Thu, May 29, 2008 - 1:41 PM

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 2:49 PM

Now that we’re in the quarterfinals, here’s how it works.

The words have gotten harder. And if speller botches it, a bell rings and they head off the stage. That’s it. If they spell the word wrong now, the speller is out.

If you want to watch online, click here.

The quarterfinals are scheduled to be finished at 5:30 p.m. Spellers who make it through go on to the semifinals tomorrow morning, which are televised on ESPN.

-- Amy Dominello

2:33 p.m.

13 Canadians made the quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon, marking the highest representation ever from our northern neighbor. Nine of the spellers advanced to round four as well.

On a side note, favorite Tia Thomas spelled her round three word, emollience, correctly. Look for continued updates on her progress.

-Josh Dawsey

2:23 p.m.
Can you spell as well as the quarterfinalists?

Try your luck at spelling words faced by the national spellers earlier in the day

http://public.spellingbee.com/public/test/publicsample/

-Josh Dawsey

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 2:20 PM

This is a little late, but wanted to share some of the words that spellers we’re watching from Virginia got, along with a few photos.

- Mariel Andersen, of Charlottesville, surprised herself by spelling “agrostologist” correctly.



- Samantha Mihalik, of Monroe, spelled “neophiliac” correctly as well.



- Martha Jessee, of Lebanon, was given “provender” and nailed that. (Sorry, no picture.)

- Torey Jackson, of Dillwyn, got “tassel” and easily spelled that.



- Sachith Gullapalli, of Roanoke, hit “raiment” out of the park.



- And, of course, we already mentioned Dumfries’ Marie Mach asking the pronouncer if he could sing her word.

The Virginians did well, with both Torey and Sachith going on to the quarterfinals.

-- Amy Dominello

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 1:51 PM

Sorry for the short break in blogging, but it got a little crazy around here.

The 288 spellers have been narrowed down to 90 quarterfinalists.

Here are six that we’re following for Media General’s newspapers and television stations:

- Mayee Zhu of Winterville, N.C. Mayee is a 12-year-old seventh grader at Hope Middle School and this is her second time at the bee.

- Baron Fenwick of Boone, N.C. Baron is a 14-year-old eighth grader at Green Valley School.

- Jackson Crist of North Charleston, S.C. Jackson, 13, is a home-schooled eighth grader and a member of the Lowcountry Christian Home Educators Association.

- Keiko Bridwell of Woodruff, S.C., is a 13-year-old seventh grader at Florence Chapel Middle School.

- Torey Jackson of Dillwyn, Va., is a 14-year-old eighth grader at Fuqua School.

- Sachith Gullapalli of Roanoke, Va., is an 11-year-old seventh grader at Hidden Valley Middle School. This is his third appearance at the bee.

Stay tuned. The quarterfinals are about to begin.

-- Amy Dominello

Does pronouncer Jacques Bailly sing words to contestants?

Apparently not.

But Marie Mach tried to get him to.

Her word: espousal.

After asking him to repeat it, she asked, “Can you use it in a song?”

The crowd laughed, but Bailly declined to sing.

But maybe he should have sung it to her. Marie spelled it "espowsel."



-- Amy Dominello

12:55 p.m.

The number of misspellings in round two more than tripled from 2007 to 2008.

While only 27 spellers missed in 2007's round two, 94 were eliminated this year.

The difficulty of words increased significantly from last year. Words such as jealous, weird, and Wednesday made the list last year compared to this year's batch of stagnicolous, raiment, osoberry, oniomania, and palmyra.

The increased difficulty should lower the "threshold of 80" cut to 20 or 21, at the most.

The names of spellers making round three will be updated shortly. We'll keep you posted.

-Josh Dawsey

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 12:44 PM

Here are the words that the spellers we’re watching from Ohio, Rhode Island and South Carolina got stuck with. They all sailed right through.

Nicholas Rushlow, of Pickerington, Ohio, was given “laminate.”



Shantanu Srivasta, of Lancaster, Ohio, got “rosella.” (Sorry, no picture.)

Ashley Peltier, of West Greenwich, R.I., was given “thimblerig.” (Sorry, no picture.)

Ross Gibson, of Sunset, S.C., was asked to spell “cardiopathy.”



Jackson Crist, of North Charleston, S.C., sighed when he heard his word, but made it through “obnubilate.’



Crystal Gibbons, of Manning, S.C., flew through “archangel.”



Caleb Cohen, of Andrews, S.C., made it through “crucially” quickly. (Sorry, no picture.)

And Keiko Bridwell, of Woodruff, S.C., spelled “exorbitant” correctly.



-- Amy Dominello

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 11:47 AM

A slew of kids from North Carolina just hit the stage. Some interesting things to note with this crew.

Matthew Marley of Elon, in his second bee appearance, got a tough word – slumgullion. (That’s a meat stew, by the way.)

The eighth grader pondered it for a while, but just barely missed by spelling it “slomgullion.”



Erin Parker of Dunn was given the perceptible. The eighth grader got it, but the judges delayed a bit in saying she had it correct. I’m not sure why, but the look of suspense on her face was priceless.




Destiny Franklin of Spring Lake must have thought her word – mahogany – was pretty easy. The eighth grader was back in her seat before I even had time to take a picture.

Kate Dubis of Hillsborough also sailed through her word – varicose.



Mayee Zhu of Winterville took her time with “neoprene,” asking for the etymology and the pronunciation. But the seventh grader who’s here for her second time got it.



Katharine Bailey of Wilson got a toughie – kibbutz. She spelled the word incorrectly - “kebutse.” You could tell from the look on her face that she was guessing a bit.



And Baron Fenwick of Boone also took his time with his word – intercessory. He asked for the origin and for the word in a sentence.

He even outlined it on the back of the placard that each speller wears around their neck.

But he got it, slowly spelling it.



Remember, if a speller gets a word wrong this round it does not mean they are automatically disqualified.

-- Amy Dominello

11:40 a.m.

Too bad for Nick Lade.

The speller from the The Medina Gazette in Ohio was asked to spell ordnance in round two. Apparently, he misheard the pronouncer and incorrectly spelled the word as ordinance.

The bee frequently uses homonyms and near homonyms, and it's the speller's responsibility to decide which word he/she is being asked to spell by asking distinguishing questions.

Too bad that Lade didn't.

-Josh Dawsey

11:00 a.m.

Christian Thompson, you are not alone.

The New Jersey speller was recently asked to spell obstetrician in round two of the national bee. Once he misspoke and said "i" instead of "e", he quit spelling his the word and left the stage. He knew he couldn't retract his spelling.

This isn't the first time this happened. In 2005, national media swarmed George Hornedo. He was supposed to be a contender for the championship, and he was playing a role in "Akeelah and the Bee," a fictionalized account of the national event.

In round three, Hornedo was asked to spell proprietorial. Once he said "pri" and realized he was subsequently eliminated, he ran off the stage. Not only was he eliminated, he was lampooned by national media and featured on "Sportscenter's Not Top 10 Plays."

Christian, hold your head high. George turned out just fine. He is currently a junior at a private school in Indianapolis where he has starred in debate and baseball. He will graduate near the top of his class, and he's very content with his life outside the bee.

-Josh Dawsey

10:55

Certain states have better spellers than others.

In the past few years, New Jersey has been one of the dominating forces on the spelling bee scene. Prim Trivedi was the national runner-up in 1997, Jesse Zymet finished in the top 10 in 2003, Arjun Modi went into the eighth round in 2005, and Kerry Close won the bee in 2006.

In the past three years, two champions have came from California. Anurag Kashyap won the bee in 2005, and Evan O'Dorney was last year's champion. The state always has multiple spellers that go far in the contest.

My home state, South Carolina, doesn't do so well. We haven't had a top-10 finisher in decades. Weird, huh?

-Josh Dawsey

10:45

Round two isn't letting up.

In the past hour, spellers have received: tinnient, emery, sidereal, roux, cotyledon, and philistine.

Surprisingly, most of the spellers are stepping up to the plate and spelling their words correctly, which could be a sign of a very strong field this year. Only time will tell.

-Josh Dawsey

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 10:41 AM

Shakeika Everett of Waynesboro, Miss., just stepped up to the stage.



The eighth-grader missed on “indolent.”

She spelled it “indulent.”

-- Amy Dominello

Thu, May 29, 2008 - 10:13 AM

I’m developing a slight obsession with the pronouncer, Dr. Jacques A. Bailly.

His voice is reminiscent of James Lipton, the host of TV’s “Inside the Actors Studio.”

His sense of humor – when it calls for it – appears to be just as dry.

I also need to find out how one becomes a pronouncer. I’ll get back to you on that one.

-- Amy Dominello