Last autumn, there was a period of about a month or two when merely walking from my apartment to my office (about a mile in New York) was causing chronic, searing

pain in my right foot. Really, walking anywhere was painful—to the grocery store, to the park, to the subway. In other words, it was a huge pain in a literal and metaphorical sense. Finally, I decided to seek help by way of a podiatrist, Joseph Alencherry, DPM, and what I learned from that visit has not only enlightened the way I view footwear but also subsequently caused these shooting pains to dissipate. Yes, there's a happy ending here.