The forward to The Consolation of the Shoes was provided by Manolo the Shoeblogger’s long time friend, Herr Professor Doktor Boethius P. von Korncrake, the current occupant of the Klaus Meine Chair of Medieval Semiotics at the Institut für Europäische Spielwissenschaft und Freizeitforschung in Bitterfeld, Germany.

A friend of the Manolo’s for nearly twenty years, Prof. Dr. von Korncrake first met the author on New Year’s Eve, 1989, at the conclusion of David Hasselhoff historic concert atop the Berlin Wall. Subsequently they traveled Europe together in Prof. Dr. von Korncrake’s Trabant, following Mr. Hasselhoff’s concert tour.

Herr Prof. Dr. von Korncrake has an illustrious academic pedigree. He holds a doctorate in Semiotics and Marxist Philosophy from Patrice Lumumba Peoples� Friendship University in Moscow, and an undergraduate degree in Sports Psychology from University of Halle. Additionally, he has done post-graduate work at California State University, Chico.

In 1993, Herr Prof. Dr. von Korncrake successfully completed his habilitation with a thesis in which he applied Yuri Lotman�s Moscow-Tartu school methodology to the study of the semiotics in the staging of Hroswitha of Gandersheim�s dramas.

Prior to 1990, Herr Prof. Dr. von Korncrake held the Egon Krentz Chair of Soviet Semiotics at the Institut f�r Marxistisch-Leninistische Soziologie in Bitterfeld, German Democratic Republic.

He is the author of fifteen books, none of which remains in print.

Herr Prof. Dr. von Korncrake maintains a well-read blog.