Et alia

Some time ago, I read an item here or there that suggested maybe I (and a lot of other people) was tying my shoes the wrong way. At first I pshawed the idea, but in a little while I recalled some instances when my shoes had come untied for no apparent reason.

If you're like me, you learned to tie your shoes when you were about five or six, and nobody ever said you were doing it wrong. If you made a bow and got the ends of the laces more or less the same length, you were a pro. But as it turns out, most of us have been tying granny knots all along, and everyone knows a granny knot will work itself loose and come untied. Sailors don't use granny knots for just that reason. Why use them on your shoes?

So, the solution is to tie your shoes with square knots, i.e., to make that loop from the other direction (too hard to explain) than the one you've been using your entire life. It takes some practice, but I've found that I can't tie a granny now if I try. And my shoes don't come untied anymore.

All this at the age of 53.