Please remove your shoes

It seems that I have become more attentive to shoes lately. I always take my shoes off before entering my house. Well actually I take them off right when I get in (I don’t want you to think I am walking down my pathway holding my shoes in my hand). But sometimes this is really inconvenient especially when I’m holding several grocery bags and removing my shoes. I was watching a health report on Canada AM that said everyone should remove their shoes before entering the house because unwanted bacteria travels on the soles of shoes – and will then come into your house (get that Lysol out!). I was watching an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where at a dinner party Larry David said he wouldn’t remove his shoes because it makes his feet chilly. Of course his host was very upset at him and went off the handle at Larry (not uncommon in the show). And yesterday I read that Yuri Gagarin was chosen to be the first cosmonaut in space not because of his physical toughness or credentials, but because he was so respectful of the spacecraft prototype that he removed his shoes before climbing in. So the lesson is, if you don’t remove your shoes before entering, you’ll get sick, get yelled at, and not have a chance to go into space.