Weekender: When I was a small child in the late 1940s and early ‘50s, shoe stores came equipped with x-ray machines that allowed salespeople and parents to make certain that a shoe fit a child’s foot without crowding growing bones. I remember eagerly stepping up on the platform and peering through the lens for a fascinating view of the bones of my feet surrounded by shoe leather.

Now, of course, routine x-rays of children’s feet are an appalling idea. But unfortunately, total numbskullery often becomes evident only in retrospect.
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