The words that were "removed from the dictionary in the last year": Skedaddle - a verb meaning to run off in a fright, Nixonian - an adjective describing the era in which Richard Nixon was president of the United States of America, Zounds - an interjection like "damn", "dang", etc., Mimeograph - a copy machine that presses ink through a stencil, Hootenanny - a gathering at which folksingers entertain often with the audience joining in.
The Merle Reagle crossword used in the episode is a complete and "doable" puzzle. It was published as the nationally-syndicated New York Times crossword on November 23, 2008, one week after the episode aired.
This is the second time Lisa participates in a spelling based competion the first being the Spell-lympics in "I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can".