Beirutista

Blame the engineer in me, but while the rest of Lebanon tuned in zealously to Miss Lebanon last Sunday on LBCI – or equally, on Twitter – I waited a few days to catch it on YouTube . Armed with control over the play, pause, and replay buttons, and wielding a pen and notepad, I thus watched one of the country’s most highly anticipated entertainment stunts of the year. Ordinarily, we don’t apply a scientific lens to beauty pageants. Sure, there are some numbers involved, notably the height and weight of each participant. But I was interested in a completely different set of numerical figures, and that was the judges’ scores. What I discovered would intrigue the most discerning of audiences. Miss Lebanon 2017 contestants in elegant wear (photo source: APF) Let’s start with the basics: name, height and weight (in both metric and English units), and order of appearance in the pageant lineup, which as a variable is more instrumental than first meets the eye. ...