GRGR 31 Shit'n'Shinola

[jbor]

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>From: Paul Mackin <pmackin at clark.net>
>

> no self
> respecting shoe shine boy would have allowed a product an execrable as
> Shinola into his shoeshine box.

I would imagine that a shoeshine boy ("self-respecting"? -- certainly Red
Malcolm has/had self-respect but I don't know that that would have had
anything to do with him being forced to make a living in a men's room as a
shoeshine boy) would use the cheapest most effective available product so
that his profit margin was greatest. Shinola would have been very black and
shiny in the short term I imagine, and in the context of his workplace (the
lighting, inebriated customers, the range of shoe conditions presenting to
him at this venue as opposed to Wall Street for example, how much the white
students could afford or would be willing to pay etc) it was probably a very
prudent choice.

best