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01/03/2020
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Kevin Post Editorial page editor Mar 1, 2020
We used to run a playful contest when I was Press business editor that asked our readers to offer pithy solutions to issues and problems. If their entry was chosen as the winner, contestants won a coveted cup custom printed with “I solved one of the world’s problems in 25 words or less.”
The entries were interesting and entertaining. Many managed to get serious ideas into that challenging word limit — 25 words is the length of the first sentence of this column. Even the old Twitter limit of 140 characters was longer than that, and now it lets people write twice that much.
Other contestants found clever or amusing ways to provoke thoughts on the topics, or just to poke fun.
25 Words or Less kept up a unique kind of fruitful, easy-going conversation for four years. Its last contest was a decade ago after a new executive editor cut the modest cost of the cups. My how time flies.
That’s OK. Everything and everybody moves on and does new things. I’ve been editorial page editor for several years now.
Recently I was going through some forgotten stuff and found one last coveted 25 Words or Less cup, carefully packed into its box to be mailed to a winner.
I don’t recall why the plug was pulled on the contest before that last cup was awarded. I never kept one for myself because it didn’t seem right — I just ran the contest, I had never entered or won it. Maybe I had set this cup aside in case someone’s prize had broken in the mail.
Well, I think the only thing to do with this precious relic is to run the contest one more time and get this cup into the hands of a deserving winner.
The question will be one of current relevance that has puzzled me for a long time:
How can the Miss America show present the wholesome beauty of young single women while doing justice to their character, intelligence and power?
I have a feeling that if Miss America could show a fuller range of all that is admirable in young women from every state, the variations would be so interesting that it could once again be one of the country’s most popular shared events.
Next year will be a century since the Miss America Pageant began in Atlantic City and some people would like it to return for that anniversary. Whether that happens or not, the event can’t continue much longer without resolving the internal conflict between its historic appeal and modern demands for a fuller, fairer representation of women.
So I challenge 25 Words or Less contestants to solve one more of the world’s problems and tell us how to fix Miss America. The winner will receive the recently discovered pristine, vintage and very last cup from the old competition.
You may email your entries to me at kpost@pressofac.com; send them by mail to Kevin Post, Press of Atlantic City, 1000 W. Washington Ave., Pleasantville NJ 08232; or fax them to 609-272-7250. (These addresses are also at the bottom of the Opinion page).
I’ll use the Microsoft Word program to count the number of words in each entry.
Subscribers to The Press of Atlantic City make 25 Words or Less and our coverage of local communities possible. I highly value and appreciate them for that and also for their participation in the Opinion and Commentary pages marketplace of ideas. Right now the newspaper is running a promotion allowing Press staff members to offer a special low rate to those who haven’t subscribed in the past 30 days. For details, call me at 609-272-7250.
In a few weeks I’ll announce the winner of this 25 Words or Less contest finale and print all of the entries. Maybe together we can still save Miss America.
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