A few quotes and a couple of shoes

The editor of the Yale Book of Quotations has complied the Top Ten quotes of 2008. I liked most of them but No.7 made me choke a bit more than the rest.

"Maybe 100." - John McCain on how many years U.S. troops could remain in Iraq.

McCain and Sarah Palin dominate the list but what was particularly interesting was that there was no quote from Geroge W Bush. Now then ... that's a clear sign of how much he's been overshadowed of late.

But he's not completely disappeared - will he ever? - and a shoe-hurling Iraqi journalist brought him right back into the spotlight. In the LA Times Rosa Brooks is relieved that it was only a pair of shoes and not grenades.

By willingly risking prison and death just to throw those shoes, he reminded the powerful and powerless alike that a single symbolic gesture can be more effective than a thousand grenades.

I've always been fascinated by this footwear-throwing business. In our part of the world, few insults come worse than a threat to being hit by a chappal. "Yeddu Seruppai" is a Tamil phrase that can roughly be translated as: 'piss me off more and I'll slam you with my chappals'. Why pick up a flimsy, rubbery, harmless bit of footwear to threaten someone? Even a leather shoe can cause only so much damage.

I'm pretty sure it's got to do with the moral insult of using a weapon that's been stained with dirt and muck. And which accentuates Brooks' point more: might as well inflict moral damage rather than a physical one.