After nearly two years of arcane orthographical lore, double entendres, Pokemon trivia, beer consumption, and unabashed geekery, Benjamin Williams and Josh Malamy, organizers and hosts of the Seattle Spelling Bee at Re-bar, are closing up shop. Tonight’s the all-time final bout, in which 18 spellers—top placers at each of six preceding semifinal bees—will vie for a pretty lavish prize package of cash and gift certificates, attempting to conquer words like nidifugous, lowestoft, and costumbrista. There’ll be audience-participation games, too, between rounds, not to mention the potentially schadenfreuderrific spectacle of this speller either reliving his first-season victory of January 2007 or suffering an ignominious anticlimax. GAVIN BORCHERT

Mon., April 7, 8 p.m., 2008