Logos on the bogos.

Part one: Logos.

I bought a package of pretty good socks from Adidas. As one would expect, the famous brand logo appears on the shin end.

But these are the first socks I’ve owned where the logo only appears on one side.

It made me think.

1. One purpose of stitching the logo on socks is to remind you what company made this great footwear that your feet are enjoying, so you'll buy it again. 

2. But another purpose is to advertise the socks and the company to any who see the logo. It seems to me that the company knows we will instinctively want to don the sock with the logo on the outer side of the shin. It would look silly with the logos just facing each other, inwardly as it were, right? Careless. Like cross-eyed socks. We should know that one sock is intended for the left leg, and the other, the right, and act accordingly.

3. But the joke's on them because I hate shorts anyway. 

Part two: On the Bogos.

A hundred years ago people were familiar with the goofy term "logos on the bogos." It seems to indicate a kind of mild mental disorder in a humorous way. 

I don't know where the expression came from, and it's so obscure that searches turn up very little. I'm pretty sure I first encountered the term via the Great Lileks's site, but I couldn't find evidence of that on a search. His site has no search feature, and Google is too busy promoting paid links and shadowbanning badthink to do proper searches anymore. 

Nevertheless, here's another example from Two Bells, the newspaper for the employees of the Los Angeles Transit Lines: 

This clip comes from the issue of June 2, 1923, a four-page paper that included industry, company, and member news. 

Like every paper of its time, it also filled space with chuckles:

So, it would have bloomed last year, right? How about that. 

Part three: More Logos. 

In the classical sense, the term Logos refers to reason, as in divine wisdom and/or the controlling reason that has created a consistent universe that may be understood with human logic (logic comes from the same root). The word logo, as in what's on your socks, is short for logotype, but logotype comes from the Greek logos, in the sense of word. Which brings us back to the first meaning -- and the First Meaning -- for as stated in the opening of the Gospel according to John:

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

All of which takes us from socks to silliness to God in less than 450 words. So I'm going to lie down. I think I have logos on the legs or something.