In high school, foreign languages were taught using slide shows with taped narration. In one of the lessons, a child tries on his father’s shoes. His sister then tells him that the shoes looked like boats. All eyes in the classroom turned and looked down at my feet. Now, whenever my sister sees a pair of my shoes lying about, she says she knows they are mine, because they are “comme les bateaux”.
While I was in college, Baker leather shoes with their slightly rounded stacked wooden heels were all the rage. While shoe shopping in the local mall, my friend and I spotted a pair in the window that would have gone perfectly with an outfit I planned to wear on a date that weekend. Not realizing that this particular shoe maker\’s largest size was an 8, I politely asked the young man who came to assist me if I could see the shoe in a size 10. He immediately replied that no, they did not come that large, but, if I wanted, I could certainly wear the boxes home. Since I had never been sensitive about the size of my feet, I actually thought that his reply was very funny.
A few days later I ran into him in the cafeteria. He was mortified and unable to speak.