About the words:

The words are at the printer's. Here are some highlights of the list, and a summary of how we put the word list together:

It is an ongoing and humbling challenge to compile a list of words that will prove entertaining, thought-provoking and pleasantly difficult for the variety of teams participating in the Bee, and stimulating and accessible for the Bee’s wider audience. People enter the Bee for diverse reasons: some are drawn to the challenge of the word list, some—like elected officials, and members of our town boards--play to support the Library, some—like neighborhood teams or school-related teams--play to highlight their team’s connection to the Dover community and its Library. All of these reasons are terrific, but they do suggest different approaches to the words we choose for the competition. We have to accommodate the diversity of our players in a way that respects their reasons for playing. In an attempt to achieve this goal, we do the following:

1) We give players the words in advance
2) We break the words down into categories, so that spellers can prepare using the strengths of their individual members
3) We allow Mulligans—everybody needs the occasional Mulligan!

When we first began the Bee, it was possible to buy prepared word lists from the Scripps Company—they are the folks who sponsor the National Spelling Bee. Over the years, Scripps has changed its focus to partner with local sponsors, and no longer sells copies of their Paideia (or word list): their approach is no longer a “fit” with our fundraiser. For the past 3 years, we have prepared our own list. We cull the words from a variety of sources, including prior years’ lists, word websites and e-mail lists, and the occasional suggestion from those around us (my kids especially have been sources of inspiration).

In organizing the words into categories this year, the phrase “Back to Basics” has been foremost in my mind. We’re at a point in our collective economic life where most of us are being forced to reconsider our priorities, and focus on what is really important to us. I found myself reaching back into the worlds of tradition, myth and legend for the categories of “Noah’s Ark” (words about animals, travel, weather and geography), “Pandora’s Box” (illnesses and misery, physical and social; with a sprinkling of hope and beauty), and “Babble-On” (words about language, words about building, words concerning the cultural and spiritual worlds). The stories that these categories refer to are part of the fabric of our common culture, and their stories, after millennia, remain relevant and compelling. Similarly, the Spellers’ and Sponsors’ support of the Library affirms the idea of Back to Basics: these folks have chosen to support a basic, local institution—one which is understood to be essential by its loyal patrons but which risks dismissal as expendable in an economy that cries out for widespread cutbacks and layoffs.

The category “It’s Alimentary, my dear Watson” sprang from the amazement I feel when I read food and medicine ingredient labels. It’s astonishing to see what prepared food contains, and disturbing to think how little of it bears resemblance to the product it is supposed to be. The “Alimentary” category is just another way of looking back to basics.

“Shirley, you jest!” is a small category of tricky and fun words: the Mondegreens, the puns, homonyms, the words that look like they ought to mean something other than what they mean. After a year of thinking about this word list, some of the funny bits stand out in my mind. I hope you will enjoy them.

Thank you for supporting the Library, and for playing in the Bee. All of us on the Bee Committee wish you a wonderful time.

The Word of the Day is: BEE

bee, noun
the first definition in the dictionary is the insect, then we get to the good stuff:

help given by neighbors toward the accomplishment of a particular task; a social gathering of people to accomplish cooperatively a specific purpose (possibly related to Middle English bene boon, prayer)

And there you have it, from Webster's Third New International Dictionary. Our Bee will gather friends and neighbors to accomplish the important task of helping to fund our town library. Bee there on March 26th to help us along.

The Bee Tree is already bearing fruit

Those of you who came to the Bee last year will remember the popular Bee Tree. Designed by Jane Bleakley and run by Friends President Lorie Linnell, the tree featured gifts and gift cards donated to the Friends, disguised as "Bee Words". Shoppers purchased words from the tree, which were connected in some way to the gift they concealed (for example, a gift card for Not Your Average Joe's was sold under the name "superlative" or "exceptional" or something like that). The gifts were donated, so the Library netted 100% of the proceeds.

This year, we have even more interesting offerings for the Tree. Super-Friend of the Library Judy Schulz has already procured ticket donations from the Pawtucket Red Sox and Boston's Duck Tours. I think the word for the Duck Tours ought to be "amphibious". Any suggestions for the PawSox?

Is stress pushing spelling snobs over edge? - Behavior- msnbc.com

With thanks to Amelia Slawsby for finding this amusing gem:

Is stress pushing spelling snobs over edge? - Behavior- msnbc.com

Teams are signing up!

The stalwart Coldwell Banker team returns again to mix and mingle with the crowd, and to support the Library. We are happy to be welcoming returning spellers Jean McDonald and Laura Talmud, as well as new speller Betsy Breziner, and wish them an enjoyable evening at the Bee. Their ongoing support of the Library is sincerely appreciated.

The only team not to use its Mulligan last year, the Library team, is back: veterans Karen McKoy and Ellie Herd will be joined by Roberta Anderson. Two years ago, the Library team wowed us all by wearing ball gowns and tiaras to the Bee. They have finished in the finals every year they've played. Will this be their lucky year? (I should go on record here that their affiliation with the Library gives them no advantage--the words used in the Bee are kept secret until the judges receive their packets when the Bee begins. It must be the tiaras, then...stylish "thinking caps"?)

You can sign up today at the Library. Get your friends, your neighborhood, your board, your team, and join in the fun!

Bee 411

Date: Thursday, March 26th
Time: 7--9 p.m. (we ask the spellers to come at 6.30 for registration)
Location: Great Hall, Dover Town House

Team (of 3 spellers) Fee: $300 (unchanged from prior years!)
Mulligans (optional, one per team, regular rounds only): $100

Entry forms are available at the Library. (Did you know we GIVE you the words in ADVANCE?) Words will be available to paid-up teams by 12 February. Make checks payable to Friends of the Dover Library and write "Bee" in the memo.

The popular "Bee Tree" will be back. "Buy" a word and win the prize or gift card associated with it. Refreshments will be available for purchase in the Bee Café in the Lower Level of the Town House. The goods available for purchase will have been donated, so 100% of the proceeds go directly to the Friends of the Dover Library to support the Dover Town Library. Where else can you feel so good about having a cupcake?

Live broadcast on Dover Cable (channel 8), with a TV in Café (so you can keep an eye on the action while having a snack).

Grand Prize: Enormous Bragging Rights, plus the name of the winning teams and winning spellers engraved on the plaque in the Library's Lower Level. Dover has been ranked one of the best-educated towns in Massachusetts, and the Library circulation suggests that we are a town of readers, so those Bragging Rights really are Enormous.

I'll be highlighting words and categories, and blogging about the teams and our donors...just as soon as I get a grip on the word list. Bookmark the page, or subscribe to the feed, so you don't miss anything!

¡ay, caramba!

Instead of posting updates in here, I have been buried in the task of fine-tuning the word list for the Bee. In order to avoid errors, I painstakingly check each word, and manually override my word-processor's spell-check function for the more obscure words. Then I get the definition, so that the words can be classified into categories for study (and of course we need the definitions during the Bee itself). It's a tedious job, but it's important to do it correctly.

The other day when I opened the word file, I found that every single word was underlined as misspelled--even the ones I had already checked. It was a heart-stopping moment: it looked like the entire list was junk.

After a little noodling around, I discovered that some other computer user in my house had switched the default language in the word processor to Spanish. Apparently someone had been trying to translate song lyrics from Spanish to English, and modified the word processor to check the product. Better living through technology, and all that.

Once the word list is finished, I will have fun plotting my revenge on the Songster. Expect the words to be available to paid-up teams by the 12th of February.

¡Hasta luego!

WE HAVE A DATE

...and a venue.
The Dover Board of Selectmen voted to approve the Bee taking place in the Dover Town House this year, on March 26th (Thursday) at 7 p.m. We are excited to be back in the Town House, with live TV coverage and an improved capacity for the Bee Café and the Bee Tree.
Stay tuned as this blog ramps up, with words, study guides and news of the Bee as it evolves.
If you want to sign up for a team or sponsor a team, leave a post here.

Word trends, by Google

While tooling around in Charles Hodgson's Podictionary, I found a link to Google word trends. You can plug in a word and track where it is used, and how frequently.

Try this with the phrase "Spelling Bee":
http://www.google.com/trends?q=spelling+bee&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Maybe we can generate enough publicity for the 2009 Bee to make the charts!

Try this online Bee

Looking for something else entirely, I just stumbled across the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee. When I first read about it, I thought that we'd have to spell a word based on a picture of it or something, but in fact the "visual" part gives you a diagram of where the word comes from. Words, spelling and etymology--in game format. It really doesn't get much better than that.

Try the VT Spelling Bee for yourself: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/bee/play . I did have some difficulty with some of the pronunciations (the readers change every few words)--spasmolysis sounded like it had a "t" at the end (although the definitions are given, which should have clued me in). I was pleased to see many of the words Dover spellers have conquered in the past, such as diphtheria and pettifoggery, and mostly I was happy to find a new and very entertaining spelling game. I recommend it.

Word of the Day: VOTE

http://www.yourdictionary.com/vote

You'd think this word had been coined for the way Barack moved during the debates...

...but no: according to Wordsmith.org, OBAMBULATE means to walk around. Check out the citation below from www.wordsmith.org:


obambulate
PRONUNCIATION:
(o-BAM-byuh-layt)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To walk about.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin ob- (towards, against) + ambulare (to walk). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ambhi- (around) that is also the source of ambulance, alley, preamble, and bivouac. The first print citation of the word is from 1614.

This week, Wordsmith.org is featuring words that could describe the presidential candidates. I'll be back with others that I find interesting.

Here's another fun word activity

Hangmania is an online game of hangman. You have 7 chances to solve each puzzle. Guessing the same letter twice does not count against you, but there is no visual record of what you've guessed as you play. You pick categories: countries, stars, Movies, etc. and play within those confines. Try it at: http://hangmania.com/ and see if it doesn't help exercise your brain for the Bee.

One good thing leads to another

I signed up for the Moot e-mail, and received a confirmation reply with a link to another terrific word site: http://odlt.org/
Apparently the MooTguy (as he calls himself) set up this Online Dictionary of Language Terminology which gives, as the site proclaims, "concise explanations of the words that English speakers use to talk about the English language". I wandered around for a bit and found words like aphaeresis, paraprosdokian and glossopoeia.

It might be on the site, but I did not see a word meaning "evil giggle". You will just have to check out the website and imagine mine.

moot

One of my favorite sources of Bee words, A.Word.A.Day (www.wordsmith.org) is being sponsored by an etymology game called Moot. This link will give you a series of sample questions from the game: www.mootgame.com. Try it; it's fun! You can also submit your e-mail address to receive periodic Moot questions--I haven't done this yet, but it does look promising.

Therefor?

One of my favorite sources for Bee words, A Word A Day, is presently featuring words that appear to be misspellings. Here's the link to today's word: http://wordsmith.org/words/therefor.html

You have been warned :-)

Is your vocabulary better than a 7th--grader's?

You have probably realized that I think about Spelling Bee words all year long. I had a really good one the other day--funambulist. I thought this would be a word nobody in my family knew, so naturally I tried to stump them by asking them what they thought it meant--over breakfast, when nobody here is really firing on all pistons.

Wouldn't you know it: my smart-aleck middle son replied, without skipping a beat, "It means tightrope-walker." Apparently funambulist is a word directly borrowed from Latin, where it means just that.



Oh, darn!



It might make the list anyway, even though my vocabulary is evidently NOT better than a 7th-grader's.

While you are enjoying your summer vacation....

I am already collecting words for the 09 Bee. I just subscribed to the RSS feed from A Word A Day (www.wordsmith.org) --one of my absolute favorite Bee word sources, but I grew weary of the daily e-mail. The RSS feed will place the words gently into my computer without loading up my inbox.

Check out today's word, and imagine our fearless MC George Doherty delivering it to a roomful of Dover's most competitive spellers: http://wordsmith.org/words/callipygian.html.

Enjoy!

Etymology on line--yessss!

Words are easier to spell (and more interesting in general) if we have some idea of their origins. I stumbled onto this interesting website via Charles Hodgson's daily etymology blog (http://podictionary.com/?p=810), and found myself yelling "YESSSSS!".

From a layperson's perspective, etymology seems to be part linguistics, part history and anthropology, and part shrewd guesswork. It's a fascinating topic. Check out the site's etymology for "bee": http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=bee&searchmode=none.

Although the entries have helpful links to an on-line dictionary, the random sampling of "killer bee" spelling words I entered did not turn up in its database. Nevertheless, it's worth a look. Some words to try: dog, hocus-pocus, window and narwhal. Have fun!

National Spelling Bee tonight @ 8 on Channel 5

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/05/30/critics_corner
In case you are one of those people who can never have enough...