Monday

Ah, it's nearing that time of year again, when candidates the world over compete for the rather uppity title Queen of the Universe. Earth's largest international beauty pageant will be hosted in sunny seaside Nha Trang, Vietnam on July thirteenth. Actually, pageant stuff lasts about a month: contestants started arriving in Hồ Chí Minh City last Tuesday.¹ Ironically, that's the very same day Sunshine traveled to sunny seaside Nha Trang²--where the contestants will be heading later this week. Sunshine returned home Saturday. So why a month? Well, there are plenty of necessary photo-ops, of course; producers must shoot all the "local color" coverage to be aired around the commercial breaks. The reason Misses are hanging out in Saigon specifically is that the annual National Costume Contest was held here on Sunday night. This was, as far as I know, the first actual event on the beauty roster. It's my favorite segment of the aired pageant: contestants show-off in hometown finery both ornate to massive. In the internationally broadcast prestige event referred to as the "Final Show", this becomes a two-minute segment just long enough for each Miss to shout out her country's name. This is, as are all events in the Final Show--save the on-air competition between semi-finalists--a distillation of another whole contest event held previously. That's another reason why this pageant takes a month to run its course. Since this event was held yesterday at the Saigon Factory Outlet Mall, contestants were billeted at the New World Hotel just blocks from our apartment.* I'll talk about the show itself tomorrow. Right now, I should point out that, all that screwball-plot irony aside, Sunshine did actually get to help several Misses tour the Navy's hospital ship mission in Nha Trang on her last day there.³ [Cavin]