Tuesday

There's more to be said in my coverage of the 2008 Miss Universe Pageant. About standing around in the mind-boggling Nha Trang swelter, three-piece suited, taking pictures of departing queens. About the round-table discussion with a group of reporters in the Sailor's Club bar yesterday afternoon. About the funny events of our plane ride home this evening. All in all, it was an interesting time, but even though I never even spoke to a contestant until we were all in the airport today, it was much more difficult to snark at the expense of these women whose incredibly taxing ordeal was so much more evident live, played out over the last grueling month, than it ever seemed on TV. I miss that guilt-free snarking, and I hope that I'll someday regain it, even knowing what I know now. There's also another oddity to this year's outcome, possibly creditable to some slipshod event planning with the organization committee. Do you remember how Miss Thailand won the online vote for Best National Costume?¹ Did you notice that she was not among the ten finalists of that event, at least as it was judged in Hồ Chí Minh City a few weeks prior?² The Indian press was especially surprised.³ But I'll let this be the last of the pageant updates. We woke up early enough this morning to enjoy one last miso soup and stinky French cheese breakfast from the VIP lounge buffet before checking out. I was recently complaining about all our early flights of late, but today we didn't fly until six pm. I can complain about this too, since we had to kill nervous pre-flight time all afternoon; but I won't--it was nice to finally do some honest-to-god tourist crap around town during those last few hours. [Cavin]