Many sights to behold during December in New York City.

I was lucky enough to catch some of them earlier this month. The Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center–bigger and brighter than I could imagine and an experience most definitely. You couldn’t stir the people with a stick, and who knew that Santa accepted tips? Yes, the Santa we took a photo with lost his ho, ho, ho after the photo and surprised us with this grumpy woman–where was Mrs. Claus?–who held out a bag for tips.

The store windows lived up to their reputation. Loved the creativity that went into them, and I wish I could get a gig where I could dream up what they should look like. I’d leave the execution to the engineering types, though. Too many moving parts for me to organize.

I also loved the fashions in those department stores. Cute, cute, cute. Lots of red, lots of animal print. Two staples for moi.

Then there were the Santas–hundreds of them–participating in some sort of city-wide pub crawl. Never have I seen a white-and-blue Santa–or was that a Hanukkah Harry? I couldn’t have imagined a Santa with a black veil over his/her face, and the image of two skinny Santas smoking outside a bar is one I’d like to erase from my memory bank. Forever.

But my favorite memory happened on Broadway. My friend, Rebecca Robinson, and I bought tickets to the revival of Hair; The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. Of course, we loved it, but we were more than ready for the finale. Managing to climb over one pregnant woman, down a flight a stairs–all in high heels, mind you–we were number one and two on the stage when the audience is invited to dance.

Yes, ladies and gents, I can mark one major accomplishment off my lifetime “to do” list. I actually have danced on Broadway. Rebecca and I, blonde hair flying, “Let the Sun Shine” at the Hirschfield Theater.

One of the best New York City sights this December for sure.

Bits and pieces from the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant…

Black evening gowns, out. White evening gowns, in.

We all should cheer alot for the contestants who don’t have the big organizations backing them up. Everyone deserves a pep club!

Need judges who know dancing. Looking at their resumes, the judges probably were really good at judging who interviewed well and who handled herself well. But their areas of expertise were education, drama, cosmetics and pageants, and I would love to see one who knew the dance world or music. 

Kristen Blair, new Miss T, has a great set of pipes. Girl can sing. Actually, there were several who knocked it out of the park, vocally. Miss Fort Worth, Faith Bates, and Miss Texarkana, Adrianna Nelson, are two who come to mind.

Gloria Gilbert Barron’s quick wit is razor sharp. Fun emcee. Production numbers were lively. The pageant is a great evening’s entertainment, no matter who wins.

Did they induct anyone this year into the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant Hall of Honor? If they did, I missed it.

Loved the hour of entertainment before Friday’s pageant began. All singing, which was great, but could we add some others? Again, dancing anyone?

Talent comes in all forms–electric guitar, drums, even painting on stage.

Friday’s final pageant was dedicated to the memory of the late B. Don Magness. I missed him last year, though, when he wasn’t there. Seems wrong for him not to be there, but I think he would have wanted the show to go on.

Wish I could walk like those pageant girls do. I want their perfect posture. Where do you learn that? Does charm school still exist? That must be my problem. My mom kept signing me up, and I kept refusing to go. Mom was right. I could have used it.

Sam Haskell III, chairman of the Miss America board, paid a visit to promote his best seller, Promises I Made My Mother. On stage Wednesday night, he said what people around here have been saying for a while. Rebecca Robinson should have been Miss America. He said it loud and clear over a microphone. And he’s right.

Mark July 3 on your 2010 calendar. That’s the night for the Miss Texas 75th anniversary gala. Chairman Marvin Blum is already working on it. Should be great fun.

Miss Texarkana, Adrianna Nelson

Kathryn Dunn, representing Frisco, and Adrianna Nelson, representing Texarkana, were named preliminary winners in the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant Monday night at the University of Texas at Arlington.

The two received the honors after the pageant’s first evening of competition, being held for the first time at Texas Hall on the UTA campus. Dunn, 19, attends Baylor University and won the swimsuit competition. Nelson, a 21-year-old student at Houston Baptist University, took top honors in the talent competition for her vocal performance of “How Great Thou Art.”

They are two of 37 young women vying for the Miss Texas title and the chance to go on to January’s Miss America Pageant in Las Vegas. Preliminary competitions will continue Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, with the finals scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday. The pageant will be broadcast live Friday via a webcast, and details are available at www.misstexas.org.

The Miss Teen Texas Pageant is being held simultaneously with the Miss Texas competition. Preliminary winners for the teen pageant were Miss Teen Frisco, Taylor Lowery, for physical fitness and Miss Teen Plano, Madison Fuller, for talent with her ventriloquism act.

The Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant will crown a successor to Rebecca Robinson, Miss Texas 2008.  Robinson, a graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in Spanish, performed a high-energy tap dance to “Hey Pachuco!” to win the Miss Texas title. Among her many accomplishments this year, she was chosen to sing the National Anthem at The Cotton Bowl and was selected as the subject of a United Way of America video promoting education.  

To become Miss Texas, a contestant must first win a local competition within the state. During preliminaries, the competitors are broken into three groups, with each group presenting a different part of the competition for the judges’ review. Those scores will be used to select finalists to compete in Friday’s finals.

The Miss Teen Texas Pageant, a competition that began in 1990, also will crown a new title holder Friday evening. The current Miss Teen Texas is Sydney Capello.

Tickets are available from Central Ticket Office. Check CentralTicketOffice.com.

Preliminary winners will be updated this week at www.eSocialWorld.com.

The Dallas Cowboys football team isn’t the only organization making a move to Arlington.

The Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant (MissTexas.org) is pulling up stakes in Fort Worth, a city it’s called home for 46 years, and making the move to Texas Hall at the University of Texas at Arlington. Preliminary competitions are set for 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at UTA, with the final competition set for 7 p.m. Friday.

The new Miss Texas will follow Rebecca Robinson, Miss Texas 2008. The winner will represent the Lone Star State at the Miss America Pageant, which in recent years has moved from its traditional home of Atlantic City, NJ to Las Vegas, NV.

Robinson, a graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in Spanish, performed a high-energy tap dance to “Hey Pachuco!” to win the Miss Texas title. Among her many accomplishments this year, she was chosen to sing the National Anthem at The Cotton Bowl and was selected as the subject of a United Way of America video promoting education.  

To become Miss Texas, a contestant must first win a local competition. This year contestants will represent 37 areas from acorss the state. During preliminaries, the competitors are broken into three groups, with each group presenting a different part of the competition for the judges’ review. Those scores will be used to select finalists to compete in Friday’s pageant where the new Miss Texas will be selected.

The Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant will be held concurrently with the Miss Teen Texas Pageant, a competition that began in 1990. The current Miss Teen Texas is Sydney Capello.

Tickets are available from Central Ticket Office. Check CentralTicketOffice.com.

Preliminary winners will be updated this week at www.eSocialWorld.com.

With some sort of weird attempt to update Miss America, last night’s Miss America Pageant set it back a good 30 years.

Televised live on the TLC network, the Miss America Pageant crowned Miss Indiana, Katie Stam, the winner. She seems a reasonable choice, given what we saw, but what we viewed on the way to the winner made me cringe.

First, let me explain. I’m a pageant convert. After thinking the Miss America Organization was an affront to feminism, I’ve since done a 180. I think the Miss America Organization trains young women to put their best foot forward. The winners of the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant, the state’s stepping stone to the Miss America title, have been intelligent, polished, talented and, yes, certainly attractive women.

This year’s Miss Texas, Rebecca Robinson, is among the brightest and most talented, and I’m stunned she didn’t make it to the top 15. That’s just one part of what was at best a disappointing evening and at worst a train wreck of a TV show.

Last night’s version of the Miss America Pageant was a frightening trip to the final crowning. After years of striving to choose women to be taken seriously with platforms on serious issues, we witnessed talent befitting a Saturday Night Live skit. Miss Hawaii, in a wild costume, was a caricature; some singer hit 50 percent of the notes. If the swimsuit competition is about “physical fitness,” someone please explain to me the poor posture of one of the top finishers.

Worse than the lukewarm talent that would have had Simon Cowell stroke out was the way the non-winners (I won’t call them losers) were treated. Instead of calling out the names of who would advance, the show’s producers seemed to delight in hanging these young women out for public humiliation. Why else would you rush them into their talent costumes only to leave two contestants photographed on national TV when they wouldn’t be advancing to the next round?

If you wouldn’t treat the dorkiest kid on the playground that way, it’s just as wrong to treat the winner of a state contest in such a demeaning manner. It’s mean, and it’s reverse discrimination.

TLC in its “Countdown to the Crown” TV show repeatedly touted its re-making of the Miss America image. The network wanted to make Miss America the new “it” girl. Okay to the concept but back-handing young women on national TV isn’t the way to do that. It wasn’t hip and happening; it was cruel.

The young women, many of whom are top university students, worked long and hard for their chance to be in the national spotlight. In the name of Bert Parks, they deserve better than what TLC offered.

Tons going on with the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant. I can’t decide what to tell you first…

Okay, heads wins. We’ll go with the local angle. The annual pageant, for years and years held in Fort Worth, is packing up its sequins and moving to…Arlington! Isn’t everything? First the Cowboys, and now Miss Texas. Actually Miss Texas will beat Da ‘Boys because the pageant is held in July, way before football season. Look for the new Miss Texas to be crowned at the University of Texas at Arlington’s Texas Hall.

The actual dates are up in the air because–again, this could be exciting–it could be televised this year. So, if it is televised, the finals will be July 3. If it’s not televised, the finals will compete with fireworks on July 4. Pageant people seem to be excited about the switches, and happy to be working with the City of Arlington.

And the other piece of Miss T info is that Rebecca Robinson, the current, four-lingual Miss Texas, will depart for the big Miss America Pageant Thursday. Just to make Bert Parks mad, it will be held again this year in ‘Vegas. Even though she did sing the national anthem at The Cotton Bowl earlier this month, she’s a tap dancer.

TLC is the network carrying the Miss America Pageant. Meanwhile the network’s running a pretty silly show “Countdown to the Crown” on Fridays until the pageant, which is scheduled for Jan. 24. If you watch the show, you can vote for your fave.

Should you want to send Rebecca a note of good luck, Lydia Hall, Miss Texas pageant VP and associate director, says now’s the time. Write to Rebecca Robinson–Miss Texas, c/o Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, 3667 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, NV 89109.

What’s up with our girl Rebecca not getting any time in the spotlight?

I’m referring, of course, to the TLC TV show, “Miss America: Countdown to the Crown,” and Rebecca Robinson, our Miss Texas. The multi-week series, which you can catch reruns of at odd times on TLC, is a run-up to the Miss America Pageant, which will take place this month in Las Vegas. Not that I have anything against Miss Oklahoma, Miss Missouri or Miss Vermont, but how about giving Rebecca a close-up or five?

I do think I caught a snippet of her cute blondness but only a second. We can only hope that next Friday things will improve. Is it because she’s above the drama that they don’t have any outtakes of her freezing in front of the microphone? Was she perfectly nice and not say anything snarky about the other contestants? I’m sure that’s what it is…

Meanwhile, back in the Lone Star State, we have a new Miss Southlake. She’s Brittany Wellsfry, an Southern Methodist University graduate, and she will compete in July at the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant. She’s a singer who grew up in Wichita Falls, and she has her own Web site where you can learn more about her–www.brittanywells.com. She was Miss Teen Texas in 2002, and I seem to recall Rebecca Robinson was once a Miss Teen Texas.

While we’re talking teens…The Miss Teen Southlake winner is Amy Cristiani, a sophomore at Midland High School.

Anyone heard the rumors that the Miss Texas Scholarship Pageant might move to Arlington? Just checkin’…

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.