Right on time
Virgin Islands pageants don’t have a strong record when it comes to starting on time, so a Beaconite expected the worst when she attended the Virgin Islands Prince and Princess Pageant on Sunday. However, she was pleasantly surprised when the competition began promptly at 3 p.m. and ended shortly after 7 p.m. The reporter would like to commend the new organising committee for respecting attendees’ time, and she’s hopeful the new Miss BVI Pageant Committee will be similarly mindful.
RNC vs. DNC
This is not meant to be an endorsement one way or the other, but a Beaconite covering the Republican and Democratic national conventions can’t help but notice how much more organised and accommodating the Democratic National Convention is than that of its counterpart. While the Beaconite was not credentialed to enter the floor (where the delegates are) of either convention, the Republican National Convention officials flatly denied him access to there while the DNC allowed him to take a picture of the United States Virgin Islands delegation (see front). Moreover, the DNC issued a media guide, while the RNC did not. That said, the Beaconite was impressed at how smoothly and peacefully the RNC went last week, given the slew of predictions that mass protests there could turn violent. He credits that to the fact that the city that held the RNC, Cleveland, ended its 50-year-plus championship drought in professional sports just weeks earlier — putting residents there in a happy, festive mood.
Girl power
With Chancellor Angela Merkel leading Germany, Theresa May taking over as Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, and Hillary Clinton securing the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in the United States, it appears that women are going to be playing a more powerful role in global politics, and a Beaconite could not be more pleased. Although she doesn’t necessarily agree with these women politically, she still thinks it’s important for both genders to be represented in the political landscape, and hopes this will bring about positive changes for women worldwide. As her favourite childhood band, The Spice Girls, used to say — girl power!
Sting ray
One Beaconite saw her first wild stingray recently near Jost Van Dyke. Although she heard the creatures usually avoid people, this one was surprisingly social, and kept swimming circles around a crowd of swimmers. Was it being friendly or just looking for an opportunity to stab someone with it poisonous barb? Either way, the Beaconite decided to play it safe and resisted the urge to pet him.
Playing cards
A Beaconite had a swell time playing Cards Against Humanity with a group of other residents on Saturday night. For the uninitiated, Cards Against Humanity is a depraved game where one person will read aloud a topic card, often along the simple lines of, “What’s my superpower?” or “Instead of coal, Santa now gives the bad children ____,” and everyone else plays a subject card — most of which list things containing a level of appropriateness best left off the pages of this newspaper — that they think best fits the topic. While this Beaconite did not play the game to his usual standard of degenerate excellence, it was still a grand time. Seven or eight countries were represented around the circle, and while the Beaconite was worried at first that some of the game’s humour might not translate across that many borders, he soon realised that the purity of gross jokes transcends any notion of nationality.
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