It's that time of year again...

That's right, ladies of the Greater Mid-Columbia, It's May and that means that very soon, Arthur E. Fuller Auditorium will be filled with girls all vying for the title of Miss Tri-Cities and a chance to represent our region at the 2008 Miss Washington Scholarship Pageant, a preliminary to Miss America.

This year will be a bit different than those of years past. McPhizzle has hung up her acrylic heels, put her sequins into a garment bag and accepted her last silver tray. Someone else will be called as the winner of Miss Congeniality this year b/c McPhizzle is now too old to win the crown - or anything else for that matter.

Since everyone has been abuzz about it lately and the Roomie already has all of her wardrobe picked out and her talent piece memorized, I've been taking a few trips down memory lane.

Filling out a questionaire for the HLOG, something from my interview for Miss TC '04 came to mind. I'd bet that a good 5 minutes of that 10 minute interview was about hockey in some way, shape or form.

I remember them asking me why I wanted to go into Hockey Broadcasting.
"Why not get paid to do two of my favorite things? Watch hockey and talk."

There aren't many female broadcasters in sports. Can you name one you look up to?
Totally forgetting about Phyllis George, a former Miss America and a former correspondant for Monday Night Football, my answer was, "I don't think we should put gender limitations on who we look up to and want to be like. My favorite broadcaster is Barry Melrose. He's got lots of experience with the game and has no problem stating his opinions with elloquence and a little bit of humor. Plus he's got some of the best hair out there, which I think we have in common."
*insert judges laughter*

Why hockey?
"I've grown up around it. It's the one sport that I know everything about and don't have to ask any questions about the rules, regulations or play. It's full of strength and grace."

Grace? I've never heard it described like that before.
"Think about it. Burley men, gliding on thin blades on a thin sheet of ice. Passing the puck, tape-to-tape. Fluid motions, Miraculous saves by the goalies. Oh, and then there are the bone-crushing hits. Also a big crowd pleaser."

Speaking of bone-crushing hits, There was a game earlier this year in which someone from the Vancouver team broke someone's neck. What do you say to people who ask if this sport is too violent?
"I was actually watching that game, and the game before it where the injured player, Steve Moore, took a cheap shot at the Vancouver Captain, Marcus Naslund. Todd Bertuzzi, the accused, is my very favorite player - I even recieved an autographed jersey for Christmas last year. The game you're asking about was way out of hand in the first period and the officials should've been handing out penalties to both teams long before the incident occurred. To those people who are judging the entire sport on this one game, I say it's not a common occurrance and these kind of actions are not sanctioned by the league, which is why Todd got such a hefty suspension. With everything, you have to take the good with the bad, it's just sad that in this case, the bad - two overly emotional teams who were poorly refereed - ended up costing a young man his career."

Damn, I'm good.