Word: contesters
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...Tennessee, August is the occasion of the Elvis International Tribute, a week in which 15,000 Presley fans convene to watch a competition among Elvis impersonators, to participate in an Elvis trivia contest and to pay homage. Crowds also flock to the Wild and Wacky Raft Race in Miami, the bathtub race in San Diego and the equally exciting Hermit Crab Races in Ocean City, N.J. In Illinois' state fair there is both a hog-calling and a husband-calling contest, in which a woman calls for her husband, who has been calling hogs. First prize was taken by Kathy...
Dancing does not look like a show that belongs in postmillennial America. It combines music shows from the '50s with variety shows from the '70s and a sense of glamour from Dynasty. The participants include thickly accented dancers and judges who add to the cheesy Eurovision Song Contest vibe. The set contains enough mirror balls, fairy lights and glitter to be visible from space. The songs are tepid wedding-band versions of American pop hits. This is a show you would not be surprised to see if you turned on the TV in your hotel room in, say, Bulgaria...
Which brings us back to asking why a ballroom contest is so popular. Census figures quickly dispel my first theory--that the median age of Americans is actually 73. Still, there is no other prime-time show so determinedly unhip. Where American Idol has Ryan Seacrest, Dancing has Hollywood Squares' Tom Bergeron. Where Idol's Simon Cowell snipes put-downs, judge Len Goodman has such quaint British diction you could imagine him reporting from London during the Blitz. The theatrics and costumes (former New Kid on the Block Joey McIntyre jived in a G.I. outfit) would embarrass an Ice Capades...
...brings the game up to date. New hot properties such as Notting Hill and Canary Wharf are selling for mini-money millions, a barrage of London icons - including the London Eye, Tate Modern and the new Wembley Stadium - have appeared and, instead of scooping up $18 in a beauty contest, players who draw the right Chance card receive $183,000 for winning a reality TV show. The Free Parking square, however, is history. In London? Never...
...race for 2008 is well underway and Republicans, lacking a sitting vice-president who wants to run or an obvious heir apparent, have what might be their most interesting contest in decades. The two candidates with the highest name recognition and popularity right now, Arizona Senator John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani, will have difficulty winning the Republican primaries because of their moderate views on many social issues. That's created a huge opening for a candidate who social conservatives will embrace. "That's the most visible and active constituency in the party," says Jack Pitney...