I was in the A&P on Magazine yesterday, pushing my cart up the aisle with the light bulbs. One row over, I heard a mom chasing what I could only assume was her child.

"Put that shoe on!" she said threateningly, "you put that shoe on! You better put that shoe on, boy!"

And around the corner came a toddler. Two, maybe three years old. He was, indeed, carrying a shoe. He ran into my basket. This stunned him. His mom came around the corner, saw him stopped in front of me and gave him a healthy smack.

He started to cry. She started to yell. I pushed my basket on by.

And five seconds later the shoe came whizzing through the air and smacked by shopping cart with a rattle.

I guess he blamed me for not saving him. Or maybe he was just pissed because I got in his way.