From TheBestLinks.com
Shoes and boots are the most rigid and heavy articles of clothing most people commonly wear; shoe flinging, using shoes as an improvised projectile or weapon, is a constituent of a number of folk sports and practices.
Sabotage
The practice of sabotage takes its name from a French word sabot, meaning a wooden shoe; the original saboteurs threw their wooden shoes into the cogs of machinery to break it during the Industrial Revolution in France. Compare Luddite.
In the Semitic world: a gesture of contempt
In the Arab world, shoe flinging is a gesture of extreme disrespect. A notable occurance of this gesture happened in Baghdad, Iraq in 2003. When U.S. forces pulled down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many Iraqi detractors of Hussein threw their shoes at the fallen statue.
This may be an ancient gesture from the Middle East; Psalm 60:8, speaking of some of the traditional enemies of Judah, says that "Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe. . ." (KJV)
Shoes hung from overhead wires
Shoe flinging is as good a name as any for the American and Canadian practice of throwing shoes whose shoelaces have been tied together so that they hang from overhead wires such as power lines or telephone cables. The shoes are tied together by their laces, and the assembly is apparently then thrown at the wires as a sort of bolas. This practice plays a widespread, though mysterious, role in adolescent folklore in the United States. Shoe flinging has also been reported in Australia.
Shoe flinging occurs throughout the United States, in rural as well as in urban areas. Usually, the shoes flung at the wires are sneakers; elsewhere, especially in rural areas, many different varieties of shoes, including leather shoes and boots, also are thrown.
A number of sinister explanations have been proposed as to why this is done. Some say that shoes hanging from the wires advertise a local crack house where crack cocaine is used and sold. Others claim that the shoes so thrown commemorate a gang-related murder, or the death of a gang member, or as a way of marking gang turf. A newsletter[1] (http://www.lacity.org/mayor/teamworkla/newsletters/teamworkla_intrnewsletters72311897_06102003.pdf) (PDF) from the mayor of Los Angeles, California reports that "[m]any Los Angeles residents fear that these shoes indicate sites at which drugs are sold or worse yet, gang turf," and that city and utility employees had launched a programme to remove them. These explanations have the ring of urban legend to them, especially since the practice also occurs along relatively remote stretches of rural highways that are unlikely scenes for gang murders or crack houses.
Other, less sinister explanations also have been ventured. Some claim that shoes are flung to commemorate the end of a school year, or a forthcoming marriage as part of a rite of passage. It has been suggested that the custom may have originated with members of the military, who are said to have thrown military boots, often painted orange or some other conspicuous color, at overhead wires as a part of a rite of passage upon completing basic training or on leaving the service. Others claim that the shoes are stolen from other people and tossed over the wires as a sort of bullying, or as a practical joke played on drunkards. Others simply say that shoe flinging is a way to get rid of shoes that are no longer wanted, are uncomfortable, or don't fit. It may also be another manifestation of the human instinct to leave their mark on, and decorate, their surroundings.
In the motion picture Wag the Dog, a spin doctor flings shoes into trees as a part of a campaign to call attention to a fictional war hero named Sergeant William Schumann, who was given the nickname "The Old Shoe." In another motion picture, Like Mike, a character is struck by lightning in an attempt to retrieve shoes from a power line, and acquires superpowers as a result. This is an unlikely dénouement.
In fact, shoe flinging is unwise and may cause utility outages. Attempting to retrieve shoes from overhead wires is dangerous and runs a risk of electrocution.
References
Boot throwing in New Zealand
Boot throwing is competitive sport in New Zealand, although not one that is taken very seriously. Gum Boots or Wellington Boots are the heavy rubber boots worn by most farm workers and many other outdoor workers. A competition to see who can throw a gumboot the furthest is a feature of many Agricultural Field Days in the rural communities. The town of Taihape in the central North Island is particularly identified with this sport; they claim to be the Gum Boot Throwing Capital of New Zealand, if not the World. They hold an annual competition in the main street and award a Golden Gumboot as the trophy.
Perhaps due to a relative dearth in overhead cables in comparison to the US, lone shoes are most often to be found on the tops of bus shelters where they can be viewed from the top floor of the passing double decker bus. The suspicion has to be that they are tossed there by a school bully at the expense of a smaller classmate.
A children's game
Shoe Flinging is an obscure game played on swings by children of all ages. The idea is simple: whilst swinging you simply launch one of your shoes from your feet. The person whose shoe goes furthest wins. It can undertake many variations, flinging your shoes backwards for example, or flinging both shoes at the same time. Shoe Flinging is a widespread phenomeonon thoughout the world and is played by children wherever there is a swing to hand, or foot as the case may be, with parks across the world full of shoes flying through the air as a new craze catches on.
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