Fort Worth Celebrates Miss Fort Worth Being Crowned Miss Texas

That is Miss Fort Worth, Ashley Melnick, about to be crowned Miss Texas #75.

Fort Worth took the coveted Miss Texas crown, Friday night, at a gala affair in Texas Hall at the University of Texas at Arlington.

In addition to Miss Fort Worth the other top finalists were runner-up, Miss Irving, Miss Arlington, Miss Frisco and Miss White Settlement.

Dozens of Texans who had previously worn the Miss Texas crown were in attendance, wearing their historical pageant gowns. One former Miss Texas said she and the others who had been Miss Texas were not telling how many girdles and how much duct tape it took to get them into their gowns.

As part of the entertainment part of the pageant former Miss Texases performed bits from their talent performances.

Beauty pageants were already on my mind, prior to last night's Fort Worth win, due to watching Kathy Griffin judge a kiddie beauty pageant on her Life on the D-List show. I have long thought beauty pageants are a bit perverse.

I do not know if Fort Worth is planning a city wide celebration to, well, celebrate Miss Fort Worth being Miss Texas. I would think there would be. We had a city wide celebration when some obscure Washington, D.C. lobbying group named Fort Worth as one of the Most Livable Communities in America. Other towns that knew it was a bogus, self-serving award, politely said "thank you" and then ignored it.

But, not Fort Worth. We had a celebration.

I know that my former state participates in the Miss America contest. I assume that is what Miss Fort Worth Texas is moving on to. But, I do not remember ever reading news of someone, from some city in Washington, becoming Miss Washington. Surely in all the years I lived in the Skagit Valley, one of the girls from one of the valley towns must have become Miss Washington.

But I have no memory of this. Was it not considered news if Miss Mount Vernon, Burlington, Sedro Woolley, Anacortes, La Conner, Concrete, Lyman, Hamilton, Newhalem or Rockport became Miss Washington?

I'm sure Mount Vernon would have had a city wide celebration had a Miss Mount Vernon become Miss Washington. Then again, thinking more about it, Mount Vernon was named the Best Small Town in America, or something like that, by something legit. I remember CNN showing up. But, there was no city wide celebration. Mount Vernon is a great town, but I remember thinking, wow, if Mount Vernon is the Best Small Town in America, what are the worst small towns like?

Okay, I looked it up, in Wikipedia, in 1998 Mount Vernon was rated the #1 "Best Small City in America" by the New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities.

Well, I am out of here, going on a walk. I'm trying to get in top shape for when I tryout for the Mr. Fort Worth contest. My goal is to become Mr. Texas and then beat Mr. Washington in the Mr. America contest.

Scandals Of The Day: Miss Washington & Jesse Jackson

I'm going to be in Tacoma in 11 days. Tacoma was in the news today. Because Miss Washington is from Tacoma, well, Wapato, to be precise. Apparently Miss Washington was runner-up in the latest Miss America Pageant. I didn't know that quaint practice still took place. I thought it'd been turned into a reality show, then cancelled.

Some embarrassing photos of Miss Washington, Elyse Umemoto, showed up today on the Internet. She apologized for the photos, in which she was shown flipping off the camera, while wearing her crown, then playing a drinking game that ended with her making suggestive hand signs. I assume involving her middle finger.

And in another scandal, Jesse Jackson was caught using some unfortunate verbiage. Again. He had been interviewed on some Fox News show. He'd been asked questions about Barack Obama. Apparently Reverend Jackson did not like Obama's Father's Day lecture to the Black Community.

Jesse Jackson thought the microphone was no longer hot. But it was. He was over heard saying something along the lines of Obama had made him so mad he wanted to remove Obama's testicles. The Reverend used more colorful language to express the sentiment. I believe the word 'nuts' was involved.

Jesse Jackson quickly apologized for his choice of words. I don't know if Obama accepted the apology or if he told Jesse Jackson that his was an example of the bad behavior he was talking about on Father's Day.