yozz

Whether I like or don't like someone, man or woman, doesn't depend on shoes or clothes. What interests me is the mind. I have seen some men in heels in Amsterdam that I would certainly not like when you looked at the rest. So blatantly exhibitionistic as they were is completely against my nature. If it is all done in a style that I can find myself in, the person may or may not be interesting. Y.

This is like asking a gourmet whether he would like to work in the kitchen. Not me.

Some two years ago there was a discussion about bigger sizes and I think it was dr1819 who mentioned that according to his investigations at least half of all the large sizes were sold to men. He seemed to be very experienced with respect to polls and statistics. Y.

With regard to Home Land Security I have to question is the loss of individual freedom and the invasion of our privacy a price worth paying...in my view...and it is only my view I think that the price is far too high and means that the terrorist have already won by not letting us carry out our lives in the way we would be doing if it were not for all the problems....in short I just want to be left alone and not have a incompetent government poking around in my life....have you seen all the scandal here in the Uk at the moment...you really can't trust a politician...they seldom make things better...but sure make things worse

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This so-called security at the airports really ticks me off.

Whenever a journalist wants to investigate this (s)he finds ways to circumvent it.

One can think of various ways oneself.

Like the guy with the bomb in his shoe. Only afterwards they started checking

for it.

I think that it was on 9/11 itself already that I had figured out that Al Qaida

hardly had to do anything more than hinting at a new attack and we would

do all the damage ourselves. They have us terrorized. (the attacks in Madrid and

London were not Al Qaida itself).

It is just the politicians who want to make a show of what they are doing for us

(more to us).

The way the Bush administration had everybody worried till even in the smallest

towns looked rather disgusting to me. And then they could use it as an excuse

to make 1984 reality.

Each time I come at an airport I get annoyed at it all. Empty your pockets. Take off

your belt. Leave behind those nail scissors you forgot about. As if someone who

knows karate cannot do far worse damage...

OK, I can go on for much longer. It is really a pet peeve.

Y.

Having spent quite some time in Japan over the past 20 years, I have a somewhat different opinion. The Japanese have a very rigid educational system. A child with any deviation of the standard can be kicked from school. I read a story of a child that had from itself non-black hair and had severe problems, because the teachers thought she had dyed her hair. It is only natural that many, after leaving school will rebel by doing something completely different. That is more a search for personal identity than collective identity. The Japanese women are extremely fashion sensitive. For the big fashion houses their Japanese outlets are super important. It is really a pleasure for the eye to walk through certain parts of Tokyo. Indeed, many high heels, even though many seem to have problems walking in them properly. Often their right foot is far from straight. I have seen this only with Japanese women. This fashion sense is mostly with the women. I have seen couples visiting a temple at New Years day with the wife in a beautiful kimono and the husband in slob. Nobody seems to care. Things are different when you go to the villages. I have been in a village where the little children were really looking at me from a distance and were telling each other "gaijin, gaijin" and finally one got enough courage and approached me and said "herro" and then ran away quickly. You didn't see fashionable people there. Just hard working people. Y.

My preferences are: 1: in the street: pants 2:at home: a skirt, unless my belly hurts in which case a dress. Y.

You start seeing this more and more, that in the womens section there are shoes that are inspired by male-fashion shoes and then 'feminized' by placing a heel or giving them something else that is definitely uncommon with mens shoes. I noticed this first a few years ago. I guess it is a way by which the fashion designers who run out of imagination continuously try to conquer a part of male fashion for women. I would say, they are womens shoes, but with a male background. Y.

Just stand a little closer to the camera

Your problem is as old as civilization. It has various names. Basically it is about people marrying outside their social niche. There is no problem between the two getting married, but the problem is with the family. The more well known situation is when a 'commoner' marries into a noble family. (lots of fairy tales.....) He won't see the problem spontaneously, because he is both at ease with you, and with his family. You should be able to tell him that you feel a bit uneasy. Probably nobody wants you to feel that way. It may also be that you think you don't fit in and that causes the feeling. He may discuss with them and they may tell you that they love you no matter what. If on the other hand, they treat you like you don't belong there, best is to try to minimize the contact. My sister had something similar with the family of her husband (although not about shoes and clothes, but more socially). And they had to visit the family every Saturday. Eventually she told him that he could go alone. Since then the relation has become much better, because now, when she sees them it is about specific business and not just sitting with a cup of tea and basically staring at each other. Of course YMMV, because it all depends on how he reacts to it. Just make sure it won't spoil your relation. Y.

Not Kilogrammes surely!?

Actually, it is his shoe size.

I have always wondered why people tend to think that IQ is important.

In my profession are some of the smartest people in the world (according

to IQ), but some of them are plain stupid in nearly everything else.

To me, IQ reflects your ability to take IQ tests. And those tests are

culture bound. Example: what is the next number in the sequence

3 1 4 1 5

You could say 1 and that looks quite fine, but if you happen to know

a lot of digits of pi, you would select 9. How is some psychologist going

to say that either one or the other is wrong?

And how about people who have been studying a lot to take these tests

versus people who have never seen one? Or people who didn't sleep the

night before. Yet psychologists then think you may be stupid and send you

off to a school for the mentally handicapped (this happened in California).

I am not sure this poll is a good idea. These polls are not anonymous (or

was that changed recently?). People with a low IQ won't fill it out and

people in the top bracket probably won't either because they don't want to

be seen as boasting.

How about weight x IQ / shoesize ?

Y.

Au contraire. To the best of my knowledge, all Christian churches recognize 1] Adultery and 2] Fraud (misrepresentation) as legitimate grounds for divorce. Many churches also recognize abandonment or desertion as another legitimate basis for divorce (but proving who is the responsible party in a church court may prove to be a very sticky business). If a person is divorced on legitimate grounds that the church recognizes, then the injured party has the right to re-marry.

Therefore, following this same line of reasoning, I can find no legitimate grounds for anything that we would call a "same-sex marriage".

No no. The Catholic church doesn't recognozie divorce.

Its position is that if there is misrepresentation when the ceremony took place, the

marriage isn't valid. Hence there never was a marriage. This is completely different.

Example: if for instance one of the parties knows in advance that he/she cannot

get children and withholds this information from the other party, the marriage isn't

valid.

Then in the middle ages they made a few rather weird constructions (non-consumption)

to get out of a marriage (for much money), again by declaring the original marriage

invalid. I don't think these are still used.

I have absolutely no idea what you mean with your last sentence. The church does

in the church things according to what the church preaches. In our current society

that is in no way connected to what ever legal contract the state allows between

individuals. The state is not to take the role of the church and the church is not

to take the role of the state. If it would, you might be forced to become catholic,

presbiterian muslim budist or hindoe when the majority in the country would

decide so. Not an idea I like.

Y.

Perhaps it's the traditionalist in me, but I do wish they'd call it something else.

Actually this semantic problem does have a solution already:

civil marriage: marriage.

church marriage: holy matrimony.

As we will all agree, there is nothing holy about a civil marriage. To some extent, it

is just a contract.

The two are clearly and completely different. The Catholic church for instance doesn't

recognize divorce and hence, someone who is divorced cannot remarry with them.

Whether the church marriage is open for everybody depends on the local church

communities. Here in Holland there are protestant communities that allow it. But this

is up to the local communities.

Y.

I recently bought these comfortable shoes. They have a 7cm heel, although it doesn't look like it. I got them in a factory outlet shop of Pikolinos during a recent visit to Spain. They were on sale for 49 Euros (real leather). Normal price is more like 79 Euros. Y.

As I posted earlier in another thread, I received my shoes from Burlesque Blue on Tuesday. And, as I also posted, here are pics of them. Classic black calfskin pumps with 6" stiletto heels. Size UK 9

They look a bit like the ones in your avatar, or am I mistaken?

Y.

I have quite a few pairs of flats. Mainly boots. It is the only thing I can wear to work. They don't look very feminine, but they are definitely different from those of the mens department. If only for their size. (I have small feet). But in the other side I have much more choice, and I find styles that I like much more. If you are in a busy street and just look at peoples shoes, the big wide square ugly shoes are nearly all mens shoes. I don't see anything charming in them. Y.

I wonder what the age vs. height profile would be for people here. It seems a bit different as many discover the magic of heels early but only at a later age start some serious heeling. Y.

I decided I cannot vote in this pole. I don't feel confident to project my personal feelings and observations onto 50% of the population. My wife is comfortable with me wearing heels as long as I don't make a spectacle of myself. Many of her friends (and mine as well) would be having difficulty understanding it (to say the least). And what she cares about is "my good name". To her I am no less manly, whatever shoes I wear, or for that matter a skirt or other comfortable clothes. As long as I behave like a man. That is what counts. One of her sisters thinks the same (and knows about it). Her other sister would never understand. Never ever. If there would have been the option: "some do and some don't" I would have voted for that. Y.

Most of my heels are around 3 inches. With those I am very comfortable. I can walk for a whole day in town with most of them. Some are not quite as comfortable and after an hour they start hurting. I have a few heels of 4 inches or higher, but I never take them outside and also in the house I use them only for special occasions/moods. Nearly all have a somewhat wider heel so as not to cry for attention. With this I feel completely comfortable and most of the time I forget even that I am wearing heels. Y.

One of my greatest annoyances is being phoned by people who want to sell you things that you are absolutely not interested in. I usually tell them immediately that I don't buy anything by telephone but a significant fraction is so stupid as to not understand that. One reaction is: "Just a moment please" and then I put the phone down and go do something else. I also think it is rather ironic that I have to explain to a woman the meaning of the word "no". (that was the most recent one). The worst I encountered recently was a call center that rings your phone and when you pick it up, you get to hear: "One moment please, you are being connected with your referent". And when you just hang up, they keep doing this every day till you don't. Y.

Comics and/or game show hosts usually toss lines like that into their "patter" for humor..I would guess that there was a lot of laughter from that.....

Actually not as this one is without public. It is just a word game where the contestants

have to answer questions to get letters in a sentence and the see who gets the

sentence first. In this case the answer (40%) was already given and they had to

work their way to the question. After one of them got it right he made that remark.

This guy just wants to look smart and show off that he knows a lot.

That is why I see it as a real remark, but of course he could be referring to TV's

rather than our community.

Y.

Chalk down another advance: A few days ago there was a game show on Dutch TV and the question was "what percentage of high heel wearers has a heel related accident during their life?" The answer was 40%, but then the thing came: the host said: this happens to women.....mostly. Nice to see that people are aware of men wearing heels, especially since the organization he represents is rather conservative, but he himself tries to project a rather modern image. Looks like there is a slow advance. Y.

Seeing as the GBP is so deperessed these days, you would do well to look at www.archieeyebrows.co.uk as they are selling a nice range of 2.5" heels (not 6cm as they quote, but more like 7cm) and the prices are much more reasonable.

They are clearly mens shoes, as they start in size 42. Even if you take one off,

they are way too big for me. I will happily buy similar shoes at the womens part

of the shop for much less.

But it makes me happy to see that heels like that which I have on several boots

are now available as mens shoes. It also made my wife very happy to see this.

This way, if any of her friends were to see me and later make remarks to her, she

can explain that this is an upcoming fashion.

(and if necessary even point to the web site).

It may be a good idea for those of us who still have to tell their wife about their heels,

to keep a link to this page.

Y.

When I grew up in the Netherlands, it was the responsibility of the occupant of a house to keep the sidewalk clean. I have no idea how these things go with apartment buildings. I remember spending quite some time cleaning our sidewalk, even though as children we were not seeing the need for it. Y.

When I put in my oak floor, I experimented a bit with a few spare pieces of wood and stiletto heels. It is not the regular pressure that does the damage. The worst damage comes from the edges of the (steel) heel tip. Those edges are usually rather sharp and when one doesn't stand straight the pressure becomes much worse that what one gets from weight/surface. While standing straight left some light marks (not always), the other really cut into the wood at points. And that each time. Conclusion: to limit damage, make sure the heel tip doesn't have sharp edges. Y.

According to the source where I found it, it came from a UK toilet.... But the stuff about the h is rather common in many languages, especially French. And they put the h where there isn't supposed to be one. In Dutch we have a sentence making fun of it: "Er zat een ondje in een okje met een oopje ooi. Ap zei et ondje en hop was et ooi." This is supposed to be: "Er zat een hondje in een hokje met een hoopje hooi. Hap zei het hondje en op was het hooi". Meaning: "There was a doggy in a doghouse with a little pile of hay. Hap said the doggy and gone was the hay". Maybe there are sentences like this in English as well? The following little poem came from the internet in the 80's. Things like this I don't forget. I really hate this dumb machine I wish that they would sell it. I never does quite what I want but only what I tell it. Y.