Embarrassment

"I asked, 'Have you listened to the radio today?'

'Five-o'clock report.'

'What happened at the U.N.? I forgot to listen.'

'You wouldn't believe it,' he said. 'Mr. K. took off his shoe and pounded the table.'

'What for?'

'Didn't like what was being said.'

'Seems a strange way to protest.'

'Well, it got attention. That's about all the news talked about.'

'They should give him a gavel so he could keep his shoes on.'

'That's a good idea. Maybe it could be in the shape of a shoe so he wouldn't be embarrassed.'" (30)

A pair of Mr. K's shoes. Brown University Library, gift of S. Khrushchev.
Photo from here.
Steinbeck discussing politics and cultural relativism with a New Hampshire farmer on whose land Steinbeck had parked his Rocinante. "The farmer was a spare man, with what we think of a Yankee face and the flat vowels we consider Yankee pronunciation." (27)

From Steinbeck, John. Travels with Charley: In Search of America. New York: Penguin Books, 1962.

Did he really? Mr. K, I mean.


p.s., is this really the second post on Khrushchev (and his shoe) here on ACM?