Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Blogging The Bee: Bill Long

Bill Long has an amazing web site, largely devoted to words and literature; this is the introduction to an essay on the origins of some fascinating words in which he mentions us:

A Portland Spelling Bee

Bill Long 2/20/07

At the Mississippi (Ave) Pizza Pub

Last night I decided to venture up to Portland to take part in the weekly spelling bee at the Mississippi Ave. Pizza Pub in North Portland. I ended up getting 2nd, losing to Linda Goertz, whom I like a lot and whom I met last year at the Oregon Senior Spelling Bee. She has already blogged her victory; I congratulate her on it. However, the purpose of this essay is to introduce some of the words that were either given last night in the Bee or which Linda, Julie Golden (an excellent speller who arrived with Linda) and I were discussing before the bee or which I wanted to note on this page. I will just list nine words and only have time to write about one, I fear. Here is the list: faja (the winning word, some kind of sash), helobious (from the kids' 2006 bee; for some reason it is on my mind--having to do with living in marshes or swamps); hematopoiesis/hematopoietics (one of Linda's favorite terms--having to do with formation of blood cells in a living body); pashm (the soft underfur of Tibetan goats--I actually found this word on the way to trying to find Julie's word that she missed--I still haven't found it, but I settled for pashm), larithmics (see below); fermiere (food prepared in plain country style; lit. "after the farmer's wife"..I wonder if she cut off their tail with the carving knife...); ranine (of or relating to frogs; whoops, a friend of mine has a daughter named Rana--I wonder if she knows..); mussitation (either movement of the lips without sound or a murmuring); incurvariid (another one of Linda's words--meaning something to do with a moth). As I tend to do, I run home and do full word searches on as many words as I can, not only to learn to spell or define the word but also, wherever possible, to create and understand the human context which produced the word. Here is my effort on larithmics, which was actually spelled correctly by one of the contestants last night.

Read the rest ...

Winners Blog Us! Linda Goertz

From Linda Goertz's Foster Powell Blog:

Do U Spel Gud? Mee 2
Posted by Linda Goertz February 20, 2007 07:07
Foster-Powell Index

Last night at Mississippi Pizza Pub there was a spelling bee, as there has been every Monday night for a couple of months -- and hopefully will continue for quite a while. Portland definitely has caught the spelling bee fever (another local bee is at Night Light Lounge, last Sunday of every month, but as their website indicates there's smoking there in the evenings, my lungs and I do not attend -- but if you don't mind that, please check it out and let us know what it's like)!
The rules at Mississippi are simple -- sign up by 6:30 or so and pay your $2 cover charge, and prepare to enjoy the fun at 7:00 (their lovely food and beverages can be an extra treat). The air is clear, the atmosphere convivial, and the competition is fierce. Everyone's having fun, including Pronouncer/Emcee Extraordinaire Kathleen Woods-Eliot -- but after the first round, be prepared for some knock-your-socks-off words.

I was there with two friends I initially met at the yearly Senior Spelling Bee in Aurora -- my friend Julie is one of the best spellers I've ever known, the winner of last year's Senior Bee, and an all-round fun person. Bill Long regaled the two of us during our pre-bee pizza time by firing practice words at us -- he's a consistent finalist in every bee I've seen him in. And me -- well, I enjoy spelling but really can't measure up to either of them, and as for "studying" -- oops, did I forget again??

So what happens? Remember what I said about luck? You could spell every word you hear but one -- but if that lone word happens to be the one that pops up when it's your turn, you're toast. Conversely -- as was the case with me -- you could be all at sea with half the words that are given to other contestants, but luck out when it gets to your turn -- either because you know the word or because your stab-in-the-dark guess turns out to be correct.

Bill and I made it to the final round and we both missed on "faena" (a bullfighting term; the pronunciation throws you off). Then he was given "tandoori" (a yummy Indian style of cooking). Mentally, I went t-a-n-d-o-r-i; he spelled it the same way and I was sure I was a goner, but -- Ding! went the bell. He had missed it! I gaped; then somewhere in the recesses of my brain I dragged up the double "o" and got that word. Then I was given the word "fajas," another word I'd never heard of -- and purely bluffing, I got it right and was officially the last speller standing.
As the week's winner, I got an incredibly cool T-shirt, a gift certificate, and the right to compete in the April 2 champions spell-off. I'll get creamed; it'll be fun. See you there?

Round of Second Chances

This week was a blast, with some great audience participation and some hilarious contestants (we crowded 18 of you up on the stage, so thanks everyone for your deference! I am, as always, you obeisant servant, but there's only so much I can do).

The third round started out especially brutal, so we had a few second chances given, and then since the brutality never ceased, just about everybody got a couple of tries at their words. Still, the field was winnowed a bit and with a vow from me to actually do my job as judge and ding the bell when required, the spelling continued.

We had a stellar field, with the winner successfully spelling EXUVIATE (to molt) after the runner-up missed ESNE (a laborer or serf).

Next week: Champion versus Champion! $100 cash prize for the winner of the Quarterly Finals!

We have some Wild Card spots available on the stage so please come out to challenge our past winners.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Singles Night was fun!

The atmosphere was a bit more rollicking even than usual and Grandfather said that the crowd liked the slightly charged atmosphere.

We had some fun with the contestants, but as usual, the serious spellers were out and we had a great championship showdown.

Next week: Quarterly Finals!

We'll have some room on the stage for some Wild Card contestants, so sharpen your wits and join us.

Tonight: Just plain fun!

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Check us out in the Portland Tribune!




Adult bee comes comes with victory, defeat, beer


By ERIC BARTELS


The Portland Tribune, Mar 6, 2007



Too old for the kids’ bees broadcast on ESPN, grown spellers show off their skills last week at the Mississippi Pizza Pub’s Monday bee.

Night has fallen outside the Mississippi Pizza Pub, and school is in session.


Never mind the unconventional hour for learning or the fact that it’s Monday, which isn’t exactly gold in the restaurant business. Nearly every seat in the eatery’s spacious dining room is taken.


Since early January, owner Philip Stanton and a hired gun, master of ceremonies Katherine Woods-Eliot, have been hosting a weekly spelling bee at the popular North Portland spot, and the response has been fervent.


That’s f-e-r-v-e-n-t.


“People immediately took to it,” says Stanton, who was inspired by a National Public Radio report about East Coast bar bees and was unaware of any that existed in Portland.


Woods-Eliot, a Southeast Portland mom who works for a financial research firm in Lake Oswego, says the bee “has been packed almost every time.”


In fact, Stanton says, the popularity of the event has led to a kind of spinoff. “Miss Wink’s Alternative Spelling Bee,” a variety show that also features a more “adult” version of the bee, was scheduled to debut last night.


The success that led to that expansion was in plain sight at the more traditional spelling contest last week.


As many as 50 onlookers settle in behind salads and pizza and beer, while 16 participants wedge onto a small stage in two tight rows of folding chairs. With little fanfare, Woods-Eliot introduces herself and the rough outlines of the event, and the competition is under way.


Three words into the first round, 24-year-old Brian Strub, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and clutching a pint of beer, bungles “execution.” Woods-Eliot rings the shopkeeper’s bell at her side, and Strub takes a seat.


Other contestants fall, too, taken down by quagga (extinct zebra relative), pottle (archaic drinking vessel) and milchig (Germanic word for dairy products), the last despite two tries.
One woman is challenged by the Algonquian word seapoose. Bewildered, she asks for the definition. “Oh, seapoose!” she exclaims facetiously upon learning that it is a type of boat. She gets a laugh. Then she gets it wrong.


Others, however, survive in impressive fashion, picking off nociceptor, reminiscences and vitellus. At the end of two rounds, eight competitors remain.


Everyone takes a short break while a young stand-up comic, Jesse Allison, entertains from the stage. He’s funny, in part because his material seems slightly inappropriate for the crowd. He pokes fun of green-leaning Portlanders, drawing several nonresponses. “A dry heave is as good as a laugh,” he says after one of them.


A few still v-y-i-n-g


When play resumes, two of the next three words claim a victim. “Ptolemaic” takes out another, as does “sone,” a unit of loudness. The room grows hushed with three contestants left.
Gil Carrasco, a 53-year-old law professor at Willamette University in Salem, stumbles on “phreatic.” Two words later, Portlander Jana Thomas comes up with “calash” after the word trips up her lone remaining opponent. Then she handles “desideratum” for the win.


Thomas, a receptionist at the DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital, is humble in victory as she sits with the same friends and co-workers who had insisted she come.


“I didn’t really care if I lost,” she says.


Her buddy Robin Freatman knew Thomas, 26, had the right stuff. “She’s a grammatical Nazi,” she says.


At a nearby table, Strub, the first contestant eliminated, recovers with the help of another beer.
“It was just me being an idiot,” he says. “I usually make it past the first round. It was kind of a brain fart. But I got a T-shirt, so it’s OK.”


A bit of n-o-s-t-a-l-g-i-a


Many in attendance agree that the bee is the more cerebral version of other childhood contests like kickball and dodge ball that have reclaimed a place in the now grown-up lives of Gen X and Y types, as well as some baby boomers.


“A lot of people have the concept of a spelling bee in their background,” says Stanton, the pub’s owner. “It’s amazing how many people have been in them. It’s a really neat way to show off.”
“You want to have a measurable way to compete,” says Bill Long, a colleague and friend of Carrasco, the law professor. Jones, who was taken down this night by “funipendulous,” says he attended a bee at a Seattle bar that drew 165 people.


Carrasco is excited to have discovered the Mississippi Pizza event, along with another that takes place twice a month at the Night Light Lounge on Southeast Clinton Street.


“It’s pretty cool,” he says. “I hadn’t competed in one of these since the third grade.”


Woods-Eliot, who is preparing for an upcoming Singles Night as well as a quarterly championship in April, admits there has been a learning curve for her as both the emcee and the sole administrator for the contests.


“We did get some complaints that there were words that were too easy,” she says. “We agreed that it makes sense to have it be more consistent. It’s got to be a challenge. We have a lot of people that have competed in spelling bees – they want it to be hard-core.”


Carrasco could attest to the quality of the competition.


“There’s some really good spellers out here,” he says. “It’s impressive.”


Portland Spelling Bee
When: 7 p.m. Mondays (participants sign up by 6:45 p.m.)
Where: Mississippi Pizza Pub, 3552 N. Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3231
Cost:$2 for participants and others; pub is all ages until 9 p.m., but spellers must be 21 and over