» On 2/28/2007 06:45:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
Nobody likes a smarta**. After rereading one of my old stories (first published on 7Nov2003 by Opium Magazine and reproduced below), I dug this eMail exchange out of the archives:

Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 06:59
From: Alan C. Baird
To: Merriam-Webster
Is it my imagination, or does your dictionary contain a misspelling (pointtillist=pointillist)?

Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 16:02
From: Maria Sansalone, Merriam-Webster Editorial Department
To: Alan C. Baird
You know what's even worse Alan? It's been in our print dictionary this way since at least 1981!

***

Buzz Words [estimated reading time: 1:45]

At the ripe old age of thirteen, Buzz earned a trip to the 1964 National Spelling Bee, after winning a series of local competitions. However, he bombed out on the second word ("abbot") because his school bus stopped at Abbott Street every day. Even though his left brain knew the proper spelling, his stubborn right brain insisted on calling up images of that treacherous street sign, standing a mere two feet outside the safety-glass bus window.

So our vanquished hero spent the remainder of the competition sitting in the audience, writing down every word and torturing himself with dreams of What Might Have Been. He'd even worked out a complex algorithm to predict which words would have been "his," and spelled each one of them correctly: "vicissitude," "diastema," and especially the dreaded "myxovirus." By his reckoning, he should have won the whole shootin' match . . . but Abbott Street had wrecked his budding career as WordBoy.

The next year, he entered local history books by becoming the first area youngster to win two Washington trips in a row. This time, he was relaxed, joking with fellow contestants while finishing 14th in the country, stumped only by "gneiss." He deemed the word to be an honorable Waterloo, even though it didn't sound that way (pronounced "nice"). But most importantly, he was delighted with his 1965 results, the trip, and life in general. Every few years, the regional newspaper still publishes a huge picture of him during the spring, in their annual Spelling Season Shrine.

Could he have won the national competition in that first year? Maybe. But if he'd survived 1964's second round, the same words would have been doled out to different contestants, during later rounds. Words that were spelled easily, in his "abbott" universe, might have been misspelled, in the alternative "abbot" scheme of things. For example, his fancy algorithm couldn't really predict if little Susie would be able to deal with "escharotic" in AbbotWorld, when she was only required to spell "escapist" in AbbottWorld. Thus, Buzz's subsequent word list would end up slightly altered--which means he certainly *didn't* know it all.

Although he often acted that way.

Still does, as his friends will eagerly tell you.

However, sweet revenge was exacted from his old nemesis (Merriam-Webster) during the late fall of 1999, when he pointed out "pointtillist" . . . a misspelling which had appeared in their dictionaries for nearly two decades.

As you might guess, he's still bragging about that.

***





June, 1964: Dad/Mom/Nerd/Rep. Brad Morse (R-MA)/Flag.

The Lowell Sun (MA) newspaper used to sponsor an annual spelling competition among the local schools.
For a couple of years in the mid-Sixties, I hogged the competition limelight.
The Sun wasted a ton of ink on me, and sent me to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. Twice.
They bought me clothes, gave me cash, flew Mom and me to DC, and put us up in a 5-star hotel for a week.
They really made me feel like a Big-Shot Celebrity.
While I was in Our Nation's Capital, I just wanted to study. What a nerd.
But the National Spelling Bee organization had set up a bunch of tours for us nerds.
And the Sun's DC correspondent had the thankless task of following me around, snapping pictures and writing puff pieces.
A staggering number of those pictures and puff pieces were published on the Sun's front page.
So I guess the local congressman got wind of a possible photo op, and decided to horn in.
But he was also kind enough to give me a tour and introduce me to many famous lawmakers.
He even pulled some strings and got the Architect of the Capitol to send me that flag.
He really made me feel like a Big-Shot Celebrity.
Then Mister Big-Shot Celebrity started competing in the National Spelling Bee, and fell flat on his face...

But that was 1964. 1965 went a little smoother (see below).
 
Unabridged.

In 1964, the spelling bee at Chelmsford [MA] Junior High School was televised via CCTV, which meant that everybody knew who Li'l 13-year-old Alan was. It seemed like they almost expected me to win a trip to Washington in the Lowell Sun regional spelling bee. And I did.

But when the 1965 CJHS bee rolled around, it was a much more intimate affair. I had already received WAY too much press coverage, and I think they wanted to keep it from going to my head.

Too late. 😉

So the bee was held in the school library, with no CCTV. When we got down to the last four spellers, I received the word "sanitarium." I spelled it "sanatarium," and was heartbroken after they said it was wrong. The bee continued without me, so I wandered over to the huge unabridged Webster's dictionary, sitting on a lectern next to the wall. When I noticed that "sanatarium" was an acceptable variant, I interrupted the bee, and they graciously reinstated me. Nobody else had been eliminated, so things just continued along as if nothing had happened.

Then I received the word "weiner," which I spelled "wiener." When they called me out, I made a beeline (sorry) for the Webster's. Sure enough, another alternate spelling. After that, the other kids pretty much gave up.

Poor bastards. 😉

 
But First, A Flashback To 1963.

I got my initial taste of competitive spelling in New York City, winning the class, school and district bees to make it into the 1963 Citywide Spelling Championship. NYC was the only regional contest which sent two kids to the National Spelling Bee, and the NYC co-champions that year were Phyllis Kaplan (#19) and David Leyenson (#26). It was Phyllis' first trip to Washington, but sixth-grader David was a powerhouse speller, going to DC for the second year in a row. Naftali Lewin (#25) and I (#3) didn't know each other back then, but we are both currently members of a NSB group on Facebook. Naftali recently told me that he was one of the final five in the 1964 NYC contest, along with Phyllis and David and two other spellers. He eventually became a co-champ in the 1964 competition, beating both 1963 co-champs in what he jokingly calls one of the "greatest upsets in NYC Spelling Bee history"! 😉


Flying to Washington, 1965.

The photo below first appeared in The Lowell Sun (MA) on June 7, 1965. This scan is from the second time it was published (on April 23, 1970): "Alan Baird, the only scholar to win [the Sun's spelling bee] in two consecutive years, boards a plane to Washington, flanked by his mother and a stewardess. Baird was area champ from Chelmsford in 1964 and 1965."

I still think that stewardess was hot for me. See her checking me out, from the corner of her eye?


 
Washington Party.

June 7, 1965: Peter Treadwell (C) and I (L) were classmates at Hermon (ME) Elementary School in the fourth grade (1961), before my family moved away to New York City and then to Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Peter and I had a reunion of sorts at the 1965 National Spelling Bee, after he won the Maine Spelling Bee. We were catching up on old times at the opening-night party, when Peter's photographer grabbed Michael Gifford (R), from Guam, and took a picture of the three of us. "Peter Treadwell, center, of Hermon, Maine's 1965 Spelling Champion, met National Spelling Bee contestants from as near as Massachusetts and as far away as Guam during six-day visit to Washington last June."
[tap to enlarge]


First Day of Competition.

June 9, 1965, The Lowell Sun (MA): "Sun Spelling Champ Alan Baird At Spelling Bee Today." That was the year I actually lasted into the second day of the National Spelling Bee, eventually placing 14th in the country.

That was also the year I thought seersucker jackets were the height of fashion.



UPDATE: Ben Bernanke & Me.

Have I told you my Ben Bernanke story yet? (He was the Fed chairman from 2006 to 2014. Some say that made him the most powerful man in the world.)

I already told you the story? OK, shut up and listen anyway. 😉

A 2009 Time magazine article (LATER: CBS) mentioned that he competed in the National Spelling Bee when he was a kid. So, after going through the speller lists from the two years I was in the Bee, I discovered that we sat next to each other in 1965 (he's wearing #18, representing Anderson [Dillon] SC, and I'm wearing #19, representing Lowell [Chelmsford] MA). It looks like he's leaning over to give me financial advice.

I misspelled "gneiss" that year, to finish 14th in the country. Ben tripped on "edelweiss" and finished 26th. I don't have a song memorializing my losing word, but Ben does. 😉
LATER: oh yeah, Ben also won a Nobel. What the h*ll have I been doing with my life?! [tap to enlarge]


Spelling Bee dirt.

I recently heard the shocking story of Larry Fishman (#45), from Maryland, who sat two rows behind me (#19) and placed eleventh.

Larry murdered his father (obit) and shot his mother about 15 years after the '65 Spelling Bee, according to the FBI.

So I guess Larry wanted to get famous a lot sooner than Ben did...

Facebook fan pages: 1964 ~ 1965
Facebook group: National Spelling Bee Contestants, 1964 & 1965
UPDATE - 100th anniversary rosters: 1964 ~ 1965 ~ psych

Labels: bee, humblebrag