Day 4 from 2009

Hello Again Miss America Fans!!!!

Whooooo Hoooooo for the first night of preliminary competition!!!! And Whooooo Hoooooo for extra-curricular commentary from the peanut gallery (Brian and Jimmy)!!! So glad we can all share in the joy of what this week has to offer – thanks for participating and making it fun! I’m thrilled to share with you the results from last night’s performances!

But before I do… did anybody see Miss America at the Inaugural Parade yesterday? Apparently she rode in a float and then sang the National Anthem at two of the Inaugural Balls before heading back to Las Vegas this morning. I missed it - although I’ve heard a Miss America sing at an Inaugural Ball before… ask me about it sometime! On second thought – don’t! LOL :)

Enough chit-chat already! Who won the preliminaries last night?

Swimsuit Winner = Indiana (ya for picking her correctly!)
Talent Winner = Delaware (boo for not picking her correctly!)

Delaware is a piano player on a night that saw 6 different piano players tickle the ivories in total. I would venture to say Delaware is probably the best piano player out of all the contestants… so be sure to include her in your top 15. How do I know? I don’t know. Again – I’m just guessing… but if you can beat 5 other girls head to head on the same night, you can probably beat the rest of ‘em. Also ---- Indiana was a bit of a no-brainer. The girl is drop dead gorgeous and has a stunning body. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of her evening gown, I think this girl is gonna go far as well.

Other points to note include the MILLIONS of photos I finally found!!! I’ve included many for your review (Jules, please pass them to Issac and Craig for their expert opinions). And I’m a bit nervous about my picks for tonight. Talent could go anywhere – as it looks like the night is stacked with girls who won the talent competition at their state pageant… and Swimsuit has a ton of “maybes” as well. As a small tangent – the swimsuit competition has really “heated up” dramatically now that the girls are in 2 pieces. Plus – now the pageant is in January instead of September, so the girls have 4 more months to work-out and get themselves in peak condition. Talk about a major difference from when I competed! The swimsuit winners 10 years ago wouldn’t have a chance today (or cough, cough 12 years ago – I’m getting old)!

Ok – back to my picks for tonight:

Swimsuit = Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Michigan. I’m torn because I want to include Arkansas also – but I’m guessing she might come across as too trashy (don’t laugh! It’s true!).

Talent = Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Tennessee (I want to include Louisiana, but I’m not. Must limit myself to only 4 options)

Insider Observations…. Florida looks radiant. The girl is in tons of press photos and has a gorgeous evening gown. I’m not sure if she can win the whole thing – but she looks better to me all the time. Also = this is where the rubber starts to meet the road… girls who don’t win tonight start to get a bit panicked that they may not make the Top 15 and start to “over-do” it. Most importantly – I found a couple of new sites that are hopefully easier to navigate for you…

http://www.vegasdeluxe.com/blogs/luxe-life/

pageantcast.blogspot.com

http://abbybollenbacher.blogspot.com/

GO TO ABBY BOLLENBACHER’S website from now on… she’s done all the work downloading the photos I’ve included on this email – it’s already been done for you! J She’s a former contestant for Miss Ohio and seemingly shares my love of all things Miss America (although I picked the winner last year, and she didn’t). My other suggestion for the best place to go is TLC.com – find the Miss America link and click on “polls”. There, you’ll see “U Tube” (which is the best) – followed by the Swimsuit competition.

Otherwise – keep counting down the days… the reality series this Friday night on TLC and the pageant itself on Saturday night!!! Oh – and yes – Robin Leach was the first to report the winners from last night! Miss America should hire the guy for pete’s sake!

P.S. ---- Can someone please tell Michelle Obama to stand with her legs together? The first lady should not look like a half-back.

Until tomorrow –
crl