The 80th annualScripps National Spelling Beeis underway on ESPN and , later , ABC . If the highlights cheer feelings of nostalgia and competitiveness , you may go import your ass off at an adult spelling bee .
Last summer , we talk over the bee atPete ’s Candy Storein Brooklyn , where people go to get drunk and polish off demons from bees past . I only have one spelling bee level , so I ’m start to distinguish it again .
Champagne .
That ’s the countersign that spelled my downfall in the 1989 Lakeview Elementary Spelling Bee . Some say my ignorance of alcohol-dependent beverages should have been celebrated , not punish . OK , nobody says that . I take up by now , fourth graders are spell out words like Chlamydia and mà © nage à trois .
I ’ve sat stationery these last 17 days , knowing there are four better good speller than me . In Denville , New Jersey . Born around 1979 . Who wait on public school . And were n’t sick during the prelude . I can accept that . But if I were compel to rationalise my intelligence , I could always turn to the prospering adult spelling circuit .
Perhaps the most famous competition is Brooklyn ’s Williamsburg Spelling Bee , held every other Monday atPete ’s Candy Store . So famous , in fact , they even have ablog . Hosts Jennifer Dziura and Bobby Blue are a little more soft than our grade school day Language Arts teacher . Three strikes before you ’re out . And while I ’m not sure alcohol meliorate spelling prowess , the fluid courageousness increases turnout . ( If you ’re a TimesSelect member , you may read theirThursday Styles profilefrom last twelvemonth . )
In addition to providing grown - ups an opportunity for redemption , grownup bees have also been successful fundraisers . In Maplewood , NJ,$17,000 was raisedto fund a tutoring program that had been cut by the school district . Want to hold your own ? Scripps Howard has posted"official" adult spelling bee rule .
