words_Nick DePaula
It was certainly one of the more odd stories in "shoe news" that we've covered in recent memory, as the infamous shoe throwing incident during former US President George W. Bush's trip to the Middle East garnered widespread global media coverage, likely for equal parts novelty and equal parts pure worldwide disdain for Bush. If you recall, journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi made headlines in December of 2008 after he took off and threw both of his shoes at former President Bush and was charged with "aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit." He was originally sentenced to three years in prison, but was released in September, and just this week on Tuesday, he was out giving a press conference in Paris about the incident. Throw some shoes, get a trip to Paris. Not a bad deal.
To the surprise of al-Zaidi and everyone else in attendance, an unnamed man in the crowd still had lingering problems with Muntadhar's actions and, you guessed it, he took his brown shoes off and heaved them towards the table where al-Zaidi was seated. Conveniently for us, (or because it was a press conference) multiple camera crews and photographers were on site to capture the whole ordeal. To take things a (puntastic) step further, another member of the crowd, who just so happened to be al-Zaidi's brother, didn't appreciate the gesture one bit -- so clearly he responded by taking off his shoe and throwing it at the man who threw his shoe at the man who threw his shoe at Bush. Of course.
To make things even better, al-Zaidi had the quote of the day, saying, "He stole my technique."
Check out the awesome video coverage below....
