Bedsairy (Betsy) Santoyo is the new Miss Pomona, crowned in a ceremony Saturday in which yours truly was one of the judges. Look for my column on the experience on Wednesday.

In the meantime, the Metro Pomona blog has a writeup, with a Flickr slideshow by photographer Sally Egan. Elsewhere, on the M-M-M-My Pomona blog, a blogger enjoyed the event yet expresses unease.

I was happy to be asked to judge. After all, I’ve led a parade and I’ve judged a chili cookoff, but I’d never judged a pageant.

Does this mean I have the world’s corniest bucket list? No, but after participating in two staples of small-town Americana, a pageant would make a trifecta.

All three of those events, by the way, were in downtown Pomona, which is apparently a traditional-values hotbed. I don’t know what’s next down there. Maybe an ice cream social and a rodeo.