Member news

May 2009

Robin Lewis (Houston, TX): 644 points

The directors of Club #359, along with its members, want to congratulate Robin Lewis on her superb score of 644 on Sunday. Robin opened with MILIEUS for 74, then proceeded to play NATRONS (75), EXPLORER (101), COENZYME (114), and then bingoed out with REALISTS (77).

Wow, 5 bingos and 644. Way to go Robin.

— Carole Miller, Co-Director, Houston Club #359

Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX) in the Austin Chronicle

Playing Through by Thomas Hackett

The following excerpts were from an article in the Austin Chronicle May 29, 2009 regarding the "Geoff Thevenot's win in the adult spelling tournament in that city.

Playing Through

BY THOMAS HACKETT

Courtesy of Matthew Wedgwood

I had to remind myself of this while watching Geoff Thevenot dispose of some shit. Actually, Thevenot just had to correctly spell a word that meant shit, or excrement. The word is "ordure." In print, it doesn't seem a particularly hard word to spell. The pronunciation – awr-jer – is what throws you. But not Thevenot. While other contestants in The Austin Chronicle Adult Spelling Bee last week at Threadgill's hemmed, hawed, asked for definitions and derivations, and twisted their faces in agonies of concentration, Thevenot coolly swatted one word after another out of the park. If words were fastballs, Thevenot was Hank Aaron.

That he can spell doesn't in itself impress me. That he is willing to devote countless hours to mastering the lexicon, even if it serves no purpose and brings him no wealth or fame, does.

The Threadgill's [spelling] competition started with nearly 200 entrants. Each round cut the field roughly in half, until finally Thevenot was in a showdown with Dave Riddle, a lawyer from Pacific Grove, Calif. The word that tripped up Riddle was "onomatopoeically." In case you're wondering, that's spelled, "o-n-o-m-a-t-o-p-o-e-i-c-a-l-l-y."

How do I know this? Because Geoff Thevenot said so.