WORDS GOOD: Word Of The Day Is "Pampootie."

What the pampootie?!

Yes, Random Words Good Good Word Of The Day is: Pampootie.

The Pampootie is neither an off-brand disposable diaper nor the requisite, frivolous second-act show tune from a failed Broadway musical.

Pampootie is a kind of footwear. And probably not the quality footwear blessed by St. Hubbins. (If you get the reference, you know who you are and probably saw such shoes dancing around Stonehenge. But I digress.)
 
Pampooties come to the world from their humble origins in the Aran Islands of County Galway, Ireland.

It’s a sort of medieval pre-tech footwear of the kind nobody ever stood in line for as if they were Air Jordans.


In fact, there’s a good chance nobody ever really wanted pampooties at all, as they were prone to rot.

As the shoes were made from untanned hide, Ireland’s damp climate could wreak havoc upon the footwear of the populous. A new pair of pampooties were expected to last about a month.

Moreover, the pampootie was made from the more sturdy hide of the animal’s buttocks, so there’s that. Instead of Air Jordans, it seems doubtful anyone was marketing Air Buttocks.

And with a life expectancy of a month only, how often would the styles be changing and the kids demanding their new Air Buttocks?

“Mom! I needs me some new Air Buttocks! Seamus next door already has his, and they have the awesome new butt-hair soles!”


Yes, early footwear innovation: the pampootie was often made with the hair of the buttocks left on the sole for better traction.

Held together with twine or a leather strap, the pampootie is the forerunner of a shoe you may have seen in action, though may not have known as ghillies.

Remember these are shoes as opposed to the suits worn by special forces soldiers as camouflage. Effective at hiding from the enemy, the ghillie suit is hard to dance in. And dancing is where you’d have seen the ghillie shoes.

You’d have witnessed these shoes in action as the official Air Dance footwear of a touring company that dances up a Celtic storm, forcefully slapping the stage with their modern Air Buttocks slap shoes.

Yes, the butt hair may have been replaced with rubber for purposes of contemporary convenience, making one wonder whether that rubber comes from the bouncy buttocks of the rubber tree and is the hair that’s not used for the shoe instead used to stuff pillows?


Hard to know.

But one can probably rest assured that the butt-rubber soles are better for dancing with abandon.

Um, how did we get here?

Oh, yes, Random Words Good Good Word Of The Day: Pampootie. 

Put that in your pampootie and kick it.
Cheers,

Blaine Parker
Your Lean, Mean Creative Director in Park City

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