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Wednesday, June 1, 2005
James and Joe Go to Washington
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After two years of traveling to Washington to chronicle Georgia’s spellers in the National Spelling Bee, I had to take this year off. It’s killing me. Competition is underway, and I want to be there. At least I can follow the bee action online.
Here’s what’s happened so far:
Joe Shepherd, a 13-year-old homeschooled boy from Waynesboro, is making his fourth trip to nationals. Unlike most bee kids who make it to nationals year after year, Joe is not an obsessed speller. He’s just a darn good one. He has gotten further in the competition every year. He got his first word correct this morning: vermiculated.
James Clark, winner of Georgia’s state spelling bee, is a 14-year-old from Brantley County. He was impressive at the state bee, outlasting a superior home-schooled speller from Henry County in one of the longest bees in Georgia history. But he’s a newbie in his last year of eligibility. Will he be able to handle the pressure? He got his first word correct: dolichopodous.
UPDATE: The first oral round is over, and now spellers must wait to find out if they will move on in the competition. Success depends on their performance on this morning’s written test. Here are the words. How would you have done? (In past years, spellers could miss 12 words and still advance…)
- souvenir, 2. occurrence, 3. remediless, 4. censor, 5. chiropractor, 6. mimicry, 7. rebuttal, 8. heifer, 9. tenet, 10. qwerty, 11. amulet, 12. rappelled, 13. synodal, 14. lido, 15. sylph, 16. pyrophyte, 17. syncope, 18. thelytokous, 19. Rorschach, 20. chaetophorous, 21. scilicet, 22. Kneippism, 23. glacis, 24. recamier, 25. scherenschnitte
UPDATE: James and Joe both made it through to Round 3. From here on out, the spelling words are not limited to any word list. Any word in the dictionary, including an addendum with pop culture words, is fair game. A poor kid last year got dinged out on Shazaam. Like today’s 13-year-olds watch Gomer Pyle!
The next big goal the kids are hoping for is a chance to be on ESPN when the sports network starts broadcasting live at 10 a.m. Thursday.
UPDATE: Some easy words get dealt at the National Spelling Bee, and in Round 3 Joe and James each caught one. Joe spelled prodigal, and James spelled astigmatism. The unfortunate child who went before them got dinged out on deliquesce.
There will be one more round today.
UPDATE: James and Joe live to spell another day. James got vitrescible, and Joe had no trouble with saponaceous.
The competition started with 273 spellers and now there are only 50. Tomorrow, James and Joe will be on stage under the bright lights of ESPN.
Stay tuned for updates throughout the day. Or follow the competition here.
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