I was amused to see it was on last night. Women posing for beauty pageants? Come on. I thought we'd evolved more than that. Maybe I was wrong.... When I was in high school I was nominated by my teachers to be a contestant for the local chapter that feeds into Miss America. I went to the meeting. When they said we'd likely have to postpone college for a year if we won, in order to attend events etc, I tuned out. When they mentioned swimsuit competition, I walked out. I'm pretty sure I would have won too.... I wasn't too hard to look at back then, I was straight as an arrow, had good grades and played the violin really well. I'm just glad I had the forsight to get to college. I'm grateful every day for my masters degree that affords me an excellent career. Beauty pageants...no thank you.

Hi coolyoda These are really lovely photos I have Charles de Gaulle which is just starting to bloom now but all the others are new to me.They are all truly fantastic. Did you enter a competition? cheers Michelle

I watched the CBS shows and I've watched the Dateline and some of the Dr. Phil. I don't know what to think, other than believing an intruder is the least-likely scenario. Not impossible, but very unlikely, due to the way the note was written, the way the body was discovered, and Burke's interviews shortly after the crime and 18 months after the crime. Burke said he heard his mother come into his room and then go out of it looking for JonBenet, and then he heard her in hysterics (as he said in the interview afterward "going psycho") and just stayed in bed pretending to sleep or trying to sleep, rather than go try to find out what had happened. Picture your own kids. You burst into your 9 year old's room and then just as suddenly depart. You are frantically crying and screaming, alerting your spouse and then placing a 911 call. Your 9 year old doesn't freeze with fear. They don't hide. They also don't come ask you what's wrong. They don't go find dad and ask what's wrong. They just stay in bed and wait. The only reason I can think of for him to do this is either that he was used to the sound of adults "going psycho" in other parts of the house and did not find that unusual/alarming--or he knew what the problem was and was waiting to find out how his parents were going to handle it.

@1929Spanish- I understand your position and agree with it. One of my best friends, her nieces are being raised with a staunchly "anti-girly" viewpoint. They aren't allowed to watch Disney movies, play dress up, wear girly clothes, etc. This is also not healthy! There is NOTHING wrong about caring about your appearance or wanting to make sure you look your best. It's when those wants and desires supercede anything else that it becomes a problem. When your sole, or at least primary focus becomes WHAT you look like instead of WHO you are. For me, I've got 4 daughters. I have always told my daughter's that makeup and hair is just for fun. To dress up. I also LIVE this reality by NOT wearing makeup or styling my hair in a fancy way on a daily basis. It helps that both my mother and my mother in law are the same way. We "dress up" for special occasions but on a daily basis, we don't spend an inordinate amount of time on our looks. We are clean and groomed, but not made up. My oldest is almost 13 and doesn't care at all about makeup/hair or clothes!! I have to remind her of basic grooming!! My next 2, 11 and 9 love to play dress up and get fancy and they are allowed to go hog wild with makeup, at home or on the weekends. They aren't allowed to wear it to school or out in public and they don't fight me on it either. Right now, they know it's fine and FUN but...the message I try to drive home at all times...at least so far it SEEMS I'm doing a good job of, is that, yes, makeup properly applied DOES make you look better, that's the whole point of it!! BUT...we don't NEED it to interact with others. We don't NEED others to gauge us on our looks.