New Sculpture Commemorates V-J Day Kiss

60 years after the fact, a world-famous kiss has been immortalized with a sculpture in New York's Times Square. J. Seward Johnson, Jr., known for his life-sized, intricately realistic, bronze human figures, has recreated the iconic 1945 shot - of a U.S. Navy sailor passionately kissing a white-clad nurse - taken by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. I thought it sweet that the nurse, 87-year-old great-grandmother Edith Shain, was present for the installation and remarked on how she wished that she and the sailor had exchanged even a few words. (Names would have been particularly helpful, as at least 20 men have claimed to have been The Guy who locked lips with Edith.) What a nice, 3-D reminder of a good, collective day.