I know people walk a lot in this city, but it still amazes me to see people wearing tennis shoes with suits. In this day and age of stylish, affordable and pedorthically correct footwear, we're still wearing bright white New Balance sneakers to speed us on our way?

Sorry to say it, but women are especially guilty of this heinous sin. I think nothing makes me cringe more than seeing a woman in a tailored suit, black hosiery and white tennis shoes (extra demerits for the little tennis socks with the balls). I daresay, the very sight of such a thing almost made me violently ill this morning. Don't these gals read "Glamour"? That fashion sin falls under the top 20 fashion don'ts of all time, sandwiched between "too much bling" and "butt cleavage."

Someone in the office explained the genesis of this trend to me. During a transit strike in the 1980s, commuters literally had to walk to work. Being practical, they reached for the most comfortable footwear available. Long after the trains and buses were up and functioning again, the habit had already become ingrained. And like bad lore, it's passed generation to generation. It's times like these when we really are in want of the fashion police. A couple of citations and you'd be trading up for a pair of Mephistos, too.

I admit I often make bad footwear choices as well, albeit at the opposite extreme. I sometimes wear too high a heel, too pointed a toe, too tight an ankle strap. I realize that one day when I'm crippled and bent from years of footwear excess (and those tennis shoe wearing gals are walking double time right past me), I'll be sorry for having not been more prudent in my choices. But right now, I don't give a rats ass.

Aunt Stella is 92 and my inspiration. She's sharp and witty and inimitably stylish. In her younger days, she worked at a exclusive, high end boutique in Manhattan and she handled many celebrity clients. In photos from that time, she is dressed to the nines. Robed in a Christian Dior "New Look" dress, with gloves, hat and glamorous stiletto pumps, she defined elegance. She never gave up her pointy high heels and would never have been caught dead in a pair of tennis shoes. During last December's transit strike, we had a conversation about people putting their tennis shoes on again to undertake a walking commute. Stella snorted, "I would never do that," she said, "We had a strike once and I walked all the way from the City to Astoria wearing a pair of high heels." God bless her and her hammer toes too.

I know I have a nerve, being so critical of a person's right to comfort. But with so many stylish comfort alternatives available, it just seems wrong not to take the higher fashion road. My mother always said, "Better to be looked over than to be over looked." Yes, and better someone look at your face than your feet. I'm just saying.