national senior spelling bee and 2006

Hal Prince, 55, a computer programmer from Palo Alto, CA won this year's National Senior Spelling Bee, held yesterday in Cheyenne, WY. Darrell Noe of Arlington, TX was second and I placed third. It was, from the reports of long-time observers, the most grueling competition with the most difficult words and, in general, the best-prepared spellers in the eleven year history of the Bee. Hal Prince performed head and shoulders above everyone else, missing only one word ("asymmetry"--a "dumb" mistake, according to Hal) in the written round and none in the orals. This essay will ruminate on the competition and the context in which it is held in Cheyenne, WY. I then will mention a little about Hal's method, which enabled him effortlessly to sail through the competition. Finally, I will finish (next essay) with comments about what to keep the same and what to change in future years' competitions.

The Competitors

I arrived at the Center for Conferences and Institutes at the Laramie County Community College for the competition a little after 8 a.m. on Saturday 6/17, and I left just before 5 p.m. Though not all the time was taken up with spelling, of course, a lot of it was--and it was a grueling time. We numbered about 35 or 40 spellers this year and hailed from about 15 or 20 states. Several of the people had won bees as both youth and adults; others were just trying the "Bee idea" for the first time. Reta Lorenz of Laramie was the oldest competitor (87); she had been trying to participate for years but something always precluded her from doing so. She figured that she ought to try to make a special effort to participate this year, since she wasn't getting any younger. Speaking of youth, the youngest competitor was Scott Firebaugh (52), from Kokomo (IN), whose daughters have competed well in both state and national spelling bees; now it is dad's turn. Dad acquitted himself well, though he went down with five others in one round of frightfully difficult words near the end of the competition. Three of us were there from Oregon--Julie Golden, Linda Goertz and myself. We all finished in the top ten, though Janet and Julie, like Scott, went down in the same round.

Though many competitors were new this year, I would give the "most improved speller" to a woman who has been spelling for several years, Mary Kay Hemmer, from Cheyenne. When I got to know her and her husband two years ago, she was a good, though not spectacular speller. Last year she made it to the final rounds, but this year, with much stiffer competition, she made it to the round where five competitors went out. She spelled words of great difficulty, such as poikilotherm, with confidence and aplomb.

The Organization

But the "competition" isn't just the spellers. What makes the Senior Spelling Bee so special is the gradually evolving excellence of the tournament itself, which is hosted by the Wyoming chapter of the AARP. Every Wyoming scene has its character(s), and the Bee is no exception. Pride of place in this regard goes to the force behind the Bee over the years--the Rev. Robert Miskimen. He is one of the few people I know who endears himself to you as he tells more and more bad jokes. The Wyoming folks have now decided upon the two pronouncers--Babs Klein for the written rounds and David Lerner for the oral. Both are excellent choices, pronouncing the words with skill and clarity, giving sentences with gusto and humor, listening to see if the spellers have understood the words. David is, in fact, becoming a master at this--often leaving the microphone to speak the word directly in front of the competitor to make sure that we understand precisely what it is we are supposed to spell. You have to be a competitor to understand how important precision of pronunciation and clarity of voice is to you. So many English words sound so similar that you can go down considerably wrong roads unless the pronouncers keep you from this by making sure you too can pronounce the word you are to spell.

But other staff make this event "happen." State Librarian Brian Green, one of the judges, is very helpful in giving word etymologies and connecting us to a compter-generated pronunciation of the word. He also adds a note of professionalism and scholarly seriousness in a competition that is friendly on the surface (and under the surface, too), but really is quite charged with a competitive atmosphere. Also to be mentioned are the superb efforts of Barbara Rohrer and Joanne Bowlby in promoting the Bee. They landed a sort of coup this year by getting Alanna Nash to write a 2000 word on the Bee which will appear in a Spring issue of AARP magazine. Alanna is a noteworthy journalist in her own right, having written a well-known biography (turned into a movie) of the pioneering, but tragic, female news anchor Jessica Savitch, who died in a bizarre accident in 1983 at the young age of 36. Finally, I am always touched to greet Rita Inoway, the energetic director of the Wyoming AARP, whose warm welcome and hospitality always sets a positive tone for the event.

A Word on Cheyenne

I will close this essay with a word on this town in the heart of the High Plains. Cheyenne is one of the few towns where the "retro" look is fashionable because it has never gone out of style. Large cowboy boots (10 feet high) and other objects from the romanticized West dot the landscape--in front of theaters, hotels and other establishments. Every year during the month of June, Cheyenne undergoes a sort of building boom--consisting of temporary fireworks stands--all over the city. Indeed, I would say that they have to take down about 10% of the city after July 4.

But Cheyenne has a sort of rough and rustic charm that is hard to overlook. Nowhere else in America will the guys in biker outfits smile and greet me as "Sir." Nowhere else in America will a man with crooked teeth, torn clothes and unkempt appearance come up to me in a restaurant when I have my dictionary open and wish me well on the spelling bee--a bee that he had heard about in the media but couldn't participate in himself. I am charmed and disarmed by the unassuming cowboy friendliness which greets me--a man who really doesn't have an ounce of cowboy in me.

But let's get to aspects of the Bee itself and my recommendations for the future.

1934