Shoefiti Makes Fuel For A Wood Burning Stove...

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

Some weeks ago I was driving around with Hawthorne Neighborhood Housing Director Jeff Skrenes (the Hawthorne Hawkman) in his car and Jeff had a pair of tied-together shoes kicking around on the floor, which I recognized as the "ground score" shoefiti shoes he picked up while digging into the facts about slumlord Paul Bertelson, click here for Jeff's blog post and look for the picture of the snowy shoes.

So I was all, like, hey, what are you going to do with the shoes? And Jeff was all, like, nothing...you can have them.

So, as is my habit with shoes I obtain from power lines or, in this case, shoes that didn't make it up to the power line or possibly fell off, I tossed the shoes in my car and, when I got around to visiting my prolific and well-armed country mouse relatives way out in the sticks, I brought the shoes with me to see if they might be of any use to the many, many little Hofflings who occupy that part of Minnesota...

Turns out the shoes were moldy and worn out, but the laces were still good. So the laces were saved because we are, honestly, THAT frugal. The shoes themselves went into one of the wood burning stoves which Hoffs greatly prefer as heating systems, but you can't always do exactly what you want in the big city. I hope that shoe sole was made of RUBBER and not some plastic compound, because dioxins are the devil and are created every time you burn plastic.

Here sits one of the shoes on the wood pile, moments before it met its fate, just like its twin.

Shoes are not going to stay on power lines very long in North Minneapolis, not with decent citizens staying on top of this issue and taking action on their own initiative.