Spellers stung by Orleans bee

By Dave Joy
Friday, March 25, 2005


"Spellmeister" John Stewart, a.k.a Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School teacher, is the popular host of the Paulie Powers Spelling Bee, which benefits the Juice Bar. [photo caption]


ORLEANS - With only two teams left standing in a hushed auditorium, only the team from Chatham could come up with the correct spelling of philogyny.

In the sixth annual Paulie Powers Memorial Spelling Bee last Friday at Orleans Elementary School, the "Chatham Challengers" team of Bob Ryder, his daughter Karen Ryder, and Bob Walsh became repeat champions, beating out 15 other teams from around the Lower Cape in a benefit for The Juice Bar of Orleans.

When asked how the team prepared for this unprecedented repeat championship, Bob Ryder said, "We didn't ... no plan at all."

"My daughter Karen is fluent in three languages," he said, "and Bob Walsh has traveled to Germany and he's pretty good at foreign words." Ryder admitted he has a knack for remembering how to spell words.

The second-place team representing the Namequoit Sailing Association included Sarah Avellar, Kathy Southworth and Tony Morse. The third-place team representing Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School (its second team) included Pia MacKenzie, Rosalind Pace and Sandra Hemeon-McMahon (also assisted by daughter Siobhan).

John Stewart, a teacher at the charter school, has served as spellmeister since the inaugural spelling bee.

"As a bedraggled, aging teacher of middle school kids," said Stewart, "it's always refreshing for me to be able to maintain martinet control... I always have a great time and it's a lot of fun."

Stewart stressed that the words are chosen ahead of time, and that any one team appearing to get tougher words than another team is "entirely coincidental," as he cited being taken to task, ironically, over an alternate spelling over last year's final word, bonhomie.

The spelling bee is named for Paulie Powers, wife of host Don Powers, who pulled together the first bee, but died a month before it was held, in March 2000.

By the way, in case you were wondering about the spelling and meaning of the winning word philogyny, it can be found in Webster's 7th Collegiate Dictionary, and the meaning is "love of women."