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NyTimes Union Strikes: Boycott Crossword, Wordle and Spelling Bee

JOURNALISTS STRIKE
New York Times Guild and other workers staged a strike for 24 hours, frustrated that their contract negotiations were dragging on for months. Following the walkout, the Guild asked the readers to respect the digital strike, even when it meant missing Wordle.

Editors, Photographers, and other employers rallied outside the offices of the NYT.

FAIR PAY
Members of the media union gathered outside the headquarters on Thursday to state their case for equal pay and fair contracts. There are 1,300 members of the media unit, and while they were striking non-union members were left to deliver the news content until the trike ended at 12 MD Friday. The strike commenced when both sides failed to reach a deal following lengthy negotiations, which broke down on Wednesday evening.

A statement from the NYT Guild read, ‘_This is not a decision that we take lightly’ ‘We know that you rely on us for information and news ‘._

We are fighting to ensure fair pay for everyone at the NYT, and to protect our healthcare. Without protection, our work suffers, and our pay is falling behind that of our competitors. When the contract expired in 2021 the workers accused the company of failing to negotiate a new contract in a timely manner.

BOYCOTT THE PAPER
The Union urged the public to boycott the paper’s puzzles and crossword in a show of support. Those who are worried that the puzzle might not be published during the strike might consider the La Times Crossword as an equally challenging alternative.

The Editor Joe Kahn said he was disappointed that the staff had decided to strike, while still negotiating wages and conditions.

Guild members are hoping to resolve salary issues including low pay, and a lack of promotion. and high-cost healthcare plans. Only a minimal rise in pay was given, even though the paper is highly profitable. One investigative journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism spoke at a rally, voicing her disappointment at not receiving a living wage.

The Guild wants to see the paper overhauled to reflect equity, diversity, and inclusion of staff. Remote work and recognizing talented employees for retention were mentioned as a barrier at the publication, and many talented employees went elsewhere.

CONTRACT NEGOTIATION
When negotiating contracts, management has insisted on givebacks from members of the Guild. The NYT Guild Chair Helen Verongos said. ‘ _That every year the company has remained inconsistent, going from one project to another and abandoning focus for the next big thing and failing to value its greatest asset, the workers’ ._

The NYT Guild Chair said ‘_After bargaining for higher wages for 20 months, I have seen management fail to give the members the pay rise they deserve, and if walking out is what is required to remind them, I am ready ‘._

CONCLUSION
Members of the NYT Guild thanked the public for their support in holding the Management Team accountable. We are tired of the management games. The Times reported on the walkout, and Mr.Kahn said that Thursday’s paper would be robust and that producing it will be more difficult than usual. The employers of the NYT asked the public ‘_To stand with us on the digital picket line’ ._

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Regional Spelling Bee Rescheduled to January

Students from several upstate New York schools who are lucky enough to win their spelling bees will compete at the regional level more quickly than they had expected.

The Daily Star Regional Spelling Bee will occur ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2023. The competition was originally scheduled for March of 2023, but it has been rescheduled to give the regional spelling bee winner more time to rehearse and prepare for the annual Scripps Spelling Bee, which is scheduled to be held in May.

The regional Spelling Bee will be held at the Goodrich Theater on the SUNY Oneonta campus. Daily Star Editor Robert Cairns will be the master of ceremonies. Spelling Bee coordinator Martha Ryan is grateful to SUNY, who has kindly agreed to provide their theater to the spelling bee for the event at no charge.

Fourteen schools in the Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego and the Otsego Northern Catskills area have already signed up to hold individual spelling events at their schools. These schools had until November 30 to complete their spelling bees and crown their spelling bee winners. Those winners can now take advantage of their upcoming winter holidays to prepare themselves to compete in the regional contest.

The Spelling Bee uses a list of 4,000 words taken from the “Words of the Champions” list. Any of those words could be used at either the local, regional, or national Spelling Bees. Each student who signs up to participate in a local spelling bee is given a list of 100 words to use as practice. Each student who wins their local school’s crown gets a list of 500 words to practice.

Coordinator Ryan loves the concept of the Spelling Bee. She is glad to see students learning new words and engaging in vocabulary and spelling. In addition to increasing their spelling skills, Ryan believes it helps them to develop study skills and public speaking experience. When a student is asked a word, they must repeat it aloud before spelling it.

Ryan stated that there is an increased number of students who have signed up to participate compared to those who participated in last year’s spelling bee. She further said she was glad to see an increase in contestants. She believes this will improve the diversity and quality of the competition. She also hopes the increased number of entries will increase community attendance at the regional contest.

The winner of the March 2022 regional competition was seventh-grader Daanya Butt from Oneonta, while eighth-grader Emily Menzies was the runner-up.

The regional winner will compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland. It will take place on Memorial Day weekend.

The Daily Star is proud to be a supporter of this educational event.

As the event sponsor, they pay the registration fee for all the schools in the Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego and the Otsego Northern Catskills Board of Cooperative Educational Service. They also pay the fee for the winner to compete in the Scripps Spelling Bee.

The snow date for the competition is Saturday, January 21.

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Competitors in Spelling Bees Hone their Skills


Spelling bee competitions may be different for everyone. Like Meade Pandya, he finds it more amusing and enjoyable rather than seeing it as a contest or something to be anxious about.

Pandya is in his seventh grade at Heights Middle School in Farmington and takes spelling bees as an easy challenge that he does not need to prepare rigorously for. The twelve-year-old Pandya finished third in the most recent spelling bee competition at his school. In a confident statement, he admitted that he had only spent around two hours studying for the event. Since one of his hobbies and past-time activity is fishing, he finds it a little embarrassing to have misspelled the word “tilapia” in one of the contests he joined, Pandya reported.

He will then be joining another competition which will be participated by students from the first until the eighth grades. The Washington D.C. region will host the 98th Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 28 to June 2. The winners advance to district bees and finally to the state bees as the competition begins at the school level. Winners at the state level are given entry into the national competition.

The participating schools in 2022-2023 come from 25 counties out of the 33 counties of the state which includes newly-registered 224 New Mexico schools. And most of these participants have qualified from school-level competitions. The district bees must be done by Jan. 31 to qualify for next year’s finals. If there will be no health issues, the state bee of New Mexico will be held on April 1 in Albuquerque. In such a scenario, a state bee will be conducted online on March 30. The sponsors of the state spelling bee include Musenda Credit union and the Albuquerque Journal.

According to Sara Allen, the spelling bee coordinator for the Reserve (New Mexico) Independent Schools that in the digital and technologically-inclined era where spell checks, autocorrect, and shorthand texts such as LOL, BRB, etc. have come to emerge, spelling has only become a matter of forgotten skill or penmanship. She has observed that spelling has fallen behind its true importance due to technology.

Allen emphasized that schools should enhance spelling knowledge and skills because it is important for students to learn. Alongside spelling, vocabulary and comprehension of spelling patterns should also be one of the highlights in the scope of basic education. And spelling bees greatly help students to improve their spelling skills in multiple functionalities.

She also believes that students generally receive more benefits through establishing more confidence after taking risks in challenging tasks.

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Pay With Words Vending Machine Debuts At National Spelling Bee

The National Spelling Bee will always make education and vocabulary a major part of any competition. Kids go to these events aiming to spell a plethora of complex words down to each precise letter. They will make friends that can do the same and spend their free-time swatting up on sneaky linguistical conventions that might catch them out. At this year’s finals, however, there was another spelling-related challenge to contend with.

Spelling Bee Finalists Got To Test Out A “Pay With Words” Vending Machine.

The event was sponsored by Hillshire Farm, proud producers of snack foods that they promise are perfect for fuelling kids’ study sessions. To honor that partnership, they created a vending machine with little snack packs of meat, cheese, and sweet treats. But, as this was the National Spelling Bee finals, this wasn’t your typical machine.

Instead of inserting currency, the kids aged between 7 and 15 used a “pay with words” system. The machine would say a word, and the kids would type in the spelling on a keypad. Those that got it right got their tasty reward. Presumably, there was no option to ask the machine to repeat the word or use it in context, and hopefully, the voice was easy to understand.

Does The Pay With Words Vending Machine Have A Bright Future?

Although gimmicky and best suited to this sort of environment, there is some potential in this product. Kids don’t have to waste their allowance while away at events and get easy access to more than candy and chips. With a $50,000 cash prize up for grabs, any nutritious snack to help with studying is more than welcome.

It isn’t clear right now if this was a one-time promotional stunt, or if we can expect to see this sort of machine at the 2023 finals. Still, you have to imagine some schools would be interested in installing one of these alternative vending machines.

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First Ever Catholic Spelling Bee

The first-ever National Catholic School Spanish spelling bee was won by the fourth-grade team from Saint Procopius in Chicago.

The winning spelling answer is the word “Felicidades”, which translates as “congratulations” in Spanish terms.

On Friday, the team bagged their victory and received a trophy and medals for their thrilling win through Zoom. St. Procopius prevailed after being tied with a Texas team in the last match. They have won the first-ever Spanish spelling bee for Catholic Schools nationwide, taking first place.

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The Determination Of A Returning Spelling Bee Finalist

It takes a lot of dedication to enter one Spelling Bee and fight your way all the way to the national finals. It takes an impressive amount to experience defeat and re-enter year after year, all with the same hopes of success. That is just the start of the story of a young boy called Dev Jaiswal.

Jaiswal’s Interest In The Spelling Bee Began When Watching His Sister.

Dev’s first experience with spelling bees came when his sister competed in the national bee. He attended with his family to cheer her on and enjoy the activities of Bee Week. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is widely regarded as the Olympics of spelling, with good reason. It is a serious competition mixed with a fun atmosphere. Encouraged by the enjoyment he experienced, he decided to put himself forward for spelling bees.

Over Time, Jaiswal Would Compete In Many Events In The Hope Of Glory.

Dev’s journey began in 4th grade when he competed in his first bee. The following year, he tried again and reached the national competition, only to rank 51st overall. Rather than call it quits, he tried again but failed to qualify for the national bee for the next two years.

One of the most important rules of the National Spelling Bee is the age limit. You can start at age 7, but you cannot compete if you are 15 or over, have completed 8th grade, or are a past winner. When the 2015 competitions came around, Jaiswal was in 8th grade, so this was his final shot. This time, he qualified for the national bee in D.C. and got right near the end – only to be thwarted by a single letter.

Jaiswal’s Story Didn’t End There.

In many cases, the names of spelling bee finalists don’t get that much press attention or wider interest. You might see an article here or there about the finals, and then it all dies down. It was a little different for Dev, however, due to instant social media fame. For a short period, he was the “iridocyclitis kid” after a viral Vine showing his pronunciation of the word that knocked him out.

Seven years on, Jaiswal is now a senior at Princeton, so still heavily devoted to his education. Vine may be long dead, but you have to wonder how many peers still get him to spell iridocyclitis on campus.

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Young Spellers and Competition Mania


Would you be able to correctly spell “thyroid” or “zucchini” in the midst of stressful circumstances? Amrita Rajkumarsingh and Alexis Bogle certainly can. These individuals have the distinction of being the best secondary and primary school spellers Cayman has to offer. They attained the two highest prizes at the 40th Lions Club of Grand Cayman Secondary Spelling Bee and the 23rd RBC Royal Bank Primary Spelling Bee competitions recently.

Bogle is a 10-year-old who attends St. Ignatius Catholic School. She scored the coveted trophy as the individual who won the primary school competition on the 29th of November. “Zucchini” was her lucky word. Haley Estwick was the runner-up at the John Gray High School Performing Arts Centre event. Bogle won a trophy, an iPad and various other exciting prizes thanks to the DES and RBC. The yearly competition had 49 spellers who represented 17 different public schools all over the Cayman Islands.

Bogle stated that taking part in a spelling competition like this one is something that calls for a lot of bravery. She indicated that she greatly appreciates RBC endorsing this event that promotes concepts such as self-development and literacy. Samuels, a representative of her school, praised the spelling bee and said that it enthralls people year in and year out. Samuels discussed the devotion her pupil had to thriving. The representative even raved about the community helping make this beloved competition come to fruition. Samuels revealed that people are anticipating all of the things that are in store for the competition for the future. The individual speculated that the public won’t be able to wait to witness of the marvels of the spelling bee in 2023.

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Mason Mount and Spelling Bee Woes


A spelling bee has taken quite an interesting turn. Bukayo Saka’s competition recently got a lot of laughs thanks to a well-known contestant by the name of Mason Mount. What word was Mount unable to spell correctly? That word was none other than the rather straightforward “occasionally.”

Saka has established a so-called “spelling school” that has recently taken social media by storm. The school has enjoyed appearances from Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, James Maddison and Jack Grealish, to name a handful of athletic examples.

The famed Arsenal F.C. sensation has racked up an impressive three World Cup goals. He sneakily captured his sporty teammates trying to spell numerous vocabulary words. Rice, Maddison and Grealish, though, haven’t been able to correctly spell any of the words that were presented to them. This encouraged Mount to shake things up a bit. Maddison requested that the Chelsea F.C. player spell the basic “occasionally.” Mount immediately responded with “O-C-A…” The athlete had ruined his big shot just a few letters in. The teammates that were next to him at the table simply couldn’t suppress their laughs. The shot switched to Saka at that time as well. He was so horrified by the spelling error that he rapidly got up from his seat.

Mount practically instantly pinpointed his error. This prompted him say rather sheepishly, “Oh, double C!”

Maddison at that point wasn’t able to spell the word “aesthetic.” Rashford wasn’t able to handle “embarrassed.” Rice couldn’t tackle pronunciation. Grealish, last but definitely not least, couldn’t take on “rhythm.”

The beloved Leicester City F.C. powerhouse took it upon himself to give Saka a taste of his own medicine as well. Maddison asked Saka to spell the word “nauseous.” Fortunately, Saka was able to do so without any issue at all. It’s no big shocker that Saka’s spelling success spread like wildfire on social media. Supporters on the Internet couldn’t stop waxing poetic about the man they refer to as being their “star boy.” A member of Twitter tweeted excitedly, “That’s my boy.” Another person gushed that the World Cup’s greatest happenings revolved around the player and his abilities. Yet another person stated that he or she probably isn’t the sole individual who isn’t fond of witnessing positive interactions between competing players of sorts. A final social media user suspected that Mount wasn’t able to determine whether his spelling was incorrect or correct.

The world will be able to revel in Saka’s athletic prowess during Saturday’s anticipated quarter-final game with France.

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