The Most

I saw two interesting tidbits today that I think are important to note here. Today, DCist reports that D.C. is The Most Democratic Place in the Country (via Gallup). No big surprise there. Anyone who's lived here for more than ten minutes knows that a whopping percent of the city has blood that runs liberal blue, so this story really is no surprise to anyone. Why this even had to be declared as news is beyond me.

And now, for anyone who ever referred to our fair city as "Hollywood for Ugly People," have I got news for you. According to this article, The Daily Beast has worked out some kind of logical formula to determine the Most Attractive State (take that, all you anti-statehood people) in the Country (and they don't mean the monuments are attractive . . . they're talking about the people, folks). Say what? Here's how we ended up on top:


First, we determined who had the most stunners-per-capita (allowing Connecticut and California an equal playing field), tallying the hometowns of more than 300 male and female fashion models, plus 125 men mentioned in 10 years' worth of People's "Sexiest Man Alive" issues. Then, we accounted for the results of the Miss America and Miss USA pageants for the past decade. Finally, in order to measure general attractiveness, we factored in health and fitness data for each state from 2006-2008, ranked by the Trust for America's Health. Each of those three criteria—models, pageant winners, fitness—was weighed equally, with any ties broken by which state performed best in the latter category.



Mmmkay. While this was happy news for me (since I don't consider myself one of those aforementioned "Ugly People"), I still can't help but be stunned (because I don't, incidentally, consider myself an actual Hollywood-type). Not to mention, far as I can remember, we haven't had any homegrown "Sexiest Man Alive" (and Marion Barry doesn't count), or maybe I just missed the Clooney, Depp, and Pitt years in D.C. And, forgive me for being cynical, but having ridden the Metro or bus to work every day for the last eight years, I can attest that it's no Paris runway in there. Sure, there's an odd stunner from time to time, but by and large we Washingtonians like our black clothes, comfy walking shoes, and accessorize with a Washington Post instead of Chanel. Oh, we sure clean up nice (as anyone who's ever been to Georgetown on a Saturday night can attest), but we also fall pretty far (as anyone who's ever been to Georgetown after midnight on a Sunday morning can attest).

But, what's a more logical conclusion to draw (forgive me for attempting to employ logic, by the way), perhaps, is that if D.C. is the Most Democratic and the Most Attractive, does it stand to reason that Democrats are the most attractive? Or maybe that's just George Clooney.

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