Library Trust-Bees Win Scarsdale Library Spelling Bee

With 20 teams in four swarms competing, the auditorium was abuzz with speculation about who would win the Friends of the Scarsdale Library Spelling Bee this year .... would returning champions "Hip to be Square" (Lucas Meyer and Esther Sloan – with Ben Zipursky) be able to match their performance from last year? Or would they be beat out by "Spellyoulaters," a team of high schoolers (Maleeha Chida, Viveka Kymal, Malika Lawrence) who had placed third in 2012? Prospects also looked good for the "Trigens," three generations of the Guggenheimer family who finished in the final four in 2011 and 2012 as well as Heather and Stephan Meilli, joined this year by Katharine Miao to form "The Presbeeterians."

And if those teams weren't formidable enough, "The Bee Informeds," Debra Banerjee, Linda Leavitt and Todd Sliss from the Scarsdale Inquirer, the "Humblebees", with Marcus Moretti, David Scinto and Jon Ungar and "Bee-Witched, Bothered & Bee-Wildered" (Former School Board Presidents Terri Simon and Florie Wachtenheim with Jonathan Flaxer) would be enough to scare any bee away from the hive.

The contestants, an audience of more than 300 word fiends plus The Friends of the Library and Library Board Members, all pulled out their pens to spell along as the contest began. The Bee was judged by State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Scarsdale Mayor Miriam Flisser and Rachel Josselsohn from the Library Teen Advisory Board.

Returning emcee Ed Coleman, aka the voice of the Mets, kept the night lively -- sometimes helping contenders with his pronunciation of difficult words – but other times leading them astray – especially with a few of the words with French origins such as ENSEINTE, PEIGNOIR and EPERGNE. After months of anticipation, a few of the leading contenders were out in a flash while some new stars flew into view.

In the first round, four skilled teams battled to the finish, until Coleman was forced to move to the list of most difficult words and broke the tie with the word BALMACAAN– an overcoat with raglan sleeves. I had never heard that word before, and certainly don't own a balmacaan, and the word proved to be a deal breaker in round one. The only team who got it right was the Library Trust-Bees – a group from the Board of Trustees of the Scarsdale Library including Warren Breakstone, Barbara Josselsohn and Seth Ross. The Trust-Bees triumphed in the first swarm and continued to wow the audience with their expertise all night long.

The second swarm was also lengthy and the teams breezed through challenging words like ANTEDILUVEAN, LEPRECHAUN and VINAIGRETTE. No one was able to spell WEDEL (short swing turns made by skiers) and the Bee Informeds finally emerged as the victors when they were the only team to spell KALANCHOE (a succulent flowering plant).

In swarm three, a team of physicians showed their stuff, after two teams misspelled LABYRINTH – and another team tripped up on OBSEQUIOUS. The remaining two teams got past BACCHANAL, both misspelled QUOKKA (a small marsupial from Australia!) with ENCEINTE breaking the tie.

The next and final swarm consisted of four teams of students – the first falling on HALLELUJAH, with the four remaining teams stumped by ENNOBLE and the round ending with QUERELOUS. The Spellulators were on for the finals again!

Though in the initial rounds the teams wrote their answers on erasable boards, in the final round, one representative from each team had to stand before the audience and spell the word aloud. This increased the pressure, and also the possibility for error.

Back for the final round after intermission and refreshments were The Library Trust-Bees (Breakstone, Josselsohn and Ross), The Bee-Informeds (Banerjee, Leavitt and Sliss from the Inquirer), the Bee MDS (Jim and Seth Pullman and Mark Dursztman) and the Spellyoulaters (Maleeha Chida, Viveka Kymal and Malika Lawrence).

The students were out after they added an extra S to STREUSEL, and the Bee Informeds quickly followed, misspelling PERENNIAL (Perinnial). That left Seth Ross and Jim Pullman to vie for the title at the mike. A confident speller, Ross spelled SABOTUER, followed by Pullman with CAMPHOR and Ross with PECCADILLO. Then the docs got lucky when they were given the word DIPHTHERIA and Ross continued with MERINGUE. But in the end, it was a drink that tripped up the medical squad. Pullman included a C in the spelling of DAIQUIRI and first place was won by the library trustees – a nice reward for the work they do to support the library.

This year, proceeds from the event will go toward the creation of a business center at the library, including office equipment. Also in the works is a redesign of the interior of the library. It looked like the proceeds from the 2013 Spelling Bee will go a long way toward helping the library accomplish their plans. Congratulations to all the contestants and to the Friends of the Scarsdale Library for a job well done.
Photo Credit: Eric Levine