Spelling Dates

May 14th and May 28th are the last two spelling bees (and thus the last two chances to qualify for the finals) before the finals take place on June 11th.

All spelling bees start at 7:30 on alternate Mondays; arrive 10-20 minutes early to sign up. The bee is free and open to everyone (21+).

After the June 11th finals, a new season will begin in July. Here are the dates for the rest of 2007:

July 9, 23
August 6, 20
Sept 3, 17
Oct 1, 15, 29
Nov 12, 26
Dec 10 FINALS

My Brooklyn is Better Than Yours

We're in the April 2007 issue of Budget Travel magazine, which is much sexier than it sounds.




Update: Come to the Williamsburg Spelling Bee on April 2, 16th, or 30th. Signup at 7, bee at 7:30. Free and open to all.

spell "letters of marque and reprisal" lest we put ye in the stocks!

I thought you might enjoy this snippet from a comedy interview I did in my hometown of Virginia Beach. The writer asked me about the Williamsburg Spelling Bee, and I felt the need to explain the difference between Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Williamsburg, Virginia:

Q . The Williamsburg Spelling Bee - how did you come up with that?

A . Ah, the spelling bee! Everyone loves the spelling bee! First off, I feel I should explain that "Williamsburg" is the area of Brooklyn where everyone is 25 and moved there after college to express themselves and has an expensive rock-star haircut although they are squatting in an abandoned sugar factory and believe paying rent is a form of capitalist oppression. Are we clear on that? There are no cornered hats whatsoever, or cannons or glass-blowing.

No offense intended to anyone with an awesome haircut and a marginal living situation ;)

(Incidentally, I was really confused when I was first moving to New York and found a bunch of Craigslist apartment ads for places in "Williamsburg," although, in true colonial style, many of those apartments do in fact lack modern fixtures and plumbing).

And, the update: come to the Williamsburg Spelling Bee on April 2, 16th, or 30th. Signup at 7, bee at 7:30. Free and open to all.

Review on NewYorkCool

Here is a review of our last spelling bee in NewYorkCool.com, by John Proctor.


I especially like that the hijinks of our drunkest patrons are recorded for posterity. I also enjoyed this:

Bobbyblue is a musician who, with his sweater vest, brakeman’s cap, work boots, metallic silver belt, and black Hulk Hogan moustache, looks like a combination of David from the Village People and Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick ... Throughout the contest, Bobbyblue and Jenisfamous showed both a love of words and a sweetly sardonic chemistry with each other and the audience, truly the perfect fit for a drinking spelling bee.

Aww...

UrbanDictionary

Check out the definition for "The Bee"!

p.s. - The next bee is Monday, February 5th! Signup 7pm, bee at 7:30, as always. Open to all.

TimeOut NY piece on the bee

From TimeOut cable on-demand.

January 8th Season Opener for Leukemia Research

The 2008 season opener of the Williamsburg Spelling Bee will, for the first time, be conducted as a fundraiser for leukemia research.

Leukemia fundraiser Jennifer Smalheiser, working with Pete's Candy Store and spelling bee organizers bobbyblue and Jennifer Dziura, will be collecting a minimum donation of $20 for the Leukemia Bee from all participants and spectators. For each $20 donation, one raffle ticket will be given out. All donations are 100% tax deductible and will be donated directly to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).

Many sponsors have stepped in with prizes to support the event. Winners of the spelling bee will receive Broadway tickets to LesMiserables, Phantom of the Opera and A Chorus Line. Anyone who donates -- regardless of spelling prowess -- will be eligible for raffle prizes including a membership to New York Sports Club, gift baskets and gift certificates from local stores, and a bar tab from Pete's Candy Store.

Each year, more than 110,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with some form of blood cancer. Over the years, leukemia research has proven to be a window for hope for children - raising the child survival rate for leukemia from 4% in 1960 to over 85% today.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education, and patient services. The Society's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, while improving the quality of life of patients and their families.

Announcing our winners!

Congratulations to our season winners, who took home a plethora of amazing prizes!

1st - Joseph Gallucci
2nd - Jonathan Lill
3rd - Claudia Carrera

Come back on January 8th for our season-opening bee (which will be a fundraiser for leukemia research), or January 22nd for our next regular season bee.

Contestants announced for the finals!

Here are your orthographers for the November 27th finals, in alphabetical order, of course:

TOM BENDER is producing a documentary about a Witch School in rural Illinois.

WARREN BLOOM, 33, is the music teacher at PS/MS 27 in Red Hook, went to Burning Man twice, and sings and beatboxes by night.

MARTHA BURZYNSKI is a freelance writer and was referred to as the closest thing to Holly Golightly, without the whoring, in print recently.

KIERA BUTLER works at a magazine and enjoys the family drama Seventh Heaven.

MATT CARMAN's last name is frequently misspelled.

GRANT CAPTANIAN, 30, an Armenian line-dance expert, enjoys daydreaming and public tranportation.

CLAUDIA CARRERA, 22, is an aspiring musicologist who lives in Williamsburg and works for an East Harlem non-profit.

JOSEPH GALLUCCI is 22, works at his school's library, and is fond of disco, brightly-colored socks and movie musicals.

ACACIA GRADDY-GAMEL, 25, works as an editorial associate at a non-profit when she's not busy freelancing in film post-production.

CARA KINSEY, 26, is an otaku by mid-morning and a mild mannered librarian by tea time, with hopes of becoming a trophy wife by night.

JONATHAN LILL is an archivist in an art museum and just slightly less obsessive about spelling than he is about crosswords.

BRAD RAPPAPORT, 30, currently living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and raised in Long Island, New York, worked until recently as an evaluator of foreign academic credentials, and retains an interest in Frankfurt school critical theory that he developed in college and graduate school.

DIVIYA SHARMA, 29, is an eSwaps mistress and freelance pirate.

CLAUDIA WEINSTOCK just graduated from college and spends her days trying to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life.

VICKY WONG is a fine-art shipper by trade and a glutton-extraordinaire by nature.

How exactly does one spell "It's already been broughten?"

Finally...

We're bringing spelling back.

The Williamsburg Spelling Bee Finals will be held on:

Monday, November 27
Pete's Candy Store
709 Lorimer (Frost/Richardson)
Williamsburg
FREE
7 pm sign-up, 7:30 pm start

bobbyblue will perform the Williamsburg Spelling Bee theme song, co-written by Jen and bobby.

Top three winners from the past season's twice-monthly bees are eligible to compete. In between the rounds, short audience-participation contests (such as spelling backwards, speed-spelling, etc.) will be open to anyone.


We're bringing spelling back.
The bee will kill you for the words you lack.
Most other people just don't have the knack.
But here in Brooklyn we pick up the slack.

p-r-e-s-s

The spelling bee is on the Mental Floss blog!

The bee is also on MySpace. Feel free to befriend us/it.

The Williamsburg Spelling Bee

Time Out photos

Here are more photos of the bee, taken by Shannon Taggart for Time Out New York (the one that made it into the article is in the post below).