Isn't she lovely?

I enjoy beauty contests as much as the next guy, but I think this is one most of us can skip:

The outgoing Miss Outdoors, Dakota Abbott, said at a Dorchester County, Md., competition that the key to a successful muskrat skinning is a very sharp knife.

The 17-year-old girl, who won the Miss Outdoors title in 2008, earned $100 and a set of muskrat traps by winning the women's junior championship trophy in a muskrat-skinning contest last weekend, the Los Angeles Times said Monday.

"You want a real sharp knife and a good grip," Abbott said at Saturday's event.

I'm gonna go ahead and defer to the expert on that one, seeing as how I've never skinned a muskrat and I don't plan on starting anytime in the near future.