Who is surpised that Miss Texas, Kendall Morris, won the swim suit competition?

It could be a very exciting weekend for Texans at the Miss America Pageant.

Miss Texas, Kendall Morris, is competing there for the Miss American title, and earlier this week she won a preliminary award in the swimsuit competition. That, plus the fact that Texas is one of the “pageant states” where competition is keen just to get to be on the Miss America  (www.missamerica.org) stage, makes her a favorite to make the finals for the Miss America crown.

Before being crowned Miss Texas last summer, Morris was a featured twirler at Texas Christian University and she had represented Frisco at the state competition. It was her talent as a pianist, though, that made her the second TCU student in a row to win the title. A broadcasting major, she is a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority.

After a few years of being a pretty lame reality TV show, the Miss America Pageant again will be broadcast on a major TV network. You can watch it at 8 p.m. Saturday on ABC. Now if only we could get them to move it from Vegas back to Atlantic City, where it belongs.

Times change. Death and taxes still only two things you can count on.

Miss America, once upon a time, always was crowned the weekend after Labor Day in Atlantic City. Years ago, it was a way to extend vacationing along the boardwalk. Bert Parks singing, high heels with one-piece swim suits–tradition! But in our new millennium, we crown Miss America in January in Vegas with the help of–what else?–reality TV. Throw 52 young women together, and we get to play pageant judge.

So our cute, smart, wonderful Miss Texas, Rebecca Robinson, will be showcased tonight on the first installment of the TV show, “Miss America, Countdown to the Crown,” at 9 p.m. on TLC. Evidently we get to vote on who we like.

I’ve had the pleasure of spending some time with our tap-dancing Miss T, and I can tell you she is a winner. Her TLC bio claims that she’s “bilingual,” but that misses her languages by two. Rebecca speaks FOUR! That blows that dumb-blonde stereotype all to pieces, doesn’t it?

Just as the Miss A TV show takes off, we’re on a roll for the local pageants. Heather Edwards Bruce, herself once a runner-up to Miss Texas, tells me the Miss Southlake and Miss Teen Southlake Pageant is set for 7 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 3) at Carroll Senior High School in Southlake. Admission is $15.