ACES member a spelling bee winner

A team from the New Jersey Star-Ledger won a spelling bee to benefit a literacy campaign.

The team included a writer, an editor and two copy editors, spelling such not-seen-in-newspaper words as toponymic, zarzuela and velleity. The wining word? Dystocia.

"I think The Star-Ledger's on a streak, they're excellent spellers and that takes a lot of work," said a member of the losing team.

(Maybe next year they can include a workshop on comma splices before the bee.)

One of the copy editors, Joel Pisetzner, is a member of ACES. He won an ACES headline contest in 2001. Read his tips on headline writing, too.