Word: felix
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Christos Soillis, alias Felix, poised the cowboy boot in midair as he examined the sole. "Shoemaking!" he snorted. "The worst...
Soillis, who runs the Felix Shoe Repair Shop underneath Joe's Pizza, has been fixing shoes since the age of 11; he is now 59. Originally from Sparta, Greece, he has been living in this country for the past 13 years. He still speaks with a pronounced accent. Felix does not read English; scribbled notes written to himself lie about his shop, "bouriges kori bourtgaks...
...father," said Felix, "was a farmerman. I never was, though. For six years I went to school to learn my trade--three years of design, three years of making shoes. My goal was to graduate and make shoes for the government, for the military. In Greece, however, there was no program to do this. Instead I opened my own shop. The farmers, the shepherds, would come down from the mountains and I made them shoes to last forever. For $10--in your money--I made them shoes of the best leather and rubber that would last forever...
...Felix does not make shoes anymore. He quit about 12 years ago because he was losing money. As he spoke, he wistfully fingered the thick cowhide he once used to make soles, and conceded that factories can now cut 20 such soles in a few minutes, whereas the same process takes...
Though he acknowledged the greater efficiency of shoe factories, Felix condemned them for the low quality of their output...