The Times Spelling Bee

[Eoin Monaghan]

Myself and three other boys from 1st year from our school will be competing against 699 other schools across the UK in a spelling bee held by the times.
Our heats are on the 23rd March in the Odeon cinema in Victoria Square, Belfast.

It will be tough but I think watching Countdown will have helped me.

[Kai Laddiman]

Spell RELATIONS.

[Eoin Monaghan]

Spell RELATIONS.

RHEELAISHINS

[Kai Laddiman]

Spell RELATIONS.

RHEELAISHINS

RHEELAISHUNS more like. Tut tut tut.

[Dinos Sfyris]

Awesome. Hopefully DYSPNOEA will come up. Good luck

[Ian Fitzpatrick]

Spell RELATIONS.

Do you mean ORIENTALS?

[Eoin Monaghan]

Awesome. Hopefully DYSPNOEA will come up. Good luck

thanks

[Michael Wallace]

Shouldn't that be the Timesed By Spelling Bee?

[Kai Laddiman]

Shouldn't that be the Timesed By Spelling Bee?

Is it two halves of a competition or two competitions? Prove by induction that being good at Countdown and spelling are related.

(etc etc)

[Allan Harmer]

Good luck Eoin

Keep us informed how it goes mate.

[Joseph Bolas]

Myself and three other boys from 1st year from our school will be competing against 699 other schools across the UK in a spelling bee held by the times.
Our heats are on the 23rd March in the Odeon cinema in Victoria Square, Belfast.

It will be tough but I think watching Countdown will have helped me.

The best of luck to you Eoin

This reminds me of the South Park episode "Hooked On Monkey Phonics" when Kyle had to spell the word KROCSYLDIPHITHIC

[Hannah O]

Good luck! Some of the younger people in my school (I think it's year 7s) are taking part too, but I didn't know it was this big! If only competitions like these had been around in my youth...

[Eoin Monaghan]

Thanks everyone- I promise to tell you's how it goes.

[Adam Dexter]

Good luck! Some of the younger people in my school (I think it's year 7s) are taking part too, but I didn't know it was this big! If only competitions like these had been around in my youth...

Hear hear.

[Eoin Monaghan]

Never got to you yesterday (sorry). But...

We came joint 2nd and lost by just 1 point, one more word would have won it for us.

[Dinos Sfyris]

Well done Eoin. 2nd out of 699. That's quite an achievement! What words did they throw at you? My mind's now racing back to that Simpsons episode where Lisa's in the Spellympics, which is rigged so the cute kid wins. They ask someone to spell WEATHER/WHETHER and then when she asks them to use it in a sentence they say "I don't know whether the weather will be good." Classic.

[Phil Reynolds]

My mind's now racing back to that Simpsons episode where Lisa's in the Spellympics, which is rigged so the cute kid wins. They ask someone to spell WEATHER/WHETHER and then when she asks them to use it in a sentence they say "I don't know whether the weather will be good." Classic.

Funny, I was thinking of the Will & Grace episode where Jack enters the gay spelling bee ("hosted by Club Foot"). "The word is TAFFETA." "Can you use it in a sentence, please?" "I like taffeta." You had to be there.

[Ralph Gillions]

You did extremely well Eoin. Well done.
Frustratingly close

[Dinos Sfyris]

My mind's now racing back to that Simpsons episode where Lisa's in the Spellympics, which is rigged so the cute kid wins. They ask someone to spell WEATHER/WHETHER and then when she asks them to use it in a sentence they say "I don't know whether the weather will be good." Classic.

Funny, I was thinking of the Will & Grace episode where Jack enters the gay spelling bee ("hosted by Club Foot"). "The word is TAFFETA." "Can you use it in a sentence, please?" "I like taffeta." You had to be there.

Lol I remember. Jack won because his opponent couldn't get erect

[Phil Reynolds]

Funny, I was thinking of the Will & Grace episode where Jack enters the gay spelling bee

Lol I remember. Jack won because his opponent couldn't get erect

Haha. Yeah, I'd forgotten that. I've just found the script here - when that series was on form, the speed at which those quality one-liners kept coming was breathtaking.

My favourite ever W&G line (which I'd imagine a substantial proportion of people watching didn't get) was in the episode where Kevin Bacon appeared as himself:

KEVIN: When the stalkers leave, it's the first sign that your career is slipping. It's a little titbit I picked up from Val Kilmer.

WILL: You... you did a movie with Val Kilmer?

KEVIN: No, but Val was in Top Gun with Tom Cruise, and Tom was in A Few Good Men with me.

[Charlie Reams]

My favourite ever W&G line (which I'd imagine a substantial proportion of people watching didn't get) was in the episode where Kevin Bacon appeared as himself:

KEVIN: When the stalkers leave, it's the first sign that your career is slipping. It's a little titbit I picked up from Val Kilmer.

WILL: You... you did a movie with Val Kilmer?

KEVIN: No, but Val was in Top Gun with Tom Cruise, and Tom was in A Few Good Men with me.

Ha, Erdos would be proud. If the rest of it was that clever then I would actually watch Will & Grace, but what little I've seen of it was just really really annoying.

[Phil Reynolds]

If the rest of it was that clever then I would actually watch Will & Grace, but what little I've seen of it was just really really annoying.

Homophobic poofter.

[Charlie Reams]

If the rest of it was that clever then I would actually watch Will & Grace, but what little I've seen of it was just really really annoying.

Homophobic poofter.

It annoyed me in the same way that 4 Poofs And A Piano annoys me, like these characters have nothing to offer except their sexuality. Still, I guess I'd rather see that than the not-so-latent homophobia of a lot of '60s and '70s sitcoms.

[Phil Reynolds]

It annoyed me in the same way that 4 Poofs And A Piano annoys me, like these characters have nothing to offer except their sexuality.

I guess it's all a question of personal perspective - Four Poofs and a Piano annoy me because they're lazy and don't put enough effort into rehearsing their harmony arrangements. The week before last, even Jonathan Ross commented on how shoddy one of their offerings sounded.

With W&G, I think the humour would be pretty limited if it were true that the characters had nothing to offer besides their sexuality. In fact, most of Jack's funny lines stemmed from his being dumb and self-centred. I suppose that could be taken as offensive if it were implied that those characteristics were somehow related to his sexuality; but in the same show you also had gay Will, who was smart and selfless, so the writers could have their cake and eat it.

[Jon O'Neill]

Will & Grace is great.

[Jon Corby]

Will & Grace is great.

Personally I think they overdo the whole Will & Grace "will they, won't they?" angle.

[Dinos Sfyris]

Funny, I was thinking of the Will & Grace episode where Jack enters the gay spelling bee

Lol I remember. Jack won because his opponent couldn't get erect

Haha. Yeah, I'd forgotten that. I've just found the script here - when that series was on form, the speed at which those quality one-liners kept coming was breathtaking.

My favourite ever W&G line (which I'd imagine a substantial proportion of people watching didn't get) was in the episode where Kevin Bacon appeared as himself:

KEVIN: When the stalkers leave, it's the first sign that your career is slipping. It's a little titbit I picked up from Val Kilmer.

WILL: You... you did a movie with Val Kilmer?

KEVIN: No, but Val was in Top Gun with Tom Cruise, and Tom was in A Few Good Men with me.

I used to watch it when it was in its prime. Like CSI I think it took a real downturn after series 5 or 6 (nothing compared to Quentin Tarantino's Grave Danger CSI double episode afterwards). The gay spelling bee is one of my favourite W&G episodes and I just remembered my favourite snippet from it where Jack's practicing spelling gay words with Karen:

Karen: The word is... doily

Jack: Doily?

Karen: Doily.

Jack: Hmmm... doily... can you use it in a sentence please.

Karen: He walked doily down the street.

Jack: Oh, doily! (demonstrating with hand gestures) D - O - I - L - Y. Doily.

[Phil Reynolds]

The gay spelling bee is one of my favourite W&G episodes and I just remembered my favourite snippet from it where Jack's practicing spelling gay words with Karen:

Karen: The word is... doily

Jack: Doily?

Karen: Doily.

Jack: Hmmm... doily... can you use it in a sentence please.

Karen: He walked doily down the street.

Jack: Oh, doily! (demonstrating with hand gestures) D - O - I - L - Y. Doily.

Ha yeah, and from the same scene:

Jack: (whining) Spelling is so hard. It's not nearly as glamorous as it looks in the movies.