Monday, April 14, 2008

invention that should be making somebody rich but is not for profit



A while ago, I lamented the fact that people who have a size 6.5 right foot and a size 7.0 left foot can't buy shoes a la carte to fit their freakishly mismatched feet. Nikki suggested that I find someone with a size 7.0 right foot, a size 6.5 left foot, and my same taste in shoes to go nuts with at Nordstrom. Megan took it one step further and posited that there oughta be a group whose sole purpose is to facilitate matchmaking between complementary-footed and like-minded people.

Well brace yourselves people, because NOSE is here to satisfy your needs!!! The National Odd Shoe Exchange was founded in 1943 by Ruth Rubin-Feldman, a polio survivor who had "feet of significantly different sizes." Wartime rationing made it difficult for Ms. Rubin-Feldman to buy two pairs of shoes, so this spunky little chicklet (I'm assuming that she's spunky. I'm also assuming that she looks like little orphan Annie) took matters into her own hands. Way to go Ruthie!

When my friend Lindsey sent me the link to NOSE, I was so psyched, because I need ("want," whatever) these shoes. My excitement was tempered however when I read the various reasons why people use their NOSE (amputation, club foot, missing toes, extra toes, etc.). I contemplated faking "drop foot" (because who even knows what that is?) for acceptance into the exchange, but then I read that NOSE prides itself on being "unsullied by moral constraints." SCORE!!! Do you think they have Manolos?

3 comments:

BN said...

That girl in the photo looks like the kid who everybody says is the reincarnation of Chris Farley:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2148/2142982474_234e6f693d_o.jpg

BN said...

Okay, for some reason, the comment section cuts off the full URL that I'm trying to put in there.

Just Google Chris Farley reincarnated, and look at the photo of that girl with her mom, and you'll see what I mean.

Matt said...

i suffer from drop foot. seriously.