It’s Tough To Bee A Winner In Irvington’s Annual Bee

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Once again, the Bee packed Irvington's Town Hall Theater

March 1, 2026

By Jeff Wilson—

Irvington Town Hall Theater was all abuzz the evening of February 26, as townspeople packed the house for the Annual Community Spelling Bee, now in its 13^th year. The popular event is hosted by Friends of the Irvington Library to help them fund services – e.g. the youth summer reading program, yoga, musical performances, guest lectures – not covered by the Village budget.

The rules of the game are the same as last year’s event (see https://thehudsonindependent.com/spelling-bee-makes-fun-filled-return-to-town-hall-theater-in-irvington/), but here’s a refresher:

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There are four preliminary rounds, each with three different three-person teams given 25 seconds to consult and spell out on a whiteboard each of seven words “of somewhat increasing difficulty.” The words are read aloud by the host/enunciator, author and journalist Keach Hagey, who pronounces the word, defines it and uses it in a sentence. Each “heat” will send its high-scoring trio to the championship round, where they spell until they miss, resulting in elimination. The last team onstage to spell a word correctly is the winner.

More often than not, contestants dressed for the occasion

As was the case last year, many teams had zany, bee-inspired names like Yes, We Hive No Bee-Nanas, Zom-Bees, Best Beehaved and Bee-uties and the Beast. Human Beeings won the Best Costume award for their apian attire (see photo).

For those who wish to self-test, below in italics is a sampling from the preliminary rounds. Hand your device to a family member, friend or friendly stranger, someone who’ll enunciate the words while you spell them aloud or write them down – as many in the audience did in their playbills. This sampling includes two words from each preliminary round: (no peeking): convalescence, apocryphal, idiosyncrasy, kaleidoscope, commemorate, scintilla, phlegmatic, isthmus.

On to the championship round and the final seven words. This is the point when even those who consider themselves good spellers are humbled when they realize that a spelling bee is also a vocabulary test. If they don’t know the word, they probably won’t know how to spell it either, especially if it has silent letters or odd pronunciations. Chthonic – of or relating to the underworld; limn – to depict or describe in painting or words; appoggiatura – a musical note preceding a principal note to create momentary, expressive dissonance; propitious – having qualities which inspire hope.

The word that produced this year’s winners: KAKISTOCRACY – government by the least suitable, most incompetent citizens of a state (i.e. rule by idiots. The winning team was Ten Thousand Words, composed of Carol Monteleoni, Philip Monteleoni and Michael Kornfield. No Bee-Ess, these folks came to spell!

In addition to winning the respect and admiration of an entire village, the team wins dinner on the house at Mima Vinoteca, right down Main Street from Town Hall Theater.

The winning team, Ten Thousand Words
(L to R: Michael Kornfield, Carol Monteleoni and Philip Monteleoni (photo by Ed Lannert)

When asked where they got their spelling chops, Ms. Monteleoni cited linguistic advantages that each contestant might have. “Philip,” she said, “is Italian [many of the words were of foreign origin, e.g. appoggiatura]. Mike is a retired doctor (ipso facto he’s smart], and I studied Latin [How many of these words have Latin roots?]. And did the Ten Thousand Words misspell anything? Yes, psammophyte – any plant that grows in sand or sandy soil. Most likely a word only a botanist or marine biologist would be likely to know,

For more information about the Friends—perhaps to become a member, visit friendsoftheIrvingtonlibrary.org, And make sure you get the spelling right.

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