— Carole Miller, Co-Director, Houston Club #359
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=== Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX) in the Austin Chronicle ===
[http://wwwCongratulations to Geoff Thevonot for winning ''The Austin Chronicle'' Adult Spelling Bee.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/The paper covered the competition in its sports column?oid=oid%3A787127 “Playing Through ” by Thomas Hackett]:
<blockquote>The following excerpts were Threadgill's 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 an article in the Austin Chronicle May 29Pacific Grove, 2009 regarding the Calif. The word that tripped up Riddle was "onomatopoeically."Geoff ThevenotIn case you're wondering, that's win in the adult spelling tournament in that cityspelled, "o-n-o-m-a-t-o-p-o-e-i-c-a-l-l-y."</blockquote>
'''''Playing Through'''''<blockquote>How do I know this? Because Geoff Thevenot said so.BY THOMAS HACKETT</blockquote>
Courtesy of Matthew WedgwoodHackett, Thomas: [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A787127 Playing Through], ''The Austin Chronicle'', May 29, 2009.
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.