"Freudian Slip" members Terry Templeman, Dan Marier and Pat Bailey nail down victory by spelling the word "logorrhea."<br><i>Staff photo by Kathy Aney</i>

Last night’s Letter Buck Bee was a sesquipedalian event – that is, characterized by the use of long, long words.

Multisyllabic words flowed heavier than the beer at the adult spelling bee held at The Prodigal Son on Thursday evening. Though not yet officially open, the brew pub was hopping as 19 three-person teams competed for bragging rights.

The bee, an Altrusa International of Pendleton event, raised money for a student Japanese exchange program.

Before the spelling began, competitors showed off some creative costuming. Barbara Nash, Mary Alice Ridgway and Karla Lewis – the Killer Bees – wore black dress and hats and had an assortment of weapons.

“We have guns, ropes and knives,” Ridgway said. “We’re the gangster molls.”

Nearby sat three members of Bee MCC (of Blue Mountain Community College). Clark Williams, Cindy Lenhart and Allison Timmons sported graduation gowns and mortar boards and seemed ready for competition.

They displayed their team motto, a quotation from Andrew Jackson: “It’s a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.”

“Freudian Slip,” a trio of men, dressed to honor the iconic creator of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Psychologist Terry Templeman, internist Dan Marier and Pat Bailey sported long black aprons emblazoned with Freud’s bearded visage. Templeman wore fluffy slippers, fuzzy versions of the psychiatrist’s head that he dubbed “Freudian Slippers.”

As the teams settled into competition, emcee Marty Campbell kept spellers and audience members laughing. And Susan DeMarsh reeled off a steady stream of words for spellers to ponder in the 20 seconds they had available.

DeMarsh started with lightweight words such as stationery, subpoena and schematic and gradually worked up to headache-inducing mindbenders such as nyctalopia, zygodactyls and daguerreotype.

Each team wrote their answer on a white board and received a thumbs-up or thumbs-down from the three judges – Circuit Court Judge Christopher Brauer, Federal Magistrate Pat Sullivan and Pendleton Municipal Court Judge Bob Ridgway – who sipped microbrews and Chardonnay as they rendered judgment.

Whenever a team went down in shame, a roving Altrusan armed with a stinger popped the balloon tied to their table. The spellers exchanged fun-loving trash talk in between words.

“You’re going down,” said Kathy Gregory, of the Wildhorse Golpher Gurls, during the first round. The comment was aimed in the direction of the Killer Bees, two tables away.

In the championship round, Freudian Slip finally knocked off runner-up Bee MCC by correctly spelling “logorrhea.” The word, serendipitously, means an excessive flow of words.

Altrusan Debbie McBee said the event raised more than $3,000 for local students traveling to Japan.