Janne, you've never forgiven us for taking back Jorvik, not to mention Harald Hardrada.
Nice cross threading Bob, we'll make a cobbler of you yet
.
It so happens I do know the full story of these shoes, though how they came to be in Oxford I cannot imagine...............
It was a slow and sultry night in old Chicago, and Al (Scarface) Capone couldn't sleep. He'd had a bad day anyway. He'd just that morning picked up a brand new pair of custom built $500 shoes and they were pinching. He was going to give them one more day to wear in and then he was going to have another massacre, just for the cobbler.
Al was getting desperate, his eyes were locked open like steel traps, the ticking of the clock sounded like the liberty bell on overtime and Al was reaching boiling point!!!!!!
He opened a window to get at some fresh air and there standing on the fence was the singing alley cat, screeching at the moon, catterwauling away, enough to wake the dead!!!!!
Al exploded, he grabbed the nearest thing and threw it at the cat. Too late, Al realised that it was one of his brand new shoes..
The cat ducked then it picked up the shoe, bowed to Al with a self satisfied smirk on its face, and started to gnaw away at the shoe.
Al was beside himself with rage!!!! He yelled for Frank (the Enforcer) Nitty and told him : "Get me dat cat or you'll be goin' water skiin' in concrete overshoes
".
Nitty called out the boys, and they scoured the district. Finally Nitty found the cat and grabbing it by the tail, he dashed back to Capone's hotel room and holding up the cat he sang out
"Pardon me Al,, is dis de cat who chewed your shoo shoo"
With apologies to the Untouchables, the Big Bands and pretty much everyone else
Best wishes, Gary.
