As technology progresses, so too, must the criminal element.  In a previous article — Shoes on a Wire — we learned that in the urban core, shoes hanging on a wire can indicate the house below sells drugs.  As cities “urbanize” neighborhoods, and the “wire utilities” are taken underground instead of up in the air, the “Shoes on a Wire” semiotic is rendered memeingless.  The new semiotic for selling drugs, according the Vice Cops on Spike TVHD, is “a single shoe” tossed on a roof as exampled in the generic image below.


What is your take on the “Single Shoe on a Roof Theory” and possible drug dealing below the shingles?

Are these single shoes merely misplaced?  Or is there something more unseemly going on here? 

Do shoes always travel in pairs?  Is eyeing a single shoe more obvious and indicatory than a normally sighted pair?

We had a lot of comments on the original “Shoes on a Wire” article.  Some readers didn’t believe shoes on a wire always meant drug dealing was going on beneath the laces.

Have you witnessed a single shoe on a roof?  If so, do you know if that new semiotic is illegally memeingful or not?

8 Comments

  1. As a denizen of this tremendous city, it is difficult to see roofs but I will keep my eyes out for roof shoes. I sometimes see a pair of shoes just sitting on a park bench and wonder what happened to the person who was wearing them.

  2. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    What about NJ, Gordon? Any single shoes hanging out on roofs where they shouldn’t be?

  3. ANNE – I live and teach on the upper West Coast of the United States. My interests are Philosophy, English, and Social Communication.
    ANNE says:

    I have seen one shoe on a rooftop, David. I always thought it was the work of kids in the house messing around. Maybe that’s why it’s such an effective sign? So obvious that it can’t be criminal?

  4. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    That’s pretty wild, Anne, considering you live in the ‘burbs and not the traditional urban core. You might be right that an innocent single shoe can have great, dark, meaning, when the knowing eye spies it alone.

  6. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Keep looking, Gordon! They gotta be out there! Unless, of course, the places you’re visiting still have wires along the streets…

  8. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    It’s time for you to get a little grimy, Gordon, so you can do some shoe research for us. Fire up the bicycle and pedal on over to Paterson and start looking for one-shoed drug dealers!

Comments are closed.