Riddle me this

• I only have one question that bugs me enough to postpone my bedtime by a few minutes: what's the story behind the lone shoes you see on the side of a road? There's never a pair; if it were a pair I could imagine...well, probably more than I can imagine with one shoe. Is someone (I'm assuming it's the passenger) riding around out there with one shoe? Why? And, given that the shoe is not on the foot it's meant for, why is it lying here? Why not in the ex-shoe-wearer's backyard? Or at the home of the person with whom he (they're usually men's shoes, you know) had a secret tryst before escaping out the window just in time? Or anywhere besides here? Who has a theory about this?
• Speaking of theories (yes, this is indeed how we end up going to bed too late): here's a shout-out to Rupert Sheldrake. Who is Rupert Sheldrake and what does he do? He's a British biologist (Cambridge-educated) who does scientific research on the intangible side of biology (my words). He's looking at "a larger scientific view of the world" (his words). I started with his book "Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home" and was hooked. At a seminar I learned something about his theories on "morphic fields", amazingly interesting. I have yet to read "The Sense of Being Stared At", but fully expect to be entranced again. Can't recommend him enough to readers who are interested in the "more" that's out there beyond the obvious physical world. Really fascinating.
• And speaking of British biologists (I really see how this works, this bedtime thing), check out anything by Redmond O'Hanlon, who is British but not a biologist, and who jumped up in my thoughts because of his thoroughly engaging participation in the re-creation of the route Charles Darwin took around the world on the HMS Beagle. The website of that project is mostly in Dutch (it was beautifully filmed by a Dutch TV company), but in the lower left-hand corner there's an icon of a British flag. You end up with a list of posts in English. And the videos are incredible. Anyway, O'Hanlon has written several books describing his adventures while traveling. Again, recommended.