> > > If anybody has any ideas about this, I'd be interested. Why would *you* throw away a pair of incredibly expensive and perfectly good shoes? I'm particularly thinking of reasons which would prevent anybody else from wanting to wear them.
> > >
> > > Brunnen-"because ... um ... they happened to be my size"G
>

Heh. You didn't specify the definition of your idea of a "perfectly good condition" for hiking shoes. (Like, does that mean "brand new" with no evidence of any foot odor, or maybe broken-in slightly with a scuff mark or two?) Anyway, I'm inclined to go with the hypothesis that this windfall catch came your way -- just for you (whoo!) -- courtesy of the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Arrogant." You know what I mean: i.e., the rich young trophy wife goes to visit Scott Base, and buys a pair of $$$ hiking shoes to walk out on the Ross Ice Shelf for 20 minutes. But they're a half-size too big, and she doesn't have the right kind of socks. So on the next leg of their trip, i.e. driving around the Hauraki Gulf, she unloads the offending pair of footware into the handy trash bin on the passenger ferry, from whence they are retrieved from an ignomious fate Worse Than Death by a quick-thinking young crew member.

Heck, just think... If YOU were off to, say, Waiheke Island for a romantic honeymoon anniversary, with your air-conditioned valet service, your 1975 Dom Perignon Rose magnum from the in-van bar, and your Nikon 7x35 Naturalist IV binoculars just to see the whales -- what *would* you care about a silly pair of ill-fitting designer boots, which are taking up precious space in your Louis Vuitton Gucci alligator luggage for no reason whatsoever? Besides; the fact that you can't take 'em back to the store anyway is an almost irrelevant consideration.


> > I would throw shoes away if I were mad at them. I would probably get mad at them if they were really nice and comfortable in the store, but then they gave me a blister the next three times I wore them, or just made my feet hurt, or whatever. I would be REALLY mad if they did this only after I'd worn them outside and couldn't take them back, at which point, I'd throw them in the nearest receptacle.
>
> I got mad at some new shoes last week. I had only recently purchased them and had worn them twice, both times outside.

Ah. Now THAT is something I've never understood, despite having seen it happen several times. Why do people get angry at INANIMATE OBJECTS???

Granted, it's better to let off steam with the inanimate rather than punch out your ex. I recall the last time I bought a pair of spiffy boots, normally $130 but on sale for less than half-price, which were great in the store but living hell after walking in them for three hours. They were sooooo incredibly painful I removed them in the elevator and sprinted in my bare feet, through the snow, to my next class at university... That's how bad they were. I was annoyed with myself for making such a rotten choice. The next day I zapped back to Schreder's and got my cash back.


> > I would also throw shoes away if they belonged to a person who made me really really mad and that person left them in my house or car. But I would only do that in the height of my anger, which might occur at a place such as you described.
> >
> > Wear 'em.
> >
> > Mousie

Wolf "'I don't want Billy boots! I want my own boots. Billy's feet stink. And how did you know that Penman sweats?'" spirit