From the Idaho Panhandle
Sandpoint Spelling Bee Brings Out Panhandle Intelligentsia
By Cate Huisman, 2-14-11
The Spokesman Review team, dressed in a competitor's product, contemplates a complicated verbal construction.
The glittering literati of the panhandle assembled last Friday night for their annual spelling showdown, which drew a passel of new and highly capable teams this year. The new talent proved to be the downfall of the two-time past winners from Keokee Publishing, last year competing as the Swine Fluezies and this year as Spelled Milk.
The ultimate winner was the Sophisticated Sesquipedalians, an elegantly outfitted trio sponsored by D.A. Davidson & Co. Davidson financial consultant Jim Zuberbuhler recruited his wife, polyglot Titina Zuberbuhler, and voracious reader Alan Millar, principal of the Sandpoint Charter School, to form the team. Titina’s knowledge of French, Spanish, and Dutch carried the group through mynheer to its ultimate win on wedels, while Alan’s familiarity with geologic terms from his passion for mountaineering helped out with fumarole and esker.
The competition was much fiercer this year than in years past, with a new team from the Spokesman-Review competing mightily in both the spelling and costume categories, and a group of former presidents from Century 21 real estate agency providing excellent spelling as well as comic relief in masks depicting Bush the younger, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton. Noticeably absent was the perennial powerhouse team from the East Bonner County Library, one of whose members reportedly had unadvisedly scheduled an out-of-town foray for the weekend.
The annual competition raises money for the Bonner County Daily Bee’s newspapers in education program, which provides newspapers to students in local schools.
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