spelling bee and national senior spellng bee and robert miskimen and david riddle and cappelletti and oligophagous and komatik and ptosis

I am writing this part of the essay at about noon on June 18. The written round of the National Senior Spelling Bee has been completed (we were tested on 100 words), and we are waiting for news to see who the 11 or so spellers are that will make it to the oral (final) rounds. Results will be announced in about 20 minutes; many of the participants seem to think that they will not make it but I am sure many will also be surprised. Only 21 of us are participating this year in the bee, but we come from as far away as Alaksa and Pennsylvania. It is an interesting group of people.

The Day Begins

The genial and inimitable host, the Rev. Robert Miskimen, welcomed us at about 9:00 a.m. We learned a little bit about each other, and even the pronouncer got into the act. She, the national champion from a few years ago, is a retired freelance editor, having worked for Time/Life and National Geographic for several years. Her pronunciations were impeccable, and she gladly informed us that one of the words held special significance for her. Jalapeno was not only a hot pepper, which we all knew, but she told us that the Cheyenne paper had run a front-page story about her in 1988 because she had broken some kind of local record by downing 30 of these peppers in two minutes. I suppose after an experience like that you really never forget how to spell the word.

People have to be over 50 to compete in the contest, and many of the women competing could, in my mind, pass for under 50. One of the people said she was from Colorado, and then she introduced her ex-husband from Alaska, who was here to "cheer her on." She commented that they made much better friends than spouses. Knowing laughter filled the room, and I saw that what these people brought to the table, so to speak, was not simply a love of words and spelling but a deep experience in living that they were unafraid to share.

Another person introduced herself. She must have been about 70 years-old and her face was beaming as she mentioned that she was a newlywed (4 months), and her husband was with her for the competition. The next person announced proudly that she and her husband had just celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary. The next person mentioned that she just retired from teaching French at a local high school three weeks ago. The sense that life was opening up to people who not long ago would have been relegated to the bland category of "retirees" was palpable.

The Final Rounds

Several of us were then selected for the final rounds. Awards were given to the top three placers in the written competition, and I shared a second-place award with one other person. We missed 3 of the 100 words from the morning competition.

Onto the oral rounds we went. I think everyone spelled his or her word correctly in the first round. Then, the words became more difficult. Actually, what really happened was that the words became very uneven. Someone would receive a fairly easy word ("stall" comes to mind) and then a person down the line would receive an impossible word ("kieselguhr" was the first of those words). Actually one unfortunate man, the Pennsylvania state champion, was eliminated here in Cheyenne because he got three extraordinarily difficult words--kieselguhr, ganciclovir and kakiemon. I doubt if there was any American (except for David Riddle) that could have spelled more than one of those words correctly on this day, and Charles Underwood got all three dumped in his lap. He protested the spelling of ganciclovir, because every other drug/medication would be spelled "cyclo..." and even the example in the definition talked about the similarity of this word to acyclovir. Nevertheless, the judges were deaf to his appeal. All these words didn't come all at once for Charles, and he managed to tie for 4th in the Bee. I felt for him, and hope he will return next year, when the luck of the draw will probably level off in his favor.

On we went, and our numbers gradually began to fall off. You are permitted three mistakes, which I think is a much more merciful and understanding rule than in the cutthroat kids bee. There, if you miss one word after the written competition, you are sent packing. Here, at our bee, there is the realization that sometimes you just get an impossible word, or you get out of your flow or you just happen to make a silly mistake (it has been known to happen) and that missing it is not a reflection on how good a speller you are. Giving you three chances actually brings out the best spellers, in general. I don't remember all the words, or even many of them for that matter, but this year's bee differed from 2004 in that the committee began to chose drug names and complex diseases that were not used in prior years. This year's competition also seemed to have a lot of theological words (soteriology, catechumen, prolegomenon--though this also is a philosophical term) probably because the Rev. Miskimen had more than a hand in their selection.

I slipped up on a French word and a Greek word (terpsichorean--I foolishly spelled the ending 'ian'), and I thought I was going to exit from the competition with about six or seven spellers left, but they started making mistakes on words and then I either got some easy ones or some familiar words, and the numbers of competitors fell further.

The End

Finally, three of us were left: David Riddle, who spelled flawlessly orally (he missed two words in the written competition), LaRae Lawson (who had missed two in the written and one in the oral) and I. Then LaRae stumbled on a word and she and I were "tied" for second. A few more rounds contined. David was perfect, and then both LaRae and I misspelled our third words in the same round. A spell-off between the two of us ended up with me winning, as I correctly spelled logorrhea. David's final word he spelled correctly was ptosis, having just spelled komatik (an Eskimo sledge--something that everyone should know about) and oligophagous correctly. And, as for me, what did I stumble upon? I am embarrassed to share it, but it was an Italian food. I need to work on my foods and my Italian/French derivations in the next year. Maybe I should spend a few months roughing it in Paris and Rome. The word? Cappelletti. I spelled it with only one "l." What a fool. Congratulations, then, are in order to David Riddle, who rivals Dr. Jeff Kirsch (champion in 2004) as the best speller I have met. And, thanks to the fine people in Cheyenne, who labored so long and so well to put on this bee. I only hope that the idea catches on more and more.

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