Bikinis in February!

One of my favorite days of the year, right up there with my birthday and Christmas, is the second week of February when the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is released. There are people who will argue that in today's age, with the internet and Maxim and Victoria's Secret, that the swimsuit issue is outdated and really serves no purpose. I disagree. While it is true that we are now overloaded with similar images on a day to day basis instead of once a year, I still enjoy flipping through SI's magazine every year if for no other reasons than nostalgia and tradition. You often hear people talking about looking through their dad's Playboy collection when they were growing up and how that helped introduce them to girls. I didn't have access to Playboy growing up, but I did have access to the swimsuit issue. I still remember seeing Tyra Banks on the cover of the 1997 issue and thinking "You know? These girls may not be so bad after all." Or something like that. Anyway, it is kind of funny looking back on it all because now that I have heard Tyra talk she is super obnoxious and really wouldn't be my type of girl at all. But I didn't know any better at the time. And my magazine didn't talk at all, so how would I have known any better?

I won't comment too much on the 2010 issue. Everyone has seen them before and they are all pretty much the same. I think it was a neat idea to include some Olympians. I am also surprised that the body painting has lasted as long as it has. That section has always been hit or miss with me. I didn't particularly care for the map theme from last year's issue. This year's theme was wives and girlfriends (WAGs) of soccer players, which I actually thought turned out pretty well. Below is a picture of English WAG Abbey Clancy from the issue as an example of the body painting.