It’s all the Romans’ fault
p. I heard an interesting snippet on the “Today”:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/ programme yesterday morning. Apparently, a bronze Roman statue had been found in London depicting a Roman with the usual sandals and—this is the important bit—socks. It seems that the Romans went au naturel in the foot department in Italy, but donned the socks in Britain. The gloss on the story was that this shows the heritage of the Britons’ much derided penchant for the socks and sandals look. Cue lots of “What have the Romans ever done for us?” comments… Well, it is the silly season—not that there’s any dearth of serious news at the moment.
p. I would provide a link to the story, but I can’t find one anywhere. I makes me wonder if it was all an elaborate hallucination, brought on by an early morning caffeine deficiency.
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Here's a link: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/08/26/london.roman.socks/index.html (Here in California, of course, we keep a close eye on any major world news events involving sandals.)----- We always were told that they didn't need socks because they rubbed their legs with nettles to warm themselves up.
And amazingly I found a URL for this ...
http://www.planet-science.com/aboutsy/news/psissue34.html#03
by pete @ 27/08/2003 8:08 pm • Permalink •
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The BBC did eventually put up a page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3181443.stm
There's a sidebar link to the mildly scary sandals and socks website, who really should learn about cutting up pages:
http://www.sandalandsoxer.co.uk/home.htm
by paul mison @ 28/08/2003 8:08 am • Permalink •
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Thanks for all the links -- it looks like I should have been more patient or more thorough. Or both.
Joe: A slow news week for CNN too, eh?
pete: Eeek! I think I would rather have cold feet than cold feet with nettle stings. Those Romans were weird.
paul: I really don't know what to say about sandalsandsoxer.co.uk -- I'm going to have nightmares tonight, I just know it.
Actually, my Dad is a bit of a sandals and socks man. He has also been known to sport a rather natty knotted hanky when in a hot climate.
by bsag @ 28/08/2003 8:08 pm • Permalink •
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woohoo!! Now I can wear socks and sandals with impunity. I may not speak latin but I can at least dress like a Roman
by dave m @ 30/08/2003 2:09 am • Permalink •
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