Sunday, July 5, 2009

Spotlight
The bikini made its debut on this date in 1946. Engineer Louis Reard created the two-piece women's bathing suit and named it after the Bikini Atoll, the place in the Marshall Islands where four days earlier the US had begun a series of atomic and hydrogen bomb tests. Reard hoped that his bikini would also "explode" upon the world. It took several years before women began to be brave enough to don the suits; the trend really caught on with the 1960 Brian Hyland song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." Reard once said of his creation, "A bikini is not a bikini unless it can be pulled through a wedding ring."

Quote
"Women shop for a bikini with more care than they do a husband. The rules are the same. Look for something you'll feel comfortable wearing. Allow for room to grow." — Erma Bombeck

Question of the Day
Who wrote the song 'She Wore an Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini'?
It was Paul Vance whose real name is Paul Vance Valkenburgh. Though a news article in the New York Times announced his death, he is very much alive.

Paul Vance wrote this song when he was a young man. He wrote it for his wife; she never had a the guts to wear a bikini, so she bought a tiny one for their young daughter. Mr. Vance foolishly signed all rights to the song over to a recording company and never did collect royalties on the song, nor was he even credited for writing the song. It was sung by Brian Hyland.

Word of the day
spa

1. A resort providing therapeutic baths.
2. A resort area having mineral springs.
3. A fashionable hotel or resort.
4. A health spa.
5. A tub for relaxation or invigoration, usually including a device for raising whirlpools in the water....

[After Spa, a resort town of eastern Belgium.]... taken from the name of the famous mineral springs in Spa, Belgium...
(© Houghton Mifflin Company)

Today's History

Sir Isaac Newton

• Principia Mathematica: Isaac Newton published the three-volume work containing his laws of motion and law of universal gravitation (1687)
• Venezuela, Algeria, Cape Verde: declared independence (1811, 1962, 1975)
• Salvation Army: Christian charitable organization was founded by William Booth to feed the poor of London (1865); it received its name 13 years later
• Dolly the sheep: the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult cell was born in Scotland (1996)

Today's Birthdays

Amélie Mauresmo

• P.T. Barnum (1810-1891): showman who believed there was "a sucker born every minute"
• Georges Pompidou (1911-1974): president and premier of France; world leaders Édouard Herriot (1872-1957) and Willem Drees (1886-1988) share this birth date
• Bill Watterson (51): creator of Calvin and Hobbes
• Edie Falco (46): the titular star of Nurse Jackie, formally Carmela Soprano on The Sopranos; actors Katherine Helmond (81), Shirley Knight (73) and Kathryn Erbe (43) were also born on this date
• Amélie Mauresmo (30): tennis champ with the strong one-handed backhand; also, sports figures Rich "Goose" Gossage (58) and James Lofton (53)