You’re In the Wrong Store

I was shopping on Friday at a different grocery store than my usual one. As I was wheeling my cart along, one of the employees pointed at my feet and said, “You’re in the wrong store.”

But I bet it’s not what you think.

Read Full Post »

Snakes and Snakebite

I generally don’t worry about venomous snakes when I am out hiking, but it sure is a concern of those who I meet. So the question arises, just how much risk is one taking when out hiking barefoot?

Read Full Post »

Sir, Are You Okay?

It’s funny how we tend to orbit our comfort zone. We get used to doing things a certain way. We go to the same places; we mainly shop the same places.

I suspect that’s particularly true when one regularly goes barefoot. You’re just interested in getting your stuff done, so you go to the places where you haven’t been hassled before.

But it is also true that we tend to exaggerate in our minds the possibility of attention. Even in new places, it doesn’t happen much.

But there are times when it can be a real surprise.

Read Full Post »

Try and Stop Me

Here’s a bit of a cute anecdote about Dizzy Dean before he became a pro pitcher.

It’s from Bennett Cerf’s column in 1959.

Dizzy Dean, one of the all-time baseball greats, tells this story
on himself. When he was pitching for an Arkansas hillbilly nine in
his salad days, a rival outfit, determined to undo him, sprinkled
broken blass around the mound. Diz, barefoot, hurled six shutout
innings without a squawk, but then he stalked over to the rival
manager and grumbled, “Joe, you just gotta get this broken
glass away from here. It’s cuttin’ up the ball!”

Try and Stop Me

 

Read Full Post »

Russell Brand. Scofflaw?

No way. It’s just the usual set of ignorati.

Read Full Post »

I’ve Got CIVD

It’s that time of year again (at least in the Northern hemisphere). For those who cannot say “me all face“, there are other things that let you go barefooted in colder weather.

Read Full Post »

Why He Wasn’t Cold

Here’s a story that made the rounds in 1898. Despite an unfortunate stereotype by having silly “Indian-speak”, it does make an interesting point.

Read Full Post »

Colorful Characters — “Shoeless” Joe Jackson

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson was a baseball player from the early 1900s who was implicated in the “Black Sox” scandal of the 1919 World Series.

Here’s how Wikipedia says he got his nickname.

Read Full Post »

The Congressman’s Wife

Here’s a rather interesting old story regarding a barefoot Congressman’s wife.

It’s from Drew Pearson’s column from 1957.

Read Full Post »

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Last time I went Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow., it was from inline skating.

This time, it was from wearing shoes at a wedding.

Read Full Post »

Barefoot Car Buying

Sometimes I suspect that bare feet make pretty good scumbag detectors. There is often a certain suspicious mindset and lack of broadmindedness that they invoke.

And in my experience, that applies to buying a car.

Read Full Post »

Walking on Broken Glass

With apologies to Annie Lennox, Walking on Broken Glass is not all that difficult.

I just made a YouTube video of me crushing broken glass, barefoot.

Read Full Post »

Free-Range Bare Feet

There’s an interesting movement out there called “Free-Range Kids”. It’s based on a book with the same name, by Lenore Skenazy.

The basic idea is that we are over-coddling our kids by not letting them go out on their own and explore, that we hover over them with horrible, unjustified concerns about their safety. Yet, my generation grew up riding our bicycles everywhere and given the freedom to explore and learn. (And it’s not like things are less safe these days, either.)

What prompts this entry is an incident in which a police officer brought a kid back home for being barefoot.

Read Full Post »

Barefoot Boyhood: Jimmy Carter

Like nearly all southern boys of his age, President Jimmy Carter went barefoot as a boy. He wrote about it in his book, An Hour Before Daylight, Memories of a Rural Boyhood.

This is what he wrote:

Read Full Post »

Don’t Ask, Don’t Yell

As you all may have been able to tell, I was up north over the weekend. That entailed a bit of restaurant eating, which led to my Restaurant Tips for dining barefoot. While we were up there, we also ate at another restaurant (twice). It’s local, and I’ve been eating barefoot there for years without a bit of problem. I think the owner has even seen me barefoot (when you go there that many times, you are bound to be noticed eventually). So it is a very pleasant, stress-free place to go.

But one other thing happened that prompts this particular entry.

Read Full Post »