{"id":3186,"date":"2013-03-03T23:26:49","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T07:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/?p=3186"},"modified":"2013-03-03T23:31:27","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T07:31:27","slug":"once-more-unto-the-b-r-e-a-c-h","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/?p=3186","title":{"rendered":"Once more unto the b-r-e-a-c-h"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I got to once again match my orthographic wits against 30 other people in the Adult Spelling Bee in Long Beach, CA. Here are the first seven words I was given to spell:<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. extradite\n
  2. notch\n
  3. rescind\n
  4. meticulous\n
  5. gossamer\n
  6. tranquil\n
  7. succinct\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    At this point, we were almost 1.5 hours in. The organizers did a headcount, found that we had 16 people left, and decided that they needed to take it up a notch to whittle more down. So we jumped into a much harder word list, and people started dropping like flies.<\/p>\n

    The spellers before me were given “quiescence,” “absinthe,” “chicanery,” “babushka,” and “colcannon.” I would have been okay with any of those (I think).<\/p>\n

    I was given “locofoco.” My reaction: ?!?!?!! The audience: ?!?!?!<\/p>\n

    I asked for a definition and got: “a member of a radical group of New York Democrats organized in 1835 in opposition to the regular party organization.” You recognized that, right? <\/p>\n

    I asked for the language of origin and got “probably Latin.”<\/p>\n

    So I went ahead and guessed. And got it right (!). <\/p>\n

    The next round, I was giving “atrabilious.” The definition was something about being inclined to anger (as I recall), although now when I look it up, I get “given to or marked by melancholy.” At any rate, I spelled it as “atribilious” and with that, my 2013 bee ended. Done in by a schwa! <\/p>\n

    In the end, I tied for 6th place. My track record at this bee has been: 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place, so linear regression predicted 5th. I guess I slightly underperformed. :)<\/p>\n

    I enjoyed sitting through the rest of the competition, which got very fierce and crazy indeed near the end. Final words included (starred words are ones I would have missed):<\/p>\n

    \n
      \n
    • *chiropteran\n
    • flivver\n
    • empyrean\n
    • *misoneism\n
    • *callipygian\n
    • nescience\n
    • pinyin\n
    • pyrrhic\n
    • nonpareil\n
    • cyrillic\n
    • hafnium\n
    • *auscultation\n
    • lamia\n
    • demarche\n
    • *weisenheimer\n
    • legerdemain\n
    • *videlicet\n
    • seriatim\n
    • *imprimis\n
    • etesian\n
    • pneuma\n
    • flocculate\n
    • syncretic\n
    • interrobang\n
    • primogeniture\n
    • espiegle\n
    • mimesis\n
    • interdict\n
    • *crwth ?!?!\n
    • *gregarine\n
    • gnomic\n
    • obloquy\n
    • *argillaceous\n
    • farrago\n
    • *dengue\n
    • *moitie\n
    • *polysyndeton\n
    • *kluge\n
    • denouement\n
    • maquette\n
    • panegyric\n
    • festinate\n
    • tourbillion\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      And finally, Jim Sherry from Alabama spelled the winning word, “quincunx.” It was a great victory! And especially since he’d come from so far away, and had been saying before the Bee that Delta lost his luggage, so it had been a rough trip so far. Now he’s the champ! :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Today I got to once again match my orthographic wits against 30 other people in the Adult Spelling Bee in Long Beach, CA. Here are the first seven words I was given to spell: extradite notch rescind meticulous gossamer tranquil succinct At this point, we were almost 1.5 hours in. The organizers did a headcount, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3186"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3195,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3186\/revisions\/3195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}