Foot Notes

Well, it turns out that many have mused before me about the shoe that got away. Shortly after I made my desire to linger on lost shoes known to Carter, he produced for me a newspaper article about the flung and hanging tennis shoe. It seems as though the City of Long Beach in California really has a problem with the hanging tennis shoe. “Tired of waiting for shoes to drop” was an article in the Los Angeles Times. Pretty much all the theories in that article are explored in this Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tossing

The article in the Times referred to the “Shoefitti” as a blight to the city and explored the issues of “who” should be responsible for bringing down the shoes. The shoes were compared to “broken windows” as though if the shoes were left hanging "a neighborhood would slowly decay and fall victim serious crimes". I never thought of the hanging or lost soles in this way. I have seen them in so many places and only wondered what was the story behind how they got there and what it was or is about people that keep the shoes appearing “everywhere”.


It was interesting to me to read about the different possible ideas behind how the shoes get to where they go. Having seen one in Canada the presence of many shoe trees in America was very interesting to me. I have only seen the one and I had to leave the country to find it. The Press Telegram had this to say about the shoes and a fine picture to share also:
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_14327152

Still, I have found lost shoes in other places and not hanging from anything. Are these just soles out of step with the lines?