From time to time, the kids and I have seen random sneakers dangling from power lines or (my personal favorite) single shoes on the side of the highway. (Seriously, how does one lose a single shoe out a moving vehicle?) The single shoe seems more accidental — a random act of dumbness. But the sneakers on the wire is clearly deliberate. And today I saw a two-fer when I drove out west for work. Curious, I did a google search to find out what it means. Answers.com listed the following possibilities:

– the shoes belong to someone who died violently and a friend threw the shoes on the wire near the place of death as a memorial

– drugs are sold near that location

– gang territory is being marked

– bullies were playing a game of keep-away

– someone bought new sneakers and didn’t know what to do with the old ones

I’m going with the last option — and not just because the other options bother me so much. (Okay, the bully thing could be it, too.) Maybe I’m naive, but this is suburbia to the extreme and a lovely area. I somehow doubt that it is fraught with gangs, guns or street drug activity. Too bad that Answers.com doesn’t list this option: “For people like you to ask questions.”