Avid Senior Spellers Stung by the Bee

What do you get when you combine tough words, heated debate and a crowd of intense competitors?

A spelling bee, of course.

Open to anyone 60 or older, the second annual Senior Spelling Bee at the Valley Storefront Jewish Family Service center in North Hollywood drew about 45 eager participants Thursday.

“Want me to spell it backward? I’ll spell it backward,” bristled Ed Cohen, 77, of North Hollywood when he was challenged on his spelling of superstitious.

Cohen spelled it correctly again--forward--and the subject was dropped. (Unfortunately, so was Cohen a few rounds later, as the words became more difficult.)

Defending champion Rose Silver prepared for the contest by studying, only to find that it made her more anxious.

“The more I studied, the worse it got,” said Silver, 60, of Valley Village. “I think you get stuck on familiar words you don’t remember.”

Virginia Wright simply relied on the years she had spent reading.

“I always got A’s in school, and my husband always has to ask me how to spell things,” said Wright, 72, of North Hollywood.

Wright’s husband showed up to root for her, but he admitted that he had ulterior motives.

“She said if she wins she’s going to take me to dinner,” said her husband, Frank. “That’s why I’m rooting for her. So I don’t have to cook dinner.”

Frank Wright did not put away his chef’s hat, however, as his wife was eventually eliminated from the competition.

Many spellers fell to the “killer words” of Selma Glasser of Toluca Lake, the contest host who knocked down contestants with words such as dispel, idiosyncrasy, and cappuccino.

The competition eventually whittled down to one contestant, Jonni Rucker of Sherman Oaks, who won $35 and 25 free movie tickets by correctly spelling antechamber .

The losers took it in stride, some even gloating that today’s college students could not have lasted as long before being eliminated.

“These are the people from before the days of spell-check,” said Judy Raffel, activities director at the service center. “They take pride in their spelling.”