Columbia Radio News clip

Our blog has audio! Audio spelling! We are so multimedia.

Hear Cameron Coleman, Josh Malamy, and bobbyblue quoted in this October 2005 clip by Peter Ritter for Columbia Radio News.

Our sponsor: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (the musical) is sponsoring the bee with prizes -- and not just for the finals! For the first time ever, we've got big prizes for the winners of regular-season bees, at least through 2005!

The first-place winners of the Nov. 14, Nov. 28, and Dec. 12 bees will each win a pair of tickets to the musical!

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Six young spellers of the Tony Award-winning musical The 25thAnnual Putnam County Spelling Bee are learning about growing up, fitting in and earning R-E-S-P-E-C-T. In this “R-I-O-T-O-U-S” show (New York Times) Marcy, Chip, Logainne, Leaf, William and Olive learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser. “A Super-Smart show that’s also a bona fide crowd-pleaser. It is perfect in every possible way.” (The Wall Street Journal)


Visit the Website

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Next seaon - mark the 2006 calendars you haven't bought yet!

Season three begins Monday, November 14!

Here is a complete list of spelling bee dates for the season: November 14, November 28, December 12, January 9, January 23, February 6, February 20, March 6, March 20, April 3, April 17, May 1 (The Finals!)

All bees take place at Pete's Candy Store, Mondays at 7:30. Contests are open to all. Arrive by 7:15 to sign up.

press

We got a mention in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Good Morning America spot should air in about three weeks.

go find yourself!

It will take a long time to organize these into a more attractive format and I think you want them now, so I'm just posting a link:

Spelling Finals Photos are Here!

Seeking Round One Guest Readers!

You guys have seen too much of me -- it's time to spread the love around! If you have been to a couple of spelling bees and feel like spending more time on stage, we'd like to have you as a guest word reader! Here's how it works. Round one, everybody answers one icebreaker question and spells one word. You need to come prepared with about 20 icebreaker questions, and 20 words with a theme (cooking words? words from French? geography words?) To get the party started, email me (jen@jenisfamous.com) with your theme idea.

Season Two Finals October 17th!

(There are MANY more pictures coming soon, but here is a small preview! All photos by Brian Van).

The finals Monday night were a blast. bobbyblue's band, ...y las flores, opened the bee with the Williamsburg Spelling Bee theme song, and even German Public Radio was there to get a piece of the action.





Our winners were...

1st place - Josh Malamy
2nd place - Liane Yee
3rd place - Megan Rudesill




Season winner Josh won tickets to Bingo: The Musical, a $100 cash prize, a Neighborhoodies package, and -- the most stylish prize of the night -- a retro phone headset that plugs into a cell phone, donated by CITE (the store for which our very own bobbyblue is the buyer!)

Next bee: Monday, November 14, 7:30, Pete's! (And then every alternate Monday thereafter!)

from our sponsor, Bingo: The Musical

BINGO is a winning new musical comedy from the Grammy–nominated songwriters of Swing and the Musical Director of Mamma Mia!. It’s an evening of great numbers and number calling, where love blossoms and long lost friends reunite. Starring Chevi Colton (Cabaret), Ann Crumb (Anna Karenina), Liz Larsen (Hairspray, Most Happy Fella), Liz McCartney (Mamma Mia!), Beth Malone ("Reno 911"), Janet Metz (Fiddler on the Roof), and Patrick Ryan Sullivan (42nd Street).

Spelling Bee fans can get tickets for $39.50 (reg $65.00) for performances through November 27th by calling 212-947-8844 and mentioning code BNPCS27. (A $1.00 facilities fee is included in the established ticket price.)

Bingo: The Musical

Season Two Finals Contestants

Here are the contestants who preregistered. Other qualifiers may show up on the night of the bee.

Name: Dilip Babu
Age: 26
Profession: researcher
How do you feel about your chances: I think I pretty much have it in the bag, provided that Josh gets a weird stomach ailment, Jonathan Lill has a freak accident with a boa constrictor, and Megan can't make it.

Name: Josh Malamy
Age: 23
Profession: Lover
How do you feel about your chances: Pretty good! Otherwise I wouldn't be flying in from my soon-to-be new home Chicago.

Name: Liane Yee
Age 31
Profession: Technical writer
How do you feel about your chances: Just hoping for a respectable finish!

Name: Greg Hannahs
Age: 30
Profession: Child Shrink
How do you feel about your chances: It's a crapshoot. Also depends on how tired I am.

Annie Bui
Age: 29
Profession: IT
How do you feel about your chances: not so good

Jonathan Lill
Age: 34
Profession: Art Librarian; man about town
How do you feel about your chances: No one can withstand the human steamroller Josh Malamy. I have no conviction my recent losing streak will be reversed (notwithstanding the possibility of an inexplicable reversal of fortune). But hope springs eternal etc., etc.

Michael Maier
Age: 34
Profession: Office Manager
How do you feel about your chances: I won't win, but I'll have fun losing. Having fun is the important part. So it's all good.

Megan Rudesill
Age: 89
Profession: glorifier of the WC
How do you feel about your chances: I might not fall off the stage.

Ryan Harrison Hunter

s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g c-h-a-m-p neighborhoodie!

Here are some of the prizes that will be awarded at the finals!

The Brooklyn Museum – Catalog & Membership
Neighborhoodies - Hoodie
ReadyMade – Free Subscription
19:23 – T-Shirt
C.I.T.E. – Hulger Phone
Lodge Restaurant - $50 Gift Certificate
Commune Hair Salon – Free Haircut ($40 G. C.)
Hearmuff – one Hearmuff (a winter hat with headphones built in!)
Brooklyn Industries – A Laptop Sleeve
Georg Jensen –Silver Elephant Paperweight
Jigsaw Gallery - $25 gift certificate (graphic novels and indie art goodies)

New York Times picture

Finally, I got my scanner working. From the print version of the NY Times article.

by G. Paul Burnett

Dear spellers, you are now officially the hippest people on earth

Yesterday morning bobbyblue and I spoke to radio station KTYD in Santa Barbara, which apparently does a lot of reporting on spelling bees. Also on the line was another special guest -- current ESPN Scripps Howard spelling bee winner Anurag Kashyap.

Hosts Matt and Julie attempted several times to get Anurag's last name right, and then they asked him to spell a word that they couldn't actually pronounce, but Anurag figured out what they meant and spelled "ichthyopathy." (Not sure about that -- it was hard to hear, but the word wasn't "ichthyology"; it was definitely an "-opathy" word).

Bobby and I discussed the bee, the kinder-and-gentler three strikes policy, and how drunk people tend to get at the bee (not much; I think most people tend to save the real drinking for after the competition).

This adult-spelling bee trend is blowing up in the media. We're a little weirded out by it. Good Morning America is producing a two-minute spot and will be taping at the finals.

If any of you have met a date at the spelling bee, or were former child spelling champs, or are avenging a child spelling bee loss, or have some other unusual spelling bee story, and would be willing to talk to the press about this, please email me at jen (insert-appropriate-preposition-here) jenisfamous.com

October 3, 2005 spelling bee recap

TimeOut filmed the spelling bee last night for their on-demand cable show. It was a lively, funny bee, won (again!) by Josh Malamy, with Lianne Yee (who, as a five-year-old, wanted to be an ergonomic enginner, but instead grew up to be a fairy princess) in second and newcomer Harrison Hunter in third.

Come out next Monday for Show and Tell, and the next Monday, October 17, for the spelling bee finals.

If you have qualified for the finals, be sure to preregister (scroll down for info)! I will post the contestants' bios here soon!