Liveblog 3, Round 1

I am taking the opportunity to start before the spelling starts, since despite my best attempts to type speedily, I thought it best to get a head start. Bobby has just reminded us that there are W'burg Spelling Bee t-shirts available for $10, a wise investment if I ever saw one. After polling the crowd, Jen has determined that there's a significant percentage of first-time spellers. Perhaps from her bathroom wall marketing blitz. Reminder of format: First round you spell one word and answer an icebreaker question, second round you spell two words, third round varies based on the number of remaining spellers, sometimes three words, sometimes as many as you can spell until you reach your third strike. First prize: $25 bar tab, second prize: $15 bar tab, third prize: fancy Pete's grilled sandwich.

First contestant, the lovely and charming Candy. If she could make a legal thing illegal thing and vice versa.....college sketch comedy would become illegal, and flashing at Mardi Gras would become legal. What a woman of the people! Tonight's first round words are coming from the list of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. She's got "commemorate," and has earned her first strike. Joe is 2nd speller, and he just told Bobby that his tattoo says: "cry for the moon." At least, I think that's what he said. I can't read the tat from here. His word: "handkerchief." Correct! 3rd speller: Kristen. Or maybe Kristin. Or Christin. Or Ckristynn. Who knows? She's wearing a lovely necklace of what seem to be interestingly shaped semiprecious stones...but who knows, plastic? She has earned a strike with "defendant." 4th speller: Josh. What would he do in outerspace that has not yet been done in outerspace. His response; "has anyone ever died in outerspace?" He thinks he'd died of old age there. Renowned is his word....he's spelling....Lucky number 5, superspeller Jonathan Lill. What flavor of licorice should exist, but doesn't. He responds that, rather, licorice flavor itself shouldn't exist. What's with the black licorice haters? I am so alone in loving it -- and I loved it before worked in all those movie theaters, for the record. "Ukulele" went down nice and easy for Jonathan Lill, as expected. Speller 6, Sandra, didn't do as well with "desiccate." Oh my! We have 4 new spellers to add to the roster. Tina, #7, if she could take the place of any '80's hair metal band, she would be. . .Someone has asserted that Def Leppard came from Sheffield, England, but I can't fact check that right now. "Camouflage" is what Tina is up against, and she vanquished it effortlessly. Isabel (Isabelle?) #7, if she had to make a sandwich with metals and plastic. . .would like to be able to add salt. "Broccoli" went down without a fight. Alyssa (I'm totally guessing on name spellings here, as you can imagine) is #9, and now she has to spell "embarrassment," which proved a mite too tricky. Number 11 (yeah, there IS no number 10) is wearing a real cute stripey skirt that Bobby has complimented. Her favorite Latin root: "ex." Carburator defied her grasp, and I suspect, my own. Number 12 thinks the worst name you could give to an infant would be Jezebel. Bobby objects. Daiquiri proved too much, and earned him his first strike. Rebecca is #13, Jen has pointed out that since there is no number 10, all the bad luck of 13 is removed. "Horrific," was handled able by Rebecca. Dude, that is so not Active Voice. That was definitely not Subject, Verb, Object. Number 14 has an excellent argyle shirt. "Labeled" was too tricky. I have spelled "irascible" (thanks Uncle Davbid!). Number 16 has real cute sneakers. "Lieutenant" seems to have been not too challenging for him. I hope that I find out his name next round, I will report it. Dilip, if he had to be a state capital, would be Olympia, WA, and he has spelled "pronunciation" correctly. Number 18 is Christine or Christina. She's facing down "publicly," and knocked it OUT. Number 19, if she could be any character from a now defunct cartoon, she would be Jem of Jem and the Holograms. She earned a strike with "privilege." Number 20, if she had to be a character in any book she read in junior high, would be Bilbo Bagggins. "Relevant" turned out to be a bit much. Number 21 if she had a pair of glasses that had a special feature other than X-Ray vision, they would enable her to read minds, but "supersede" was a setback. Number 22 has spelled "preferable." Oh boy! End of Round One!!