Job creation program

Their deployment as a makeshift missile robbed President George Bush of his dignity and landed their owner in jail. But the world's most notorious pair of shoes have yielded an unexpected bonanza for a Turkish shoemaker.

Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company, has been swamped with orders from across the world, after insisting that his company produced the black leather shoes which the Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last Sunday.

Baydan has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271 - more than four times the shoe's normal annual sale - following an outpouring of support for Zaidi's act, which was intended as a protest, but led to his arrest by Iraqi security forces.

Orders have come mainly from the US and Britain, and from neighbouring Muslim countries, he said.

Around 120,000 pairs have been ordered from Iraq, while a US company has placed a request for 18,000

I may order me a pair as a gift for Rick Warren. Special hand delivery.

Continue reading Job creation program

Sell!

I had some errands to run this afternoon. I needed to get a Mother's Day gift in the mail and to pick up some office supplies. I hit the post office around 2:15, there were 5 people in line ahead of me, they were all served promptly, i had my shipment weighed and stamped within a couple of minutes, and i was back in the car by 2:22. Oh, and the clerk successfully upsold me on insurance, which i almost never buy, but it's a Mother's Day gift. So. Then i headed over to Office Depot by Northgate. Almost 15 minutes of wandering around the store looking for clipboards, (plain ones come in a pack of two. If you want a single, without built in ruler or talking clock, you have to get day-glo colors) poster boards, and markers. (Good point - the poster board and markers were actually located in almost the same section.) Then, one person on line ahead of me, buying an inkjet printer. Eighteen minutes later i finally got my order rung up.

If i owned stock in Office Depot, i'd have the sell order in first thing in the morning.

Continue reading Sell!