December 2nd Finals: Here are the Finalists!

In no particular order, here are the finalists in the 2013 Williamsburg Spelling Bee Finals taking place on Monday, December 2nd!

Be there and be square.

Samantha Mandel
Masha Westerlund
Phoebe Gaston
Wilson Southerland
Arvind Raman
Noam Schuldenrein
Jessica Greif
Mike Petrina
Raymond Givens 
David Henry Haan
Marcus Bones
Maddy DeLeon

Carolyn D'Aquila

Robert Moy

Tamara Glenny

Guy Smoot
Bobby Zacharias

Thea Enos
Alexis Walker
Devorah Wolf 

Warren Habib

Jason (TheOneWhoIsAChild)
Keith (WeMissedYourLastName)

Daniel Cohen

David Zheng

Judy Kameny
Kate Cemay

Congratulations to our November winners!

1st place: Samantha Mandel
2nd place: Masha Westerlund
3rd place: Phoebe Gaston

This month it was clearly ... Ladies Night.



All three winners qualify for the finals, which are next month!

Pics here.

October 7 Winners

1st place: Wilson Southerland
2nd place: Arvind Raman
3rd place: Noam Schuldenrein

Only one regular-season bee left before the FINALS!

Congratulations to September winner Jessica Greif

1st place: Jessica Greif
2nd place: Mike Petrina
3rd place tie: Raymond Givens and David Henry Haan

 





Super-cool fun fact: Jessica is a teacher who just enrolled her school in the Scripps-Howard Bee. Bees all around!

A big thanks to Gotham Girls Roller Derby for donating this month's first-place prize!

Only two more regular-season bees remain before the annual Finals!

August 5th Winner

Winner Carolyn D'Aquila!

Congrats also to Marcus Bones and Maddy DeLeon.

July 1 Winners

Congratulations to 1st place Robert Moy, and 2nd place (tie) Bobby Zacharias and Tamara Glenny. More pics here.

Congratulations to June 3rd Winners

1st: Guy Smoot
2nd: Maddy DeLeon
3rd: Bobby Zacharias

All three winners qualify for the December finals!


Guy Smoot

More photos here.

From past Williamsburg Spelling Bee annual Finals winner Robert Moy, also a teacher:

Hi Jennifer and bobbyblue.  Just wanted to let you know that I was fortunate enough to attend this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee.  I was coach to one of the NYC champions.  Her name is Sai (a great kid) and though she worked really hard to get to the nationals she didn't advance to the semifinals.  Still my school and I are so proud of her.  As you know, the other NYC representative, Arvind, won.  Woo hoo!  It was an exciting week for me and I really hope I can go back.

While my partner Michael and I were sitting in the audience, another former Williamsburg spelling bee contestant sat near us and said hello to me.  Her name is Amanda and she said she finished third in one of your spelling bees that I was in.

All the best,

Robert Moy

May 6 Winners: We Believe in Glasses

1st Place: Thea Enos
2nd Place: Alexis Walker
Tied for 3rd Place: Devorah Wolf and Warren Habib


Bobby and Jen with Thea and Devorah


Alexis


Warren

More pictures!

All four winners are qualified for the December finals. See you next month!

April 1st Winners

1st: Judy
2nd: Jason
3rd: Keith

 
  More pics

March 4 Winners

1st: Marcus Bones


2nd: Daniel Cohen


3rd: David Zheng

The Williamsburg Spelling Bee Rules

1. Signup starts at 7pm and we take the first 15 people.
2. Open to everyone who’s legally allowed to be in a bar.
3. Three-strikes-you’re-out — you get two “freebies”!
4. 1 DRINK MINIMUM. Buying alcohol is what keeps the bee going, so please do!
5. Everyone is welcome to participate in every spelling bee up to the Finals, when the winners of the season’s previous bees will square off for the championship!
6. You don’t actually have to say the word before and after spelling it, but it’s a nice idea.  If you start spelling a word and you lose your place, you can start over without changing anything, but once a letter comes out of your mouth, it’s set in stone.
7. If you’re Canadian (or even if you aren’t), you can say “zed” for “z” and “double-l” instead of “l, l”; however, all spellings must be American-style.
8. You can’t bring pen and paper up to the mic, but you can pretend to write on your hand if you want.

Congratulations to our Feb. 4 Winners!

1st place: Judy Kameny
2nd place: Kate Cemay
3rd place: Daniel Cohen

All three winners qualify for the December 2 Finals.

Come on out to the next bee on March 4th.

NOTE: Due to time constraints, we can only take the first 15 contestants to sign up (before, it was 18). So arrive early to make sure you get a spot! Signup begins at 7pm.

Grammar Slap #7: Pirate Booty and Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers from Jennifer Dziura on Vimeo.

Grammar Slap #6: Schaffer the Darklord has incredibly good grammar (but he "could care less") from Jennifer Dziura on Vimeo.

Grammar Slap #5: Anyways! Supposably! For all intensive purposes! The slapping intensifies. from Jennifer Dziura on Vimeo.

My new project: slapping the bad grammar out of people. More on GrammarSlap.com.

Congratulations to 2013 Champion Marcus Bones!

Marcus Bones (center) is our 2013 champion!