Shoes and insults

I had to laugh at the news that an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad. You see, in Iraqi culture, throwing your shoes at someone is showing the worst kind of contempt for someone. I almost wish that at least one of those shoes had whacked Bush upside the head and hard. Goodness knows, he sure deserves the contempt of the Iraqi people for trashing their country and their culture with his pre-emptive war and lies for starting it in the first place. But at least we'll finally be rid of this miscreant for a President in a little over a month, so that's something to be thankful for. Of course, how did Bush react to this "shoe attack"? He joked that it was a size 10, like that really mattered. I mean, I suppose that's one way to diffuse the tension of just such a moment, but still, I wish that the rest of the audience had gotten up on their feet and cheered the shoe attacker for showing such contempt for our President, who has lied and committed heinous crimes throughout his entire tenure in office.

There seems to be something about using shoes to insult someone that I find amusing. The word "brogue", as in, "Oh, you have such a lovely Irish brogue!" is, in point of fact, insulting someone, something I didn't know until recently. You see, the Gaelic word for "shoe" is "brogan", and I found out not so long ago that the origin of the word "brogue" comes from English people insulting the Irish on their speech, because to their ears, it sounded as if the Irish were speaking with a shoe in their mouth. So never, ever tell an Irishman or a Scotsman or any of the people from the Celtic lands that they have a lovely "brogue". Even they may not realize it, but you are insulting the way they talk.

The word "sabotage" comes from the French "sabot", or shoe, or at the very least, a heavy wooden shoe akin to what the Dutch are famous for wearing. Apparently, the word "sabotage" dates from the 18th or 19th century, when disgruntled French workers damaged workplace machines by throwing their "sabots" into them, again, showing contempt for one's workplace. So the relationship between shoes and insults and using one's shoes to show contempt for someone or something seems to go back quite a ways. I wonder why this is. Perhaps it's because there is probably no dirtier place than the soles of your shoes, which walk over all kinds of things, including dung on occasion. So I could see why one might want to use shoes to insult someone. I wonder how many other cultures use shoes or some reference to shoes to express insult or contempt for something. It would certainly make for a fascinating subject of study!