Pageant News Bureau - Summer of crisis

P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u

The times were sweeter
than we knew

Photographs by Paul Fong / PNB

On Sept. 11, 2001, death squads captured American planes and attacked American cities, killing thousands of people. It was a spectacular, senseless wave of terrorism, and it changed the world. It provoked the American military -- the mightiest in history -- to mobilize for a long war. Such a war will leave no corner of the globe untouched.

Like everything else, the pageant world will never be the same. Some people will abandon the whole scene, finding it now too frivolous and artificial. Some will become pageant fans for the first time, seeing beauty contests as a refuge from the cruel times we live in. And in the never-ending pageant struggle between respectability and sexiness, one side may gain an advantage. But which side that will be is anyone's guess.

PNB is changing, too. Many of our founding members have been called away to their regular journalistic assignments, perhaps never to return. They are covering the deeds of warriors and politicians, not beauty queens and models. To these journalists, who transformed pageant writing into a respected craft, we are grateful.

Now, before the new pageant culture and the new PNB emerge from their respective cocoons, let us pay tribute to the "old days" of pageants. The midsummer of 2001 was not long ago according to the calendar, but it was a different world. We miss it.

Look at the smiles at the Miss Florida USA Pageant during that carefree summer. Don't even worry about the names (you know them already). Just look at the faces. Could it be that we all smiled a little differently then?

Or did we simply feel a little safer, a little less cynical than we do now? We're afraid that's it. God help us.

P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u

The times were sweeterthan we knew

The times were sweeter
than we knew