Another historical milestone.

Now that we've just finished celebrating the 230th birthday of our nation -- she doesn't look a day over 198 -- it seems only fair that we observe the birthday of another institution whose importance has been critical to modern culture, to democracy, to history itself: the bikini, formally introduced 60 years ago today by two Frenchmen. (See? They're not all bad.)

Today we salute you, Louis Reard and Jacques Heim, for making life just a little better for men everywhere, though of course I wouldn't dare speak for women on this one. None of this is to imply, of course, that the bikini ranks up there with the birth of American democracy in terms of historical importance, but . . . I mean, why split hairs?


America and the bikini: Would either one be quite as great without the other? I submit that they would not.