Bureaucracy my foot!
The task of the day was the following:
- Get Transcript A from City Hall.
- Use A to get Transcript B from City Hall.
- Use B to get paper C from Registrar's office.
- Use A&C to get Transcript D from City Hall.
- Submit D to Ministry of Culture (along with E,F,G, etc., the results of tasks of previous days).
- Get little piece of paper with a protocol number on it, put it in wallet, take care not to lose it.
Most of it was useless, as I found out later. But that was no consolation to my poor feet, that walked me all around Athens non-stop. If I didn't have the greatest company imaginable with me (on and off), it would have been quite unbearable...
But...
I did finally have a chance to scientifically verify something I suspected from a long time ago:
I have ancient Greek feet!
In the main room of the City Hall, where I spent most of my day, there was a statue of an ancient Greek Kouros, actual size. And I noticed that it's feet had a peculiarity that my feet also share: The second toe (see little arrows) is longer than the great toe!
A little google research produced the following statistics:
"According to anatomists:
- 3/4 of the population have a so-called Egyptian foot which is characterized by a great toe longer than the second toe
- 1/6 of the population have a so-called Greek foot where the great toe is shorter than the second toe, while
- The rest of the population have a square foot where the great toe has the same length as the second."
Modern Greek bureaucracy sucks, but ancient Greek feet are SOOO cool!
Yay!
PS. I would have pursued this investigation into other parts, but the statue was... handicapped :-)
posted by Anonymous at
11:17 PM
10 Comments:
Well, we have something in common! I have an extended second toe, too.
Welcome to the 1/6-Greek club then!
P.S. I am not sissy...
The gene pool is just teeming with cool stuff, but few people ever get so much of it, all in one package. My feet, for example, are as confused as the rest of me -- I've got one (common) Egyptian and one (not so geometric) square. Better than two left feet, I guess, but still, not so good for dancing.
All of which explains why you won't be seeing a picture of my feet on the blog any time soon, or any time at all. Even my shoes only lasted a day.
You are an excellent dancer. Especially barefoot!
I'm Greet-footed, too! Just a wee bit though...
oopss... that was supposed to be GreeK-footed... got a little excited there for a minute...
Greeting from Greece!
GREEk feeT -> Greet
You just renamed our club, SE! And in the process, you made honorary lifelong member, member of the board of trustees, and you also get a complimentary 50% reduction in membership feet... eehm, I meant fees.
PS. Not too exclusive after all, though...
I can't wait to tell my mother about this. She has always found my Greek toes very funny. Now I can laugh back at her and say, "Where on earth did you get those Egyptian feet?"
Hmmm. any Squares out there? I can't do the math. How many are left after 3/4 + 1/6? another 1/6 or so? I shall have to set up a rival Square Club...
Actually there's only 1/12 left, so technically your Club is more exclusive than ours!
Still... Greek feet are the coolest, right?
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