WE HAVE NOTHING TO ADD

Dave,

I’ve been seeing a trend in “fancy” athletic socks that now purport to be tailored to specific feet, the right and left socks being labeled as such (photo illustrating this is attached).  I happen to love my athletic socks, but there are times when having to find the tiny “L” or “R” sock to place it on my corresponding left or right foot seems a bit, pressing.  And, truth be told, having gotten dressed in the dark several times so as not to disturb others, I’ve worn the “L” sock on the right foot and (inevitably) the “R” sock on my left foot for the better part of the day with unknown long-term side effects, but with deep embarrassment (what if I had been hit by a truck and they saw my mis-donned socks?).

I know you're not really an investigative journalist, but this sort of investigation has “DAVE BARRY” writ large and all over it.  Is it really a totally different manufacturing process or is it merely an embroidered “L” on one and an “R” on the other one?  You may have more insightful questions, or not, but it would be thrilling to read a funny expose on the theme of non-interchangeable socks by a respected journalist and humorist.

Michael Moyer

Comments

[Rod]

He's right, Dave. This is tailor-made...well, maybe not TAILOR-made, since we're talking mass-produced socks here...for your reporting skills. You've got to set the record straight on this. The sock-wearing world depends on it!

[Pullet Surprise]

You just need sox-change operation.

[cfjk]

Are the socks made like mittens or gloves?

[Clankie]

The L and R pants leg thing is confusing a lot of athletes as well.

[Qaz]

I made a similar mistake once. I bought a left handed coffee cup, but I am right handed. So I cannot use it now :(

[Rod]

Qaz, I have a left-handed beer mug. It really is left-handed; it has a thumb rest oriented for the left hand. I can assure you it works, as I'm left-handed and have many hours of careful testing of it.

[wiredog]

Dave,
If you pursue this story you, too, could have two pullet surprises just like Gene Weingarten, who has a substack, btw.

[the ghost of RMN]

Sock it to ME?

[klezmerphan]

*boards the Geezer Bus* to give the ghost someone with whom to reminisce about all the great antics on "Laugh In" so many years a-gone.

[MOTW]

^5 to klez!

[Lucky Jacck]

Dave,
please don't turn your back on a world in need.

[man tom]

Jack has 8 "R" socks and 2 "L" socks. Jill has 7 "R" socks and 4 "L" socks. How many "R" socks are there in all? If Jane has 23 "L" socks and I have 2 "L" socks, and then Jane gives me 5 "L" socks, how many more "L"'s does Jane have than I?

Bonus comment,

I called into a sports talk show and the host asked me to name 3 Qatar players. All I could come up with were Eric Clapton, Angus Young and Jimi Hendrix.