There was a time when I used 2 shoes for my 2 feet .......... Then one day while sitting in the living room, I discovered that the waste basket needed emptying. I thought I would try a trick on the oldest son when it was his turn to empty the trash. That is, pound the waste down with one of your feet, thus delaying the time you would have to take it out for the garbage man.

      Sitting there, I contemplated just how I would do this energy saving trick, as I remembered, he slipped his foot in hard enough to flatten the paper and remove his foot. Then Pat himself on the back for his super intelligence and wander over to the gym to soot some buckets.

      It couldn't be easier, I figured. Pulling the waste backet over to the chair, I stood up and placed said foot directly over the center of the basket, as I had seen him do so many times. Raising it up so I would be able to give it a hard shot to the paper, I slamed the food down with all the strength I could muster.

      All went according to plan until the moment I tried to take my foot out of the waste basket. It was then that I realized the foot was jammed in to the point that I could no longer take it out. Being of the wooden varieth, there was always the danger of filling all my toes with painful slivers.

      Tentatively I tried pulling the foot out, but the jamming had done such a good job it was impossible to separate foot from basket.

      Have u ever clumped around the house with one shoe on one foot and a waste basket half full of punched down paper on the other? Step, clump, step, clumb, step, clump!

      I tried pushing a table knife down behind my toes, one by one, but as soon as i got one loose and went on to the next, the first one again became wedged tightly.

      I tried pulling up on the heel, which made it worse because the heel was lower than the toes, and that was the solution. If i pushed up with the toes and down with the heel, I should get myself out of the waste basket eventually. Pushing down with the heel, I slid an old shoe horn under the toes and by sheer determination, because i certainly didn't want to spend my life with a shoe and waste basket on my feet... I eased my foot out into daylight once more.

      You have my permission to add this information to all the great tips you have accumulated over the years. I'm sure that sooner or later it will come in handy, once you decide to flatten the trash in hopes you can avoid a premature trip to the garbage with the contents of the waste basket. Sogipo