Thinking About Shoes

There's a dude in Norway who is on trial for killing 77 people last year.  In the courtroom today, a relative of one of the victims stood up and threw his shoe at the guy.

It didn't say what nationality the shoe-thrower was.  In various places in the Middle East, it is considered a serious insult to throw a shoe at all, much less at somebody.  Remember that Iraqi journalist who threw his shoe at George W. Bush in Baghdad?

As a make-shift weapon or projectile, a shoe is handy, I guess.  It's heavy enough not only to fly through the air but also inflict a little bit of damage too, I suppose.  At least, a substantial shoe is.  I don't think you'd get much result by tossing fuzzy house slippers at anybody.

Nikita Khrushchev was said to have banged his shoe like a gavel (or maybe a hammer) on the lectern at the United Nations in 1960, although there are conflicting reports as to whether that actually happened or not.  Apparently the only photograph of the incident has been proven a fake.  Still, if you wanted to pound on something, your shoe is immediately to hand.

Some shoes figure prominently in literature, such as Dorothy's ruby slippers and the glass one Cinderella lost. 

One of the most important and storied battles of the American Civil War involved shoes.  The nearly barefoot Confederate army had heard there was a shoe factory in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and drove into Union territory in order to help themselves to its wares.

We can wait for the other shoe to drop, walk in somebody else's shoes, put the shoe on the other foot, and, if the shoe fits, wear it.

Shoes have long been excellent hiding places, for money, secret maps, knives, drugs, you name it. And then there was Richard Reid back in 2001 who got caught with a bomb in his shoe on an airplane.


I wouldn't have wanted to be in that guy's shoes.