Colorful Characters — Harmon Ligon

Here’s a story from the summer of 1943.

It was apparantly quite popular as filler since it was picked up by quite a few newspapers at the time.

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How Administrators Cheat

While we can complain about how judges cheat, we mustn’t forget that the only reason it gets to judges for them to cheat is because administrators have to cheat first.

Administrators first have to make up specious reasons for enforcing a rule that infringes on personal liberty. Then they have to double down and decide to fight to keep their rule, often in the process coming up with even more ridiculous justifications. I am also deeply suspicious that some of this is prompted by their own incompetence in dealing with something that ought to be part of their daily competence.

I’m reminded of this by a recent story about a kindergartner’s mohawk haircut.

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What Is It About Heels?

There have been two stories in the news lately about women having to give up high heels. One is about Sarah Jessica Parker, Sarah Jessica Parker Is Done With High Heels… Unless They’re Really, Really Nice; and the other about Jessica Simpson, Jessica Simpson Stops Wearing Heels During Second Pregnancy, Practices Walking In Flats.

The real question is why so many women voluntarily wear the things that will ruin their feet.

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Fangs For The Memory — NOT

You may have noticed that Kristen Stewart (of Twilight fame) walked the red carpet at the Academy Awards on crutches. The excuse? The story is that she cut her foot on broken glass.

But I have my doubts.

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Nude Men—But Not Really [NSFW]

One of the “Weird News” stories going around yesterday was this one from the Leopold Museum in Austria, Nude Museum: Austria’s Leopold Lets Visitors Enjoy Without Clothes.

It was part of their current exhibit, “Nude Men from 1800 to Today”.

But there was something just not quite right . . .

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What Barefoot Stupidity Leads To

Duct-taping a child’s shoes and socks onto their feet?

Really?

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15 Annoying Airline Passengers

In some more of its classic hard-hitting journalism, the Huffington Post yesterday gave us their list of 15 Annoying Airline Passengers.

Just guess what was on it.

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Preached

There were a couple of comments on yesterday ‘s entry, Preach it, Brother, that I thought I’d say a few words about.

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Colorful Characters — Abram Lahdenpera

Here’s another in my series of Colorful Characters, that is, various barefooters in history (or currently).

Today’s barefooter is from the early 1900s.

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Kiwis: Don’t Ruffle Their Feathers — Part 2

Let’s continue on looking at the incident in which Erin Mackie wrote a letter badmouthing the predilection for New Zealanders to not worry about going around barefoot. Part 1 is here.

Here in Part 2 we find that there were some repercussions to Ms. Mackie’s ignorance.

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Kiwis: Don’t Ruffle Their Feathers — Part 1

As I noted when I wrote about Peter Jackon, New Zealand is probably one of the more barefoot-friendly countries (despite problems with Air New Zealand).

So, what happens when you mix in a stereotypical “Ugly American”?

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A “Health Hike”

This is just a short little blurb, complete with picture, from a September, 1916 Philadelphia newspaper.

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Peter Jackson: A Bit of a Disappointment

Peter Jackson was always known for being a bit of a hobbit himself. New Zealanders are pretty comfortable with bare feet pretty much anywhere, even out and about, and Peter Jackson was no exception.

But that has changed.

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The Cat That Sits Down on a Hot Stove-Lid

Via a comment from Dan (thanks!), we get a commentary from the Thomaston (Georgia) Times, entitled Life, liberty, and the pursuit of being barefoot.

Excuse me while I go cry some crocodile tears.

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A Couple of Cute Barefoot Stories

As I was researching my entry on tetanus, I happened on two other newspaper stories that I found rather amusing.

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