Miss America, Speech, Speech!

I caught part of the Miss America Pageant on Saturday. Miss Illinois won. I found her performance in the talent competition to be a bit sharp, and she didn't really kick ass on the quiz section, but she sure is pretty. Anyway, I was rooting for Miss Nevada, Teresa Benitez, who did a dramatic interpretation of Matthew Shepard's father's speech to the jury in the trial of the men who killed his son. Also, she scored second highest on the quiz (although I was disappointed that she didn't know Alan Shepard was the first American in space). Granted, I didn't see her in swimsuit, and her eveningwear was nice, but not spectacular. I liked her platform, which is fighting poverty, and she seemed very clever. She wants to be a senator, and she is very focused on helping poor people make the best of their lives, from what I heard her say. She did win third runner up. Miss Oklahoma did an awesome rendition of "Mr. Paganini." For a white girl, she handled the scat very well. Miss Alabama pretty much embarrassed herself with the Footloose, The Musical version of "Holding Out For a Hero." Yeeeagh. I hope they didn't perform it like that on Broadway. I am one of the few people who will admit to liking Wayne Brady, and I thought he did a nice job. He's the perfect guy to be a Miss America Pageant host and sing the song at the end.

I am sad I missed swimsuit, though. Did you know it's about fitness and lifestyle? No unhealthy flab-packages wrapping themselves into girdles allowed in this competition! No visible track-marks or boyfriend-beatings here! Yeah, swimsuit is okay with me. Where it creeps me out is in the teen pageants. Again, yeeagh.