Of or Pertaining to Bees

On Monday night, C participated in the town spelling bee.

Our town spelling bee is a fundraiser for the local education foundation and its format is different from the format used by the Scripps-Howard bee and qualifying events.

In this bee, participants compete as part a of a three-person team. Teams are grouped into “hives” for preliminary rounds, and the winning team from each hive goes on to the final round. The youngest participants are 5th graders. The oldest refused to give their ages (they formed a team at the local senior center). When a word is given, teams agree on the spelling and write it on a dry erase board which is then reviewed by the judges. Teams can purchase a “mulligan” and thus get a second chance if they misspell a word in the initial rounds.

This year there were three youth hives and three adult hives. One of the youth hives was all 5th grade teams. Eight of them. They were the first to go up on the stage to complete.

C was nervous, as were his teammates, M and K. But C and the other boys had studied hard and I was confident in their abilities (and proud regardless). C had spent the afternoon practicing words like “juggernaut,” “chimichanga,” “bequeath,” and “salmonella.”

The first word was “reckless.” C and his team were right on, but four of the eight teams misspelled it (“wreckless”) and mulligans were used. Several words later, with six teams left, the word “paprika” came up, and three of the teams misspelled it, including C’s. They used their mulligan and there were three teams left. Soon it was down to two teams, all mulligans used. The word was “croquet.”

C’s team spelled “crochet”, the other team spelled it correctly, and the round was over. I guess they should have spent a little more time studying the “easy” words.

(Later several other people pointed out to the boys that the winning team had managed to sneak in the use of two mulligans, and they tried to challenge the results when told it was the time to challenge – but were rebuffed by the judges. I missed this error because I was distracted by a certain little sister.)

Oh well. The boys still had a chance for a little recognition as there was an award for most creative team name.

The boys chose the name “The Apian Way.” They made up tshirts with a drawing on it that made a play of "Apian Way" versus "Appian Way."

So, do you get it? If you don’t, go look it up. Then come back. I’ll be right here waiting. Here, I’ll help you:

Apian

Appian Way

Okay, so do you get it now? Pretty clever, huh?

Nobody got it. Nobody.

I should have been clued in when the master of ceremonies kept calling them “Appian Way,” (short “a” sound) not “Apian Way” (long “a” sound).

The winning team name? “Let’s Bee Friends.”

That retching you hear is me.