Spelling Bee Finals Photos, December 7, 2009

Congratulations to Wilson Southerland and all our finalists. Photos by Eric Walton.




















All (well, most) of the Finalists!


The top three!


Winner Wilson Southerland!

Congratulations to Season Ten Winner Wilson Southerland

Congratulations to Season Ten Winner Wilson Southerland, who spelled twelve words correctly at Monday's Season 10 Finals! Ben O'Donnell took second place and Lilli Heard took third in a very difficult finals! Professional-quality photographs were taken and will be posted soon.

Congratulations as well to all our Finalists (each of whom placed in the top three during a regular-season bee):

Trent Williams
Jenny Brown
Jonathan Lill
Lilli Heard
Wilson Southerland
Carolyn D'Aquila
David Zheng
Octavia Silva
Ben O'Donnell

A few words spelled by our competitors include imprimis, overslaugh, gramineous, avenaceous, moue, materfamilias, coetaneous, dermatoglyphics, quodlibet, moirologist, and schwerpunkt.

Williamsburg Spelling Bee Theme Song

Hear spelling bee co-hosts bobby and Jen sing the original Williamsburg Spelling Bee theme song:

November 23rd Winners ... and on to the Finals!

Congratulations to Carolyn D'Aquila, Lily Heard, and Trent Williams, who all tied for first place with eight words correct, and who all qualified for the December 7th Finals.

Join us on December 7th at 7:30 to watch the victors from the last six months square off to determine who will be crowned season champion!

November 9th Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Jenny Brown
2nd place: Jonathan Lill
3rd place: Octavia Silva

All three qualify for the December 7th season finals!

Only one chance left to qualify for the finals -- come on out and spell on November 23rd!


From left: Winner Jenny Brown, 3rd place Octavia Silva, 2nd place Jonathan Lill, founder bobby and co-host Jen.

October 12th Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Wilson Southerland
2nd place: David Zheng
Tied for 3rd place: Trent Williams and Barry Heard

All qualify for the December 7th season finals!

Bee Photos by Deneka Peniston

Here's the complete gallery.

September 28th Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Dominique Vance
2nd place: Trent Williams
3rd place: David Zheng

All qualify for the December 7th season finals!

September 14th Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Wilson Southerland
2nd place: Jenny Brown
3rd place: Jonathan Landsman

All qualify for the December 7th season finals!

Oleomargarine and Piccalilli

I have recently come into possession of this vintage spelling book:

I especially enjoyed the introduction; poor spelling is like dingy linen!

After you learn to spell "menu," move on to "oleomargarine"!

We have used "piccalilli" in the spelling bee before -- spellers, take note!

August 31st Winners

August 31st was an enormous bee! Welcome to all the newcomers who found out about us on Twitter.

Congratulations to:

1st place: Ben O'Donnell
2nd place: Carolyn D'Aquila
3rd place: Wilson Southerland

All qualify for the December 7th season finals!

Williamsburg Spelling Bee on NPR

Adults Put the 'Bee' in Orthography (streaming audio, 3:57) - from today's Morning Edition on NPR.

Spelling bees are not just for kids, as more and more spelling bees for adults sprout up across the country. A bar in Brooklyn, New York, has been hosting one for about five years. That bee attracts people just looking for fun and those who really know their stuff.

Thanks to reporter Ben Calhoun! Shout-out to Carolyn D'Aquila, winner of the bee attended by Mr. Calhoun.

August 17 Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Trent Williams
Tied for 2nd place: Ji Seuk, Jonathan Lill, David Zheng

All qualify for the December 7th season finals!

August 3rd Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Jonathan Lill
2nd place: David Zheng

Both qualify for the December 7th season finals!

Incidentally, normally we qualify the top three winners for the Finals, but this time around we had a four-way tie for third, so we qualified only the top two, but gave out four third-place prizes. The paninis are delicious.

Jonathan won not only the usual first place prize -- a $25 bar tab -- but also Roller Derby tickets!

Jonathan also went out for a smoke break mid-bee and came back with a tiny, chirping sparrow perched on his hand. Like Snow White. Seriously. Numerous photos were taken. Send one in to the blog if you have photographic evidence of the Spelling Sparrow Incident.

Williamsburg Spelling Bee Season 9 Final Results

Congratulations to Williamsburg Spelling Bee Season 9 Winner Carolyn D'Aquila!



Here is the complete top 5:

1. Carolyn D'Aquila
2. Dominique Vance
3. Marc Palatucci
4. Jonathan Lill
5. Lauren Gilbert



And, of course, congratulations to everyone who made it to the Finals: Jan O'Leary, Stacey Choi, Jenny Brown, Wilson Southerland, Greg Hannahs, Ben Speaker, Mary Speaker, Dawid Wiacek, Karen Hudes, Eric Malson, Gwyneth Connell, Jake Cremins, Chris Antionacci, Paulina Szyrmer, Trent Williams, Sandy Bell, James Kibler, and Tamara Glenny.



Come out August 3rd to begin Season 10! Open to all!



Click here for the complete photo set.

June 8 Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Carolyn D'Aquila

2nd place: Jonathan Lill

3rd place: Stacey Choi

May 25 Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Carolyn D'Aquila
2nd place: Jan O'Leary
3rd place: Jonathan Lill

All three qualify for the June 22nd season finals! ( June 8 is the next bee and your last chance to qualify!)

By the way, 2nd place winner Jan will be back in England for the Finals, and I have it on reasonably credible hearsay that frequent winner Wilson will be on the road. Who will be our Season 9 winner? It's not Britain's Got Talent, but I'm still in suspense.

Heidi Montag can't spell, or else thinks Mexicans keep pigs in their chimneys

From Us Weekly: "I'm ready to get out of the pig flue country."

Williamsburg Spelling Bee on the Recession Activities blog

A Puppy Dressed as a Bee

From cuteoverload.com

May 11 Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Dominique Vance
2nd place: Jenny Brown
3rd place: Wilson Southerland

All three qualify for the June 22nd season finals! Next bee is May 25!

April 27 Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Carolyn D'Aquila
2nd place: Greg Hannahs
3rd place: Ben and Mary Speaker

Ben and Mary are brother and sister. When they tied for third, we didn't even realize they had the same last name until we were mid-announcement.

All four qualify for the June 22nd season finals! Next bee is May 11!

April 13 Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Greg Hannahs
Tied for 2nd: Dawid Wiacek & Karen Hudes

All three qualify for the June 22nd season finals! Next bee is April 27!

March 31 Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Wilson Southerland
2nd place: Eric Malson
3rd place: Gwyneth Connell

All three qualify for the June 22nd season finals! Come back April 13 for more booze and wordplay.

March 16 Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Jake Cremins
2nd place: Chris Antionacci
3rd place: Wilson Southerland

All three qualify for the June 22nd season finals! Come on out to our next bee on March 30th to try your hand at orthographical competition.

March 2 Winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Wilson Southerland
2nd place: Paulina Szyrmer
Tie for 3rd: Trent Williams and Sandy Bell

All four winners qualify for the June 22nd season finals!

Come on out to our next bee on March 16th!

Feb 16th winners

Congratulations to:

1st place: Jonathan Lill
Tie for 2nd: James Kibler and Marc Palatucci

All three winners qualify for the June 22nd season finals!

Come on out to our next bee on March 2nd!

Season Nine Is Proceeding Apace

The bee began its new season on February 2nd! We cut off signups at 25 people, leaving a few souls vowing to come earlier next time.

The winners were:

1st Place - Tamara Glenny
2nd Place - Lauren Gilbert
3rd Place - Jonathan Lill

These three contestants are qualified to compete in the F-I-N-A-L-S on June 22nd. (They also received a $25 bar tab, a $15 bar tab, and a free sandwich, respectively).

The next bee is this Monday, February 16th! Signup begins at 7pm.