The Learners The Book After "The Cheese Monkeys" Chapter One 1961 October. We'll be right back, after this: I was in the shower when I realized where I'd gone wrong. That's a cliché now, I know, but it wasn't then. Back then it was wildly new and my idea, and I would have copyrighted it had I foreseen it would become so popular, but well--as with so many things, who knew? Anyway, there I was, the water drilling away, its wet warmth my amniotic tide, the shower curtain a plastic, plaid uterine wall. Then it occurs to me, like a gift from God: Shoes are our friends. Our friends . Not just our acquaintances, the occasional giggly aunt and bald uncle over for dinner, the neighbors down the hall you have to say hello to--but the confidants we carefully screen and select over the course of a lifetime, our intimates. The ones who shield us from the slush, the sludge, the world's dirt underfoot. But their love is not unconditional. We have a bargain to keep. If we are good to them, they'll give us everything they have, right down to their pocked, worn soles. Incredible. Yes, this was news. Clearly, I would have to change my strategy . . . The Learners The Book After "The Cheese Monkeys" . Copyright © by Chip Kidd. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from The Learners: The Book after the Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
