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Wednesday, August 29, 2007 12:00 AM

Miss dumb blond USA?

Our national embarrassment over a South Carolina teenage contestant's world knowledge.

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  • Wednesday, August 29, 2007 07:11 PM

    On the subject of pageantry

    The will to pageantry , I think, is somewhere in our DNA. By pageantry, I mean specifically these events whereby contestants are observed, judges make their ruling, and first prize is awarded. It happens with everything, not only women, in fact it would be wrong for women to be excluded. Men have their pageants, too, their competitions, on other stages, or fields of battle, for that matter, but we do this with everything - dogs, cats, chickens, chili, canned tomatoes, roses, this desire for pageantry is why we give out Academy Awards, Olympic Gold Medals, this is pervasive in TV reality shows, the process of testing, judging, picking the winners, the losers. It's a very pervasive human activity. Must be wired pretty deep, huh? I'm just thinking.

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