5 thoughts on “I Told You So”

  2. “‘How can you scold the lacrosse team?”

    From a distance. They carry these great whacking sticks.

    Personally, I hate flip-flops with a passion. Partly, this is a result of growing up in a region of earth were mother nature routinely tried to kill me by covering every surface with points, barbs, and razor edges, many of which were either actively poisonous or contaminated with lethal bacteria. I couldn’t bring myself to wear sandals of any kind until I was an adult living in concrete sheathed urban environment.

    The other problem I have with flip-flops is that people walk in them wrong. If you watch a Japanese film like a Kurosawa period piece you will see that people don’t step when wearing backless sandals but rather shuffle their feet along the surface. The do this even when running which I assume takes a life time of practice. The annoying eponymous sound of the flip-flop is caused by people lifting their feet up off the ground instead of gliding their feet forward while keeping the sandal lightly in contact with the ground. Shuffling is actually safer when moving in an environment with unsure footing like a pool (watch how fishermen that work on lobster boats and the like walk. They don’t stride). I imagine that is the primary reason apart from convenience that flip-flops took off.

    Our transition to more casual wear is partly a result of how clean and safe our modern physical environment has become. We don’t have to worry about our footwear or other clothing having to handle rough terrain, mud or horse manure on a regular basis. We no longer wear hats habitually because we work indoors out of the sun and rain.

    Back when I worked at Apple with its relaxed dress code, it was a real effort to keep shoes of even the most minimal kind on people’s feet. Many were more comfortable bare foot and there wasn’t any practical reason preventing them from running around barefoot.

    I expect this trend to continue.

  4. Jonathan,

    Dude! Even Ralf’s Germans would wear black socks with their sandles.

    You obviously have neither wife nor female offspring. If you did you would be forbidden, under pain worse than death, from wearing flip-flops or sandles with socks.

    And man, what’s with the wedgie up your toe-cleavage their?!? Doesn’t that hurt?

  5. I abandoned the sock with birkenstocks after undergrad. I only did in the winter though. I avoided wearing shoes unless it was rainy or the snow was melting.

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