Today’s Zippy, officially about footwear:
(#1)
The sandals theme allows Bill Griffith to introduce the rare verb eschew, the entertaining name place name Hammonasset, and a bit of music trivia.
On sandals, from Wikipedia:
Sandals are an open type of outdoor footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer’s foot by straps passing over the instep and, sometimes, around the ankle. While the distinction between sandals and other types of footwear can sometimes be blurry (as in the case of huaraches — the woven leather footwear seen in Mexico — and peep-toe pumps), the common understanding is that a sandal leaves most of the upper part of the foot exposed, particularly the toes. People may choose to wear sandals for several reasons, among them economy (sandals tend to require less material than shoes and are usually easier to construct), comfort in warm weather, and as a fashion choice.
Usually, people wear sandals in warmer climates or during warmer parts of the year in order to keep their feet cool and dry. The risk of developing athlete’s foot is lower than with enclosed shoes, and the wearing of sandals may be part of the treatment regimen for such an infection.
There are a great many types of sandals; Zippy is wearing a common style for me, with two straps across the foot and one behind the ankle. Here’s a fancy Louis Vuitton number:
(#2)
The verb eschew ‘deliberately avoid using, abstain from’ is not frequent and strikes many people as formal and fancy; for Griffith, it’s probably risible.
Hammonasset Beach State Park has lots of rocks, but I haven’t found a link to a 3 (or Three) Rocks Memorial there. From Wikipedia on the park:
Hammonasset Beach State Park is a state park located in Madison, a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. It is Connecticut’s largest shoreline park, with over two miles of beach.
And from another site about the rocks:
The rocks at Hammonasset are all loose sediments, transported here by moving ice. They range in size from fine silt to large boulders. Large rocks appear at the surface only in two places in the park, along the shore at Meigs Point and in the woods to the north of the Meigs Point Nature Center, on the north side of the picnic area.
And then, the Barbarians:
The Barbarians were an American garage band of the 1960s with a few nationally charted hits. They had their biggest hit with the novelty single “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?”.
The Barbarians were formed in the summer of 1964 in [Provincetown on] Cape Cod, Massachusetts
… While their debut single, “Hey Little Bird” produced by Al Ham (on Joy Records) bombed, two of their next three singles (on Laurie) charted on Billboard, (with “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?” peaking at No. 55) and also made the Cash Box charts. (Wikipedia link)
