Wacky Inventions

I’m listening to a story on NPR about slaughtering horses. The U.S. slaughters them and sells them to Europe for food (lean meat, no mad cow disease fears). I’m horrified at first, but then start thinking about it… Why is it okay to slaughter cows but not horses? I mean, they’re all animals. I guess it’s because we don’t bond with cows. We don’t ride them in parades or while on vacation. They’re not pretty. The slaughter story also leads to the question, why do we eat cows but look down on eating horses? Same answers apply, I guess. To hear the story, go to NPR.org.

I like to take online surveys through a couple companies I trust, and yesterday one asked me about my television habits. Boy am I the wrong person for that survey! First it asked about my favorite tv shows. How about Modern Marvels, Breaking Vegas and The Conquerors? And my favorite channels? History, HGTV, TLC (only for What Not To Wear - I’m tired of their other junk), and Food Network. I don’t like soap operas about cheating spouses and murdering neighbors, I don’t like situational comedies because they haven’t been funny in years, and there’s nothing about reality TV that I like (although I supposed What Not to Wear might qualify as reality - but hey, I am female, I must watch shows about shoes!). I pretty much just watch documentaries and home/garden design shows.

I used to watch A&E religiously for Biography, Law & Order, and what I called “Murder Night” which consisted of the New Detectives, the FBI Files and several other shows about crime, but A&E has lost my interest since they changed their programming consists to things like “Dog” and “Airline.” No thanks. And Discovery Channel? I used to love pretty much everything on it, but if I never see Jesse James or those fools at Orange County Chopper again I’ll be a happy girl.

Except that it’s actually still spring.  You wouldn’t know it by the temperatures, though.  On my way to softball practice this evening my car said 108 degrees.  That’s hot even by our standards.  And now it’s 10:30 p.m. and according to the Weather Channel it’s 87 degrees out and the heat index is 91.

Up north people put away their motorcycles for the winter because the weather is too harsh to ride them.  I wonder if they believe that we put ours away in the summer because of the heat?  It wouldn’t be so bad if I rode with no gear, but in jeans, a jacket and a full face helmet, it’s just miserable on a bike.  Wind only helps so much at 108 degrees (did I mention the humidity?).   Summer starts next week and I’m already pining for autumn.

An economics professer at Texas A&M and a former chief economist for the Bush administration, Morgan Reynolds, has stated that he believes the World Trade Center collapse was more likely a controlled demolition than it was a collapse.  I’ve seen some compelling shows about the collapse on cable tv, but I must say, these articles are compelling too.  Read more  here.

Well, first it was capri pants. And then yesterday, I’m ashamed to admit, I bought a pair of pointy-toed shoes. And now for the excuses…

It’s really hard to buy suit shoes this time of year. I just bought my first adult non-polyester suit, and needed appropriate shoes to match. The suit is solid black with no pattern, so I wanted black shoes to match. Easy, right? Not so fast. It’s mid June in Texas, so the stores were stocking sandals. Lots and lots of sandals. Need pink ones? Easy. Lime green? No problem. Pink, lime green and yellow with a flower? Got that too. But black? Nope.

There are some black shoes of course, but I set some rules for myself. No open toes, since the suit was for an interview. No pumps, because I hate the way they feel and look (and I’m too young for them). No super high stripper heels. No thicky clunky heels because I have skinny ankles and they’d add too much weight. No flats, because I don’t want the suit pants to be high-waters if I ever wear them with any of my other heels (plus I’m short).

I tried on round-toed shoes which made my feet look even stubbier than they are. I tried on square-toed shoes which gave my foot a weird shape. And the only style left in current fashion were the pointy-toed shoes. But in Dillards I made a discovery - comfortable ones did exist. I tried on a few that were too pointy and awful, but I also tried on some that actually felt pretty nice. So the shoe search continued, but this time included pointy-toed shoes.

Six stores later, I found a few that went with my suit. They were comfortable, but the heels were too low and both pairs were black with white stitching. I don’t mind stitching, but it made the shoes look more casual and I already have a pair of black sandals with white stitches. One pair were square-toed and the other pointy. Then the saleswoman brought me a few more pairs. One pair I had already passed up because they had a silver badge above the toes that said BCBGGirls and I thought it was a bit gawdy. The other pair had too much toe cleavage for my tastes. Trying to be open-minded, I tried on the BCBG shoes and just about fell when I stood up. Chris and the saleswoman thought it was because the heel was too high, but it was because I was on carpet in a shoe with no tread. Once on the tile walkway they were much better. The silver badge wasn’t as obvious as I expected; instead it added needed detail. The shoes were black leather slingbacks, and well, what can I say, they were perfect.