The Big Day Approaches…

Human beings will bet on almost anything. At the top of the pyramid are horse races; some of my favorite parental memories involve afternoons at the race track with my kids. (“Come on, Dad, let’s box an exacta!”) Down from there, people will bet on anything from baseball–I once knew a guy who spent his entire day lounging by the pool at our apartment building, placing and receiving calls to and from bookies, placing bets on baseball games–to which hole a mouse will run into when suddenly released from captivity. And people even bet on the Miss Universe contest.
If you’re interested in checking out the current odds, this is a good place to go.
The funny thing is how poorly the odds correlate with my own preferences. We’ll be talking more about this over the next ten days, but for now, I’ll simply note that Miss Guyana is one of the most extreme long-shots in the comptetition, but is also one of my favorites:

The Miss Universe site is barely up and running, just in time for the finals, but it does include video interviews with all of the contestants. In some cases, not surprisingly, the interviews are disappointing. But not this one. In my opinion, Miss Guyana would have a chance, if only the judges can put aside those Kool-Aid memories.