:57 (fourteen years ago)

17 rounds, 4 spellers still left

― b.o.s.e. (banned ones still envy) (J0rdan S.), Friday, 3 June 2011 02:57 (fourteen years ago)

this is crazy! I love all these kids cept the weird one from scranton.

― tehresa, Friday, 3 June 2011 02:59 (fourteen years ago)

I am so going to this next year

― tehresa, Friday, 3 June 2011 02:59 (fourteen years ago)

i don't even know who's in the running this year but if the indian kid doesn't win i'll eat my hat.

when i was in a spelling bee earlier this year, the winner was a fire-and-brimstone church lady who looked like an american susan boyle. her concentration while spelling her words was INTENSE.

― cee-lo v. city of new london (get bent), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:00 (fourteen years ago)

awww arvind :(

― tehresa, Friday, 3 June 2011 03:01 (fourteen years ago)

they kinda screwed him over by making him pronounce it w/ a hard T

― b.o.s.e. (banned ones still envy) (J0rdan S.), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:01 (fourteen years ago)

arvid from head of the class was in the spelling bee?

― cee-lo v. city of new london (get bent), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:01 (fourteen years ago)

Laura's faces re hilarious

― tehresa, Friday, 3 June 2011 03:02 (fourteen years ago)

wow how the fuck do you get "naumkeag"

― b.o.s.e. (banned ones still envy) (J0rdan S.), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:05 (fourteen years ago)

she totally had that on her weird words study list

― tehresa, Friday, 3 June 2011 03:05 (fourteen years ago)

i don't even get it

― b.o.s.e. (banned ones still envy) (J0rdan S.), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:06 (fourteen years ago)

we need a "weird words study thread," just for shits and gigs

― cee-lo v. city of new london (get bent), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:06 (fourteen years ago)

I would like to drink an orgeat

― tehresa, Friday, 3 June 2011 03:09 (fourteen years ago)

i would like to eat and orgdrink

― cee-lo v. city of new london (get bent), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:13 (fourteen years ago)

least likable contestant wins!

This emcee is creepy close to her

― tehresa, Friday, 3 June 2011 03:15 (fourteen years ago)

fuck fuck fuck
I missed the whole damn thing

― Muttley vs. Mumbly (CaptainLorax), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:19 (fourteen years ago)

don't miss the spelling bee finals tonight
I can't hide the beehemoth of excitement in anticipation FOR THE 2009 NATIONAL SPELLING BEE
:(

― Muttley vs. Mumbly (CaptainLorax), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:21 (fourteen years ago)

eleven months pass...

Spelling bee!

― tehresa, Friday, 1 June 2012 00:35 (thirteen years ago)

Arvind's back!

― tehresa, Friday, 1 June 2012 00:36 (thirteen years ago)

Arvind out :(

― tehresa, Friday, 1 June 2012 01:22 (thirteen years ago)

eleven months pass...

ARVIND

― leno dunham (get bent), Friday, 31 May 2013 02:43 (twelve years ago)

http://www.theonion.com/articles/spelling-bee-champion-returns-to-school-a-hero-he,32646/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=standard-post:headline:default

― k3vin k., Friday, 31 May 2013 19:16 (twelve years ago)

eleven months pass...

I can never remember when this thing is until I stumble on it.

― Liquid Plejades, Friday, 30 May 2014 00:11 (eleven years ago)

Damn greek words, always using ch, always sounding like k (eg exochorion).

― Liquid Plejades, Friday, 30 May 2014 01:00 (eleven years ago)

You think the german words will be easier, then they throw hallenkirche at you. Only seven left!

― Liquid Plejades, Friday, 30 May 2014 01:04 (eleven years ago)

four years pass...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeiyH8UWsAAY3qA.jpg

foh

― mookieproof, Thursday, 31 May 2018 17:55 (seven years ago)

the acidic covfefe

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 31 May 2018 18:31 (seven years ago)

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