Things got tougher after gladiolus
PETER BUFFA
It’s a great time for Americana, and what is greater than that, I ask
you?
Today is day two of the annual Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Lions
Club Fish Fry at Lions Park. And as if that weren’t enough excitement
for one week, in Washington, D.C., the finest spellers in the land
faced each other down this week -- minds racing, hands sweating -- at
the 78th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.
I never miss the results because, as you know, I had a personal
experience with the preliminaries of the National Spelling Bee long
ago, in an auditorium far, far away. It did not end well. I still
can’t talk about it. I was deeply traumatized and carry the emotional
scars to this day, although my therapist says I have shown real
progress since we started our weekly sessions in 1981.
The National Spelling Bee gets a mention every year, but lately
has become a bona fide big deal -- carried live last week on ESPN,
believe it or not. Do you know who started it all? I do.
You can thank the Louisville Courier Journal, which organized the
first National Spelling Bee in 1925 to boost young people’s interest
and aptitude in spelling. The winning word that year was “gladiolus,”
and I might have had a shot in that first competition, which had a
grand total of nine finalists.
But if the scribes in Louisville were worried about spelling in
1925, they would be horrified today. I am constantly stunned, shocked
and occasionally flabbergasted by the amount of misspelling and
incorrect usage you see these days, and I’m not talking about from
the mouths of babes. I’m talking about in the media and in business
correspondence from people who should know much, much better.
Very few of us can keep up with the whiz kids who gather in
Washington every year, but just the fact that there are still those
who try is encouraging. And as I’ve warned you many times, “spell
check” is a cancer across the land. You’d better not be depending on
spell check to tell ewe the rite whey to spell a word.
This year, 272 super-spellers from across the country answered the
bell, but after 19 rounds -- one written and 18 verbal -- of
memory-teasing, brain-torturing words, only one was left standing.
Well, spelling anyway.
The Speller of All Spellers for 2005 is a 13-year-old young man
named Anurag Kashyap. Fortunately, none of the other contestants were
asked to spell his name. He is a local boy, sort of, from Poway,
which is just down the road, sort of.
The word that young Master Kashyap drove deep, deep into the
centerfield seats to win it all was “appoggiatura” -- a musical term
that means, “played lively on a pogo stick.” No, it doesn’t. I made
that up.
Appoggiatura is the Italian name for a “grace note” -- a lightly
played embellishment.
Kashyap, who wants to be a computer engineer, is also a great
lesson in never giving up. He competed in last year’s national bee
and was very disappointed with his performance -- tied for 47th.
Think you have what it takes to be a National Spelling Bee
champion? Think again. Here are the 18 words that only Anurag Kashyap
was able to wrestle to the ground and subdue: cabochon, priscilla,
oligopsony, sphygmomanometer, prosciutto, rideau, pompier, terete,
tristachyous, schefflera, ornithorhynchous, agio, agnolotti, peccavi,
ceraunograph, exsiccosis, hodiernal and appoggiatura.
Yikes. If it weren’t for prosciutto, agnolotti (stuffed pasta),
priscilla (wife of Elvis) and cabochon (outlet mall on the way to
Palm Springs), I’d be back in my seat fast, and I am an excellent
speller.
The competition is definitely getting tougher, according to Paige
Kimble, director of the National Spelling Bee. Round one of the
spelling bee is a 25-word written test, and there have been two
perfect scores in the last three years. This year, there were seven
perfect scores, one of them belonging to Kashyap.
“The words are more difficult than they have ever been,” said
Kimble, who should know, since she was the 1981 National Spelling Bee
champ.
Meanwhile, down at Lions Park, the 2005 Fish Fry is in full-on fun
mode. In addition to the Lions’ trademark fish fry, there are
carnival rides, games, live entertainment, a
Cutest-Baby-Ever-Anywhere contest, the Miss Costa Mesa competition
and more triple-bypass food booths than you can count.
Not only is the annual Fish Fry more fun than your in-laws
deserve, but it raises lots of bucks and does a whole lot of good for
Newport-Mesa community organizations throughout the year. So, whether
you’re trying to impress a date or give the kids something to buzz
about for at least a day, put on your fun face and get down to Lions
Park.
And remember, it’s “i” before “e,” except after “c,” or when
sounded like “a” in neighbor and weigh. I got a million of those.
Wait. Know how to remember the difference between “desert” and
“dessert?” The one you eat has two “s’ ” because you always want two
helpings.
I guess that’s it. Hope I didn’t misspell anything. I gotta go.
* PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs
Sundays. He may be reached by e-mail at ptrb4@aol.com.
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