Who thought we’d have back to back posts on beauty pageants? Not us, that’s for sure. But after yesterday’s not-so-breaking news that Shannon Schambeau, the District’s contribution to the Miss America Pageant, wasn’t so much a local as a she was a Floridian looking for a state whose beauty crown she could claim, we received word that the organizers of the city’s premier pageant are again on the prowl for contestants.

The best part of the contest is that there really is only one condition for participation — contestants must be between the ages of 17-24. In most cases the pageant’s organizers would demand that the women be of native breed, but as Shannon, our local carpetbagger of a beauty queen proves, that’s certainly not the case here. Contestants merely have to “live, work, or attend school full-time in the District” for six months prior to the contest, so, that leaves a week or so for carpetbaggers to find themselves an apartment, get a job, or enroll in some sort of academic program.

As is usual fare, contestants facing off in the pageant — set for July 1 at the University of the District of Columbia — will compete in talent, interview, evening wear, swimsuit, and on-stage question. The winner will receive an academic scholarship, the chance to represent the District in the 2007 Miss America Pageant, and spend her year on the beauty throne kissing babies, hugging puppies, and otherwise proclaiming her hopes for world peace.

Potential contestants should attend an information session on February 25 and will face a final audition on April 8, where their talent and interviewing skills will determine whether they move on or should resign themselves to being ugly and unloved.

Let’s try and raise the bar here, ladies — it may too much to ask that Miss District of Columbia be from the District of Columbia this year (or at least have lived here for longer than six months), but if she’s going to be a carpetbagger, can’t she be from a state that’s closer than Florida?