I wasn't happy with the winner. DH said her dress looked like a grandma's lace tablecloth over a slipdress. I thought her eye makeup was horrible...she looked like she was punched in the eye. Disappointing. :(

Miss Florida > anyone else.

Year? Try semester.

It's about 15K a semester to go to my school after you factor in room and board; forget about books.

I really wanted Miss Georgia to win...Indiana was a complete surprise to me

I <3 Miss Georgia. Not only is she a sistah, but she's also my sister!

Miss Florida was too bony & wiry for me...blah.

My husband (he actually watched with me ;)) thought Miss Florida had a "hot dog body" (too long of a torso).

I thought Miss Indiana was cute but hated her opera song!! Then, when she was crowned her hair looked like she had horns!!! Couldn't somebody fix that for her!

The next morning it was in the paper and my husband pointed out the picture with the horns - poor thing!!

I kind of liked Miss California and Miss New York, they could have been sisters.

What was funny for me was earlier in the evening, I was watching a video tape of the Houston "Miss Hawaiian Tropic" contest (one of my son's best friends is a model and he was one of the escorts for the women, so we were watching and giving him unmitigated hell). The whole group of them was the skankiest lot I have ever seen. Some of them were so awful that even my husband was cringing for their sake. What were they thinking????

Anyway, when we were watching the Miss America gals, we couldn't get over how overall wholesome they look. Quite a change from Houston's finest Hawaiian Tropic girls ;)

This is the first Miss America from Indiana-- plus she goes to the Univeristy of Indianapolis and interned at two of the local tv stations, so it was the first story on the local news.

Both stations where she interned dug up old clips of stories she had done for them. I missed the song she sang, but I guess she picked it because it was a song that Sandy Patty sings (Sandy Patty also being from Indiana). I'm not sure how many people would get the connection, though.

Yep! That's just what I looked like back in the eighties...:rolleyes:

LOL!

I'm sorry, Miss Arkansas could have been one of those Hawaiian Tropic girls. Her evening gown? :eek:

Maybe it's the bangs. Miss Arkansas did not look like the typical Miss America contestant.

How does the "America votes" thing work? Miss Indiana was one of the 4 that America voted for. What happens if she is one of the judges' choices, too? Do they take their #12 choice to fill that space (15 spots, America chose 4, judges chose 11)?

That's my guess. I figure once the judges scores are inputted, the 4 winners of America votes are taken out, and Ernst and Young takes the Top 11 scores from there.

On another note, I know Countdown to the Crown was filmed a while back. I spotted Nicole's Miss Hawaii Mini Cooper at Subway about a month ago and she's been around town until last week. That must have sucked for the Golden Sash winners to have to go that long knowing that they're thisclose to the Top 15.

I don't remember her (Arkansas) dress.. Which one was it?

There was one that was bright red. My husband called it a "hoochie mama" dress :)

Photo is from a different pageant, but it's the same dress:

http://www.missspiritofarkansas.org/images/DSCF3005.jpg

Oh yeah, the "liquid" beaded dress. It certainly hugs in the right places....

I remember when they showed the candid shots before the commercials that this girl often had "bitch face" on when she didn't know she was being filmed. WOOPS!

I wrote her off pretty early.

That's a "vagina" dress...slit too far up and down and pointing straight at your parts.

Second year in a row that the girl with the ugliest dress won. Grr.

I do love the fun intros they do at the very beginning now. And a couple of them had great answers to the interview questions, I thought. Miss Iowa's I particularly liked. Loved her tap dance, too.

Yep, you've got to love a good tap dance!!

Even at the height at my (twirler/swimmer/soccer playing) fittest, I never, ever had a six-pack like that! My brother, who was an athlete, was terribly impressed!

In the TLC show, Miss Indiana was always a front-runner in the competitions. I wonder if there's something that she brings in-person that doesn't come across on TV. I agree though that her dress was awful - very 80s. I really liked Miss California's dress - basic black but very elegant. Miss Arkansas's dress was way too hoochie for me - bluh.

So glad this is over. I hate the new format of the pageant being a reality show.

I nearly died when Miss California did her "twirl" before walking out in her bathing suit. I turned the channel after that cheese-whiz move.

More than one of them looked like they were working a pole, rather than modeling a swimsuit!

Well-said! I thought the same thing.

ditto.