Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, October 6, 2009
Books Seattle Will Be S-A-D
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Just got an e-mail from Slog Tipper Bub:
Thought you might be interested in this bit of sad news. The school where I teach recently tried to register for the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, as we have done every year for years. But this year we received the following reply.
We are unable to enroll schools in your community.The Scripps National Spelling Bee operates on a not-for-profit basis in conjunction with our local sponsors—more than 250 newspapers and other organizations worldwide. The sponsors administer community spelling programs and fund the local spelling champions' trips to the national finals in Washington, D.C.
There is currently no local spelling bee sponsor in your community.
Your school and community are important to us. Would you like someone to contact you in the event that a spelling bee sponsor is named for your community?
The local spelling bee sponsor for the Seattle metropolitan area was the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. :( There may be no spelling bees throughout Seattle this year.
This is incredibly sad. I have an e-mail out to the Scripps National Spelling Bee to confirm. I talked with Katherine Barnett, the Human Resources Manager at the Seattle P.I., and she confirmed that the P.I. is no longer sponsoring the Spelling Bee.
More to come.
1
Seattle not having a spelling bee? That's like France not having a fucking wine contest or some shit. (Do they have wine contests?) Rigoddamndiculous.
2
When I was a competitor in LA County in 1986, the LA Times didn't sponsor a county bee either. That's the only way one can move onward and upward.
It's pretty unlikely that local newspapers can bear the financial brunt these days, though. Amazon?
It's pretty unlikely that local newspapers can bear the financial brunt these days, though. Amazon?
4
Geez, I'll bet Denver doesn't have a sponsor either, since the Rocky Mountain News was owned by Scripps and is now TU.
Shit, that's depressing.
Shit, that's depressing.
5
Damn, that sucks, spelling bees are awesome. How much money does it take to sponsor spelling bees in Seattle? If there was a donation fund or something like that, I'd gladly chip in a few bucks. For the children and all that.
7
Yeah, I'm all for the Stranger sponsoring this. "Spell 'santorum.'"
"Could you use that in a sentence?"
"We'd rather not."
"Could you use that in a sentence?"
"We'd rather not."
8
As a former 2nd-place winner in a dusty, desolate, sparsely-populated state west of the Mississippi, I am sad as well. A "national" spelling bee is less meaningful without the participation of all states (and, indeed, all public school districts).
9
This is incredibly sad.
Really? Because missing out on a spectacle that fetishizes a basic skill into a circus of lexical obscurity dominated by obsessive-compulsive homeschoolers is a huge loss?
Yes, spelling is great and reading is fundamental. But the Scripps Spelling Bee has about as much to do with learning to spell as the Indy 500 has to do with learning to ride a bike. Go rent Spellbound.
11
There would be something deeply ironic about any of the Seattle free papers sponsoring this, as they all appear to lack a copy editor.
14
this happened to me in brooklyn, NY one year. the daily news staff went on strike sometime between district bees and the citywide bee.
15
Actually, I agree with #9 that spelling bees, especially the biggest of them, have little to do with learning real spelling skills. It becomes an exercise in memorization more than anything else.
16
#12 "But the Scripps Spelling Bee has about as much to do with learning to spell as the Indy 500 has to do with learning to [drive a car]."
Fixed that for you.
Fixed that for you.
20
I was working on a joke re #15 about a spelling bee in Esperanto, but I couldn't quite make it happen.
21
@9 is right on about the spelling bee in recent years. I competed years ago, and while there was a certain amount of memorization, we also learned skills for decoding words based on sound, origin, etc. And while there was a certain level of obsessiveness (the coach in my Catholic school was our assistant priest and he made me cry on a pretty regular basis), it is nothing compared to how it is now.
27
http://www.spellingbee.com/enrollment
It looks as though the actual enrollment fee is only $99.00 I think that the newspaper was then footing the bill (or splitting cost with other sponsors) for county/state winner prizes and flying the winner and a parent/guardian out to D.C. for the finals.
That's so doable. Stranger, if they need help rally the people to chip in! The enrollment deadline is October 16th!
It looks as though the actual enrollment fee is only $99.00 I think that the newspaper was then footing the bill (or splitting cost with other sponsors) for county/state winner prizes and flying the winner and a parent/guardian out to D.C. for the finals.
That's so doable. Stranger, if they need help rally the people to chip in! The enrollment deadline is October 16th!
28
Good thing the kids who can't spell so good can Twitter for free!
dear god, seattle, what have we done to ourselves?
dear god, seattle, what have we done to ourselves?
29
The spelling bee is back on! Local startup Altrooist is sponsoring this year! http://blog.altrooist.com/2009/10/14/sea…
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