TIDBITS 08/18/08
Benjamin Mark
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Shoes
Or perhaps Golden Shoe Covers would be better. Doesn't
quite have the same ring to it though, does it?
Anybody out there ever hear of a chap named Harvey Kennedy, G.B.?
He was an inventor and he invented the shoelace. Nobody knows
when. Nobody knows how. But here's the thing of it: We do
know that he made $2,500,000 on his little doo-dad. And
though we don't know when ... we can surmise it was way back
when ... when two and a half mil was two and a half mil. Today
two and a half mil is barely worth ten bucks. Maybe twenty. In
any case ... I'm pretty sure you can't gas up your car with it.
Which brings us via some arcane and mysteriously impenetrable
thought processes to ancient India where it was once decided
by some arcane and mysteriously impenetrable mind that it would
be pretty neat to have a pair of golden shoe covers. This of
course was extravagance in its ultimate form. It's the kind of
thinking that nearly brought the royal treasury of the Maharajahs
to the point of total exhaustion. For those interested as to how
the coffers were almost instantly replenished ... I offer the
following solution: It was well know that back then--unlike today--
when the world was corrupt ... that government functionaries
took the people for all they had. And so a proclamation was made
by the Royal Court that all functionaries had better return to the
court all sums they had gleaned from the populace for the last ten
years ... or else. They royal coffers were back in full bloat within
a month. And for a while at least ... all who wanted golden shoe
covers could have them ... assuming they were of the right lineage.
This last sentence is an extrapolation on my part and the
manufacturers may well not have been so selective.
Want some little lore on shoes? Before tossing a bouquet of flowers
over her head ... the bride used to toss one of her shoes for a
bridesmaid to catch. Woe upon she who missed and had the shoe land
upon her pate. Only crooks and cheats and swindlers wear showy and
expensive shoes. We'll be selling some smudge around the corner for
those of you who care to travel incognito.
So ... how many of you out there are dying to see a pair of golden
shoe covers? Better than solving riddles ... eh wot?
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may
I direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where
you will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area
that says Current Tidbits ... and you'll see those golden covers
made in Northern India in the early part of the 20th century.
And there ya have it.
That's it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark
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