You’re actually right about the athlete’s foot. It lives in warm, moist, enclosed spaces… so us rabid anti-shoevites never do, indeed, need to fear athlete’s foot. 
I really didn’t mean to turn this into an “ask the barefooter” thread, but I did kinda want to address this sentiment:
As mentioned above (and earlier in the thread), you’re right about the athlete’s foot; most common foot ailments such as fungal infections are a direct result of wearing warm, moist, enclosed, and physically restrictive shoes. Routine barefooters don’t get or spread athlete’s foot.
About the potential for a film of dog poo residue having recently washed across the sidewalk… yeah, okay, sure that’s a possibility. It’s also possible a rat died, or a hobo vomited, or a drug addict urinated there last Tuesday. I guess I just have a high threshold for fear over real-world cooties. I play with fire by drinking unpasteurized milk and eating my burgers just warm in the middle, too.
The thing is, there is no evidence, either peer-reviewed or anecdotal, to support the notion that walking around customarily barefoot in our modern world leads to ill health in any way at all, whether by virtue of injury or disease. In fact, the evidence we do have tends very much to support the idea that customarily bare feet are healthy feet.
That being the case, and it also being true that I myself have experienced a significant reduction in knee and back pain since ditching the shoes, and find being barefoot a great improvement in comfort and quality of life, I guess I’m just willing to take my chances with the hypothetical dog-poo-film.
I went grocery shopping barefoot once.
Mostly to be able to say I’d done it - I like cultivating my weirdness :). Would not do again : the dairy aisle tiling is cold, and I was paranoid about stepping in dog crap. Well, even more so than the average Parisian, an already high standard. I didn’t catch any weird looks either - I don’t think anyone noticed. So, a triple whammy of disappointment.
I feel kind of like a dolt asking this, but I have wondered this almost as long as I can remember- what are they talking about with “no dice”? No playing craps? No backgammon/Monopoly, but Sorry! would be OK?
BTW, it’s also one of my favorite line from Fast Times! It’s the way Spicoli says “…No DICE?!!” that totally cracks me up.
Enlighten me!
Thank you,
BB
I love to go barefoot to Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks
I think that the point is, so few people are shoeless now that store employees aren’t devoting mental time to it. I see turn-of-the-century pictures where half the school children are shoeless. I see pictures of children playing in the street shoeless from the same period. I read depression-era books where people are shoeless. Shoeless Joe Jackson was shoeless. I see WWII pictures where sailors are shoeless. People put up signs excluding shooless people specifically to exclude poor people and people they didn’t like. My boss was shoeless once he started his own company. I was shoeless all through the 70’s and 80’s, and although it was unusual by then, nobody commented.
And I understand that it would be dangerous for you to walk or work shoeless. When I was shoeless, I had an awareness of what my feet were doing that would stagger you.
I thought most Zombies wore shoes cause they died in them. Of course, some Zombies are shoeless as well!
Do barefoot zombies cry for, “…feet…feet…feet…”? 
Without zombies, we have attorneys. This law firm points out:
If your footwear or lack thereof “contributes to reckless driving or negligence”, you can be liable. The lesson: If driving barefoot or in flip-flops or clown shoes, don’t fuck up. I drove a new car in wide shoes last year and nearly killed us. Damn my US size 18’s…