The Rev. Joseph Ratliffe and Bennett Perry join the beauty quens and, far left, Kathy Powell in celebrating Friday.
A few interesting tidbits from Friday’s ceremony:
* 1 — The number of references to Embassy Square by its old name, Embassy Block. Mayor Clem Seifert made the slip.
* 1 — The number of appearances by the sun, which poked through the clouds about 1:30.
* 1 — The number of black people (the Rev. Joseph Ratliffe) out of the nine seated on the dais during the ceremony, which was unfortunate for a project meant to benefit a community that’s roughly half black. The crowd was much more diverse.
Sen. Elizabeth Dole loves the military and misses Pillowtex.
* 1 — The number of times Sen. Elizabeth Dole mentioned Pillowtex. That’s one more than the number of times she referred to Harriet & Henderson Yarns, Americal, A.E. Nathan and J.P. Taylor combined.
* 2-to-1 — The rough ratio of the time Dole spent discussing the military to the time she spent talking about Embassy Square, which was the reason she came to town. The Perry Library seemed to be awkwardly squeezed into a standard “home visiting the constituents” speech.
* 9 — The length, in minutes, of Dole’s speech, the longest of the 50-minute ceremony.
* 8 — The length, in minutes, of Seifert’s speech, which he started by saying, “You didn’t come here to hear me talk, and I’m not going to make you listen to me.”
* $9 million — The amount Sam Watkins said the Embassy Square Foundation has raised do far. That leaves $6 million to go for the performing arts center.