For some reason, history books have omitted the
reason behind the attack upon the Texas Alamo by the Mexican army in 1836.  It
seems that a repatriated Mexican pecan grove worker had told them that all the
single socks missing from Chihuahua north to Ciudad Juárez were being used in
the fort to stuff bedding.  Perhaps the
only good aspect to this was that, at least in this instance, the missing socks
were recovered, unfortunately for the fort’s defenders.

Another Wild West misconception relates to the
famous gunfight at the OK Corral.  The Clantons blamed the Earps (who owned the
local laundry service) for their missing socks.  If you’ve ever worn cowboy boots, you know how important good socks are.

John
Maynard Keynes (1883 – 1946), the most influential
economic thinker of the last century, devised the concept that governmental
intervention was necessary in order to stimulate weak economies (sound
familiar?).  Few of his ardent followers
realize that it was his observations regarding the need to replace missing
socks with newly purchased socks that produced his eureka moment.

The 1919
Chicago White Sox became known as the Black Sox after they threw the World
Series consequently won by the Cincinnati Reds.  They were allegedly motivated by their resentment of team owner Charles
Comiskey with whom they had pleaded vainly to relieve them of the embarrassment
of having to wear plain white sox, which he had instructed the clubhouse man in
1917 to substitute for every missing blue sock as the occasion arose.  The team wanted to be known as the Blue Sox
and was self-conscious about it because they all knew that their cross-town
rivals, the Cubs, got to wear blue socks. 

Two
more installments to come