They may be adults now, but some people still feel bitter after losing a contest in third grade.
For them, and others who might enjoy a form of public humiliation, or those who simply must have redemption, there is a bimonthly adult spelling bee at Hanson’s Grill and Tavern in Denver.
It is all you might imagine it would be, and more.
There is some drinking; there is lots of yelling, cheering and enthusiasm, and sometimes slow and embarrassed spelling — an activity not necessarily expected at a bar.
“Hello, welcome everybody to the spelling bee tonight, thank you for coming down,” Mark Buechler told the crowd at a recent gathering.
Buechler calls himself the spellmaster. The marketing major came up with the idea to host the spelling bee at Hanson’s, at 1302 S. Pearl St., as a way to draw customers to the bar’s second floor about a year ago.
“If you spell the word correctly, see us up here for a free beer,” he said.
On this particular Saturday night, 30 people were signed up. Michele Morrison, a college English teacher, was one of them.
Even though she teaches English, she was not sure that gave her an advantage. “I’m a product of Microsoft spell check and I’m a horrible speller, to be perfectly honest,” she said.
Morrison did make it through a few rounds but was no match for Brad Mann, a 23-year-old English major and self-professed “stickler for spelling.”
He has been participating in Hanson’s spelling bee for a while.
In third grade, Mann claims he was robbed of spelling-bee glory and he was “just so spiteful.”
The grown-up spelling bee is Mann’s chance to make things right. He has won first place several times, but says he cannot get enough.
Good for Mann that Buechler keeps hosting them.
“I enjoy publicly humiliating people,” the spellmaster joked.
Despite the lighthearted location, the rules and words are serious.
“I take words from the Scripps National Spelling Bee,” Buechler said. “The words start out fairly easy, usually seventh- to eighth-grade level. It gets serious. Of course, I have to step up the game every time.” Among the words used: eligible, paralyzed, jewelry, raspberry, authentic, mutton and impervious.
There’s more than just beer at stake.
“People are like, ‘You have trophies?’ ” Buechler said. “They get all excited. ‘If I can win a trophy, I’m playing for sure!’ “
The trophies are really not related to anything “spelling.” One Saturday, Buechler gave away a car show trophy and one that would reward a female soccer player for a good game.
“Doesn’t matter what it is, people just like trophies,” he said.
In the end, Mann was up against Dan Robinson, an academic adviser in the psychology department at the University of Colorado.
The last several rounds were tough.
Robinson was using all the old spelling- bee tricks, writing out his words in his hand.
For Mann, the third-grade moments were all coming back.
Robinson won on the word “chthonic.” It is pronounced THON-ick and it means dwelling in or under the earth.
And after his second-place finish, Mann still could not let his third-grade loss go.
“I’m coming back, yeah, of course,” he said with a smile.
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