October 25: Shoes

October 25 is Shoemaker's Day, the feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, the patron saints of cobblers. 10 things you might not know about shoes.

1. It's thought humans started wearing shoes about 40,000 years ago, and that the first shoes were probably sandals made from whatever was to hand - papyrus, leaves, wood and animal hides. Scientists worked this out by looking at the feet of ancient human skeletons. After people started wearing shoes, their toes became shorter and weaker. The oldest depiction of shoes is in a 15,000 year old Spanish cave painting.
2. Shoes designed for the left and right foot weren't invented until 1818, in Philadelphia. Up until then there was no distinction and either shoe could be worn on either foot.
3. High heels are nothing new, however. The first high heels were made for men - the cavalry of ancient Persia, as heels helped keep their feet secure in the stirrups. Horses were a symbol of wealth, and so high heeled shoes signified a person did a lot of riding - so they became a symbol of social status. In the 16th century aristocratic women began wearing shoes with heels so high that their servants had to help them walk. Prostitutes in Venice used to wear shoes like stilts, so high they could actually fall to their death from them. Eventually a law was passed limiting the height of heels on women's shoes. Today, high heels for men are known as French shoes, because the 5' 5" Louis XIV wore them to make himself look taller, and helped make them popular.
4. Platform shoes date back to Ancient Greece, where the lead actors in tragedies wore them to show their elevated status on stage. Minor characters wore low shoes or no shoes at all.
5. The most expensive pair of shoes ever were the actual Ruby Slippers worn by Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz. They sold at auction in 2000 for $660,000.
6. A method of sizing shoes dates back to King Edward II, who issued a decree in 1324 stating that three grains of barley equalled one inch and hence the grains could be used to measure the size of people's feet. The UK and Ireland still use footwear measures based on this.
7. He wasn't the only English king to make laws about shoes. Henry VIII, ashamed of his gout-ridden feet, passed a law saying that all men's shoes had to be 6 inches wide, so that his own wide shoes wouldn't stand out.
8. 6 out of 10 of all the world's shoes are made in China.
9. It's a stereotype that women go crazy buying shoes. According to statistics, the average woman has 21 pairs while the average man only has 12, with just three pairs being worn on a regular basis. Some women are known for having huge numbers of shoes. Imelda Marcos had 3,400 pairs and singer Celine Dion has 3,000. Danielle Steele, however, is said to have twice as many - 6,000 pairs.
10. A fetish for collecting high heeled shoes is called altocalciphilia.

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Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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