The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: Bikinis are the Bomb - Literally

Let me start by saying two things:

1) I did not post on Monday per my usual weekly TMITILTW programming because it was a holiday and it kind of didn't feel like Monday and I had a fantasy football draft and Stacie & I completely demolished our closet and put it back together again. But, fear not! I have not forgotten to come bring you completely random, mostly useless information. How else will you wow your friends this week?

AND

2) I learned several things interesting this week - wholesome things such as the lyric in America the Beautiful that says "thine alabaster cities gleam" was written because Katherine Lee Bates had just visited the great White City that was the 1893 World's Exposition here in Chicago. But in researching for confirmation of this I stumbled upon something that I felt was took the cake for this coveted weekly installment.

The Bikini. Capitalized. That's correct - when it was first called the bikini it was capitalized because it was named for the Bikini Atoll. The Bikini Atoll consists of 23 islands as part of the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean.

Believe it or not, the islands were not named as such because the natives pranced around in the latest two-piece swimwear. No, rather the controversial two-piece swimwear was introduced and named for these islands. I'm sure you've heard that before, but why were these islands deemed worthy of having a fancy new swimsuit named for them?

The reason? These Bikini Islands were the site of several nuclear device tests by the United States, the first of which was on July 1st, 1946. Bob Hope said of the Bikini Island nuclear tests:

"As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on earth that hadn't been touched by the war and blew it to hell."

Operation Crossroads Explosion at Bikini

Just shortly after the first nuclear test, Louis Reard's self-proclaimed "world's smallest swimsuit" debuted in Paris. He called it the Bikini because he anticipated that the reaction upon seeing one would be the same as if one saw a nuclear explosion. His design was not worn quite as frequently as other competing models due to the lack of modesty in design (he insisted that to truly be a Bikini, it must be able to be pulled through a wedding ring.) Nevertheless, the name stuck - even for slightly more modest attire.

PS - I have no idea how I got from America the Beautiful to the bikini, but my weird journey is your crazy gain.