This morning, as I rounded a corner on my walk, I came upon a small shop that sells bridal gowns, bridesmaids’ dresses and things like that. In the window was a hand-lettered sign that said simply:

SHOE
ONLY
$10.00

Given that the mind tends to wander in direct proportion to amount of sweat one produces on such occasions, I thought, “Shoe only $10.00?” Interesting.

Three possibilities came to mind:

1. The owner of the store was selling one shoe. One shoe? Was it a left or a right shoe? What size is it? What happened to the other shoe? Was it lost? Stolen? Maybe there never was a second shoe, and the shopkeeper got a really great deal on this one. How many potential buyers can there be? Fortunately (although not for the shopkeeper), the market for a single shoe is, I assume, quite small.

2. The shopkeeper was really selling pairs of shoes, at the price of $10.00 per shoe, or $20.00 per pair. Maybe the shopkeeper thought this to be a particularly clever form of “bait and switch.” Lure the dopes into the store and, only then, spring the second shoe on them. The seller must have a son with a fresh MBA who suggested such a sophisticated marketing scheme.

3. The store was owned by the same family that owns the produce store at the other end of the block.

I’m going with number 3.

Maybe I should work on sweating less.