A Cellarful of Nose - Future Shoes

the heat of a 300 watt Sylvania bulb.
Eventually, bad weather did Worthington's turkey industry in.
It caught on again, in the Painesville area. But Turkey Day
continued to be the regional capital's annual highlight. Every year
a famous politician was invited to be the honoree at the August
Turkey Day Parade. One year the honoree was Nelson
Rockefeller, who was still eager to be president and could
recognize a photo opportunity when he heard of one.
But Rockefeller's fate was sealed that late summer day,
because though he was innovative and rich, he was woefully illinformed,
and insisted on wearing a shoe-length herringbone
overcoat, when everyone with two brain cells to rub together
could tell it was shirtsleeves weather.
When the float wound its way past the courthouse with
Nelson standing up top, waving at the crowd, his white cashmere
scarf flowing down him like a wizard's whiskers, the children
pointed at him and laughed, a great man who did not know how to
dress himself. The whole town talked about the herringbone
overcoat for weeks.
So Nelson Rockefeller was the final victim of the fierce
Minnesota winter. He would never be elected president. Indeed,
he would sip the ultimate gall for the ambitious, the vice
presidency. Though it was only halfway to September, the icy
hand of fate had fingered its final bird.
(1993)