Sure, I agree that a minority opinion does not automatically pass the "what you can't say test". To make a slightly weaker claim, let's just say that it bothers

Sure, I agree that a minority opinion does not automatically pass the "what you can't say test". To make a slightly weaker claim, let's just say that it bothers me that people assume you can't run barefoot in the winter, when it is clearly (empirically!) possible, at least given adequate conditioning. Moreover, some of the research involving barefoot running and human biology is suggestive to me of a full-on "can't say" equivalence. I agree with you re. the handicapped kid, but where do you draw the line? I consider a pause, eye contact, a smile, and "I'm fine" (spoken in a self-assured manner) reasonable evidence that I'm ok, so to speak. When they finally did stop me for good, I was engaging them in what I would consider sophisticated (polite) debate and questioning (along with "facts"), and yet they still refused to let me continue my run. As for shoes, when I first went minimalist, I jumped straight to FiveFingers. But before that, I walked around barefoot all the time, so who knows... Just progress slowly -- granted, that's advice I have not always followed ;-)