Stuff and Moonshine

A few months ago, at a Payless store’s closing-down sale,  I bought a pair of red fake-suede pumps with two-inch heels, brand name “Dexflex Comfort” which have turned out to live up to the name. These things are like, sneaker comfortable.

Only trouble is, I can’t find any brick-and-mortar stores that carry the brand; there are some DexFlex shoes available on Amazon, but (a) I’d like to avoid giving Jeff Bezos any more money if I can avoid it (b) I think these are just leftover stock from Payless, and will run out fairly soon. It’s already easier to find the sizes on either end of the bell-curve than the medium sizes,  and the prices vary wildly depending, I suspect, on how many they have left in that size (i.e. the same style of shoe is $20 in a size 5.5, but $100 in a size 7.)

Apart from wanting more of these shoes, I’m also just curious about the manufacturer – was Dexflex a house brand for Payless or was it an offshoot of the Dexter Shoe Company, now similarly defunct? How did they make these really basic (in every sense of the word including the current slang usage) pumps so easy to walk in?

What are their flats like?

Doors Open Toronto is this weekend, but instead we went to the movie wardrobe sale at Pinewood Studios (other Pinewood Studios) in the east end; we were going to go to Kingpin Chic to look for some old-fashioned button suspenders for Andrew, but they were the ones who'd kept posting announcements of the wardrobe sale, so I'd figured they'd closed up shop and gone there themselves, which proved correct.

The sale was good, once we found our way there: Andrew found some paisley suspenders he liked, and had a talk with the owner of Kingpin, and I bought a vintage tunic pattern for $7 and a crinoline for $40. Then we waited a long time for the bus to get back to the downtown core, and I suggested we go into the Irish Embassy pub, basically because it was right next to the bus stop and I didn't want to make Andrew walk back four blocks to the Jersey giant, our regular downtown pub.

I don't want to completely damn the Irish Embassy. It's probably a very good place to go if you just want to drink (they have several kinds of cider) and watch the game and not order food. It might even be a good place to order food if you don't arrive on the cusp between brunch and dinner. I do believe that a burger and fries should not cost seventeen dollars; and that supposing it does, it should not arrive cold and forty minutes late because the waitress went on break and forgot all about you. I would also argue that if the brunch menu says "Soup of the Day -- Fish Soup," and the dinner menu the waiters subsequently bring also lists a Soup of the *Day*, for the same price, it's not unreasonable to expect the same soup, and to be disappointed when it arrives (forty minutes later) and turns out to be cream of mushroom instead.

Also, the coffee wasn't great. Tipped 15%, because I've been told that that's considered a lousy tip nowadays, and will not go again.