The reason brain games are so satisfying is purely scientific: chemicals. We get a DOSE of them when we succeed...
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I wrote this piece for the Retro prompt "Gardens," but I've posted it here to celebrate the salmon that reinhabited the Mattole watershed as a form of recycling.
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Kinky Boots

I’m not a big shopper or a fashionista,  but let me tell you about some perfect boots I bought back in the 1970s when we were living in London for an all-too-brief,  magical time.    (See also Laundry Day in London,  Inks and Derek: Art and the Cricket Scores,  Valentine’s Day in Foggytown,  and Intro to Cookery)

One day I went shopping for some chic black leather boots that were then all the rage,  and in a Kings Road shop I found a fabulous pair that fit perfectly.   The only problem was the £35 price tag.

The exchange rate then was $2.50 to the pound,  and I knew that would make an $87.50 dent in our American budget,  more than I would ever pay for boots in those days.

But I really wanted those great-looking boots,  and they fit so well that somehow my brain refused to compute,  and I kept telling myself they were a real bargain at only $35.   And, I further rationalized,  for only another $35 I could buy a pair in brown,  and I’d have the perfect boots to go with everything in my wardrobe!

And so I bought both pairs,  and let me tell you that walking around London in those fabulous boots,   I felt like a million bucks!

– Dana Susan Lehrman