A Spelling Bee for Cheaters

On Thursday, 826 Valencia presented A Spelling Bee for Cheaters at the Herbst Theatre, raising over $100,000 for their writing center. I went primarily to cheer on a friend (who ended up finishing second—congratulations Sunil!), not realizing it would be one of the most entertaining nights out I’ve had in a long time.

Individually (usually celebrities) or in teams, contestants raised funds for the ability to cheat during the competition. Only one person from each team competed as a speller. The cheating menu included:

• Free letter ($500): You get a one-letter hint (limit 3 in a row).

• Try again ($750): Spelled your word wrong? You get to try it one more time.

• Ask your team ($1,000): Ask your team (or the audience) for their opinion.

• Look it up ($1,500): You may consult the dictionary for 15 seconds.

• Free pass ($5,000): You may skip to the next round without spelling your word (Adam Savage from Mythbusters used this on putsch).

No cheating was allowed in the final round.

The competition was hosted by some of the creators of the Tony-award winning 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, who provided hilarious color commentary on the words and spellers, including extremely creative model sentences, as for palaestra (a public place in ancient Greece or Rome devoted to the training of wrestlers and other athletes; “What happens in the palaestra, stays in the palaestra.”), Spaniard (a person form Spain; “Billy giggled when he learned the Spaniards were once a world power.”), and kumkum (a powder used for social and religious markings in Hinduism; “Mary, put down that kumkum, we're Episcopalian.”).

Celebrities included the aforementioned Adam Savage, who made it to the final three, singer Tracy Chapman, who went out on gidgee (a small Australian acacia tree), and authors Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) and Michael Chabon—the latter going out on kurdaitcha (an Australian aboriginal word for the emu-feather shoes worn on vengeance missions) after correctly spelling kraal (an Afrikaans and Dutch word for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock) in an earlier round. One celebrity I didn’t recognize was singer Thao Nguyen, who not only correctly spelled evaginate (to turn inside out; “Evaginate.com is not the website you think it is.”), but also sang a song using one of her words, locomotive. I loved her voice and unique style and will definitely seek out her music in the future.

There were certainly a few easy words (cow, jihad, spaniard), words I thought were easy because of French or Italian (oubliette, crepuscule, cenacle), other words I might have gotten through cheating (capybara, astrobleme, kulak), but then a whole lot of “are you kidding me?” words like kurdaitcha that I mostly can't remember. It was great fun and everybody was a good sport and in good humor. This group has done this gig in other cities, so if it comes to a theater near you, don’t miss it. I also think the cheating concept alone could be scaled down to use as a general fundraiser.

The Boys of October vs. The November Nine

As I prepare for the invasion of my town by baseball fans big and small, I find myself infinitely more interested in the other World Series: The $10,000 No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em Main Event, where thousands of players enter in July, and only nine remain for the final table in November.

What do I like about the World Series of Poker?

It’s international. There are many Americans, true, but also players from Australia, Russia, France, Canada, England, Denmark, China, heck, even Ecuador. Where else, that doesn’t involve snow or ice (or maybe handball), can you see Norwegians and Swedes compete at this level?

It’s ageless. Competitors at this year’s tournament included 97-year-old Jack Ury, who survived through Day 2, 76-year-old Doyle Brunson, who won back-to-back Main Events in 1976 and 1977, and Joe Cada, who, at the age of 21, became the youngest champion ever in 2009.

It’s egalitarian. You have your pros. You have your occasional celebrities (Jason Alexander, Don Cheadle, Hank Azaria). And, while women are few and far between, they are at least competitive. There are also plenty of non-professionals, including November Nine contender Soi Nguyen and once-in-a-lifetime hopefuls like wheelchair-bound Gary Kostiuk, an optometrist with multiple sclerosis who earned his place in this year’s tournament by winning a small, local satellite game. If you can believe it, this year’s “Bubble Boy” was a professional angler.

It involves a Bubble Boy. What more needs to be said?

Sure, in my heart of hearts, I will always be a Red Sox fan. How could I not be after going to Fenway Park with my Dad to see Luis Tiant pitch, or having a stuffed bear whose extended list of middle names included Fred Lynn and Rico Petrocelli? But, these days, I’d rather watch the November Nine than the Boys of October.

*The bulk of the World Series of Poker is filmed over two weeks in July and shown Tuesdays on ESPN through early November, when the nine players who made it to the final table come back to determine the ultimate champion.

Games Without Frontiers

So, I had a bit of trouble crossing the border into Canada last week because immigration officials were convinced that I wanted to move there to work. Of course, it didn’t help that I had actually brought my resume along to update—since I would love to find another job that I like as much as my current one (but where I'm, you know, adequately paid and appreciated), but not in Toronto.

Officials thought it was odd that I seemed to be coming just for a few days to visit friends. If they had known that I would spend much of that time hanging out and playing games, they probably would have been even more concerned. Why visiting to go up to the top of a tower and look down is more “normal,” I have no idea, but many people don’t seem to understand the appeal of games, or what I mean when I ask “Do you like games?”

I don’t mean Monopoly. And I don’t mean video games. Mostly I mean German-style board games, or Eurogames.

Eurogames emphasize strategy over luck, while not being as intense as something like chess. They have a theme and often involve building or developing things: cities, lands, train lines, etc. Although the first time you play generally takes a lot longer as you learn how the game works, unlike something like Risk, they have built-in endpoints that prevent a game from being interminable. They aren’t always German, or even European—that’s just what they’re called because they often are. Classic examples of the genre are Carcassone and Settlers of Catan.

If you’ve never tried them, invite a couple of people over, make some fabulous cocktails, and enjoy the following suggestions!

Exploring the world of Eurogames: Carcassonne, Dominion, Notre-Dame, and Ticket to Ride

Taking it to the next level: Agricola, Race for the Galaxy, and The Settlers of Catan

Games for people who think they don’t like games: Acquire, Bohnanza, and the Mystery Rummy series, especially Murders in the Rue Morgue