A few days ago, as I was pondering how to reduce my luggage to the absolute bare minimum, I wondered if I could find a pair of shoes which were designed as all-weather walking shoes, with a treaded sole, but which would also look acceptable in a business suit (I intend to do my teaching in a suit and tie). I mentioned this idea to my wife and fifteen year old son at breakfast a few days ago. My wife then said that she had just seen an ad from an athletic shoe store, and handed me the ad. We perused the ad together, she looking at it upside down over the kitchen table. "Look," she said, pointing to a one of the pictured specials showing a pair of black walking shoes. "They're called 'Soft Stages.'"
"You mean, 'Soft Stags?'" I answered, and my son burst out laughing. "Stages" just doesn't have the manly sound of "Stags."
That afternoon I went down to "Big 5 Sporting Goods" and checked out the "Soft Stages." They were perfect--about the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. They're not the best looking things in the world (although a cut above the hideous "mailman shoes" I initially wore during my two-year mission in Germany in the late 1970's), but they'll do.
At least I won't be sliding and careening down the streets of Kyiv in a November snow storm wearing my all-leather dress shoes.
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