Something's Afoot
The real reason I had to move back to Austin is because I have such a weakness for terrible puns.
Anyway, National Geographic had a really interesting article this month on one of my favorite things: shoes! I love shoes. You might consider me a bit of a shoe fancier since I have way more pairs than I really need, and all but two or three are primarily ornamental. But at least I don't drop ten grand on a pair that has to be polished with expensive champagne by the light of the moon.
Most of my collection comes from Payless.
But I think the most intriguing part of the feature is the segment on found shoes, such as this 17th century leather shoe, which was discovered sliced into ribbons and stowed in the eaves of a farmhouse. According to the shoe historian quoted in the article, concealing shoes is a long-standing practice with some undetermined symbolic significance; she has amassed a large collection of found shoes. Is it just larks? Any relationship to your standard pair of tennis shoes tied together by their laces and tossed over a telephone wire? You can certainly see why shoes would be powerfully symbolic of their owner; nothing else we wear is quite so carefully fitted or personal, and shoes further shape to fit our feet the more we wear them.
My favorite quote from the article comes from a maker of fetish footwear. "If you are in a high heel, you are in pain, and you are going to make someone pay for it."
I'll have to keep that in mind at work tomorrow.
posted by Beth @ 8:25 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
As a tennis player, I often wonder why "tennis shoes" became such a familiar household term. My family has always used this term. However, when I took up tennis, it all changed. I realized that tennis shoes are in fact different from sneakers. Others tend to say sneakers. This is similar to the soda/pop/coke debate. We always say soda in my family. I find the northern "pop" to be ridiculous. It also bothers me when Texans say, "it's coke...yeah, like all kinds of coke...not just coca-cola." They aren't REAL Texans. Native Texans say soda, bitches! Quit making us out to be stupid!! Not you lilybet. They know who they are! All of you who will read this! All one of you!
What?! My readers are legion, I tell you!!
I say soda, but there's always a slightly uneasy feeling associated with it, as if I should be saying something else. I believe my parents say "pop."
And I do make a distinction between tennies and sneakers. Actually I remember when the serious athletic shoes were aerobics shoes from Reebok, that had laces and high tops and velcro straps around the ankles. They were pink. The 80s were horrible.
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