The Bee was back in Washington, D.C., last week to moderate the National Press Club's third "Politicians vs. Press" Spelling Bee. On Wednesday, October 21, seven lawmakers and eight journalists spelled for official Bee pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailly and a panel of Spellebrity judges, including executive director of the Bee and 1981 national champion Paige Kimble and the 2015 co-champions, Vanya Shivashankar and Gokul Venkatachalam.
The rules for the National Press Club spelling bee were similar to those used to run the national bee with one major difference: competitors could misspell once and stay in the competition. When a politician or member of the press first misspelled, Vanya would ring the tiny bell used at the national competition; upon misspelling a second time, the competitor was considered "out," and Gokul would ring a massive, gong-like bell.
In 1913, the National Press Club organized a spelling bee that pitted politicians against members of the press. When the organization wanted to do a centennial rematch in 2013, it reached out to the Scripps National Spelling Bee to moderate, and we happily agreed to take part! Virginia Senator Tim Kaine won the title of "The Best Speller in the United States," though the press won the team competition.
Overall, the 2015 National Press Club spelling bee was a fun and successful event! With themed rounds, such as "Words from the Declaration of Independence," "U.S. Demonyms" and "American Regional Foods," and an enthusiastic bunch of competitors, it was an entertaining evening for the more than four hundred attendees.While many of the spellers took a more light-hearted approach to the bee than we typically see at the national level, there were a few serious competitors who asked all of the right questions like the national finalists we know and love.
One question in particular kept the laughs going throughout the night — "Can you use it in a sentence?" Just as we do for the national bee, we had comedians write example sentences for many of the words, and some of them were a big hit with the mix of politicians and journalists scattered throughout the National Press Club's ballroom. Here are some of the most chuckle-worthy sentences from the night:
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
The senator demanded to know who had written “mis” in front of “appropriations” on the door to his committee meeting.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
At the next student government meeting the students will interpellate the principal and Sue the lunch lady about the sudden disappearance of Taco Tuesday.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
Jack admitted it was hypocrisy to carry around those biceps wherever he went and still be in favor of gun control.
Once again, the press won the team competition with 67 points to the politicians' 32 points, but Virginia Representative Don Beyer was a consistent competitor, correctly spelling words like demagoguery and nonagesimal before winning it all with apostasy.
Congratulations to Representative Beyer, the newest "Best Speller in the United States!" Maybe he'll drop by the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee to take on some of the top spellers in the world! We think he could hold his own.