Fresh Prints

"What does Will Smith leave in the snow?"...

Thank you, Alex, but we're a long, long way from Bel Air and never will you ever see footprints like these there.

What these are, are "negative footprints" and they're not nearly as cute as they look. Here comes the science: snow falls on pavement, human walks on pavement, walking human leaves footprints. So far so good, but that's when it all changes and gets annoying.

Those footprints are in the snow, not the pavement, and the snow compacts under the walker's shoes. Then when the human sweeps the walkway, the light fluffy snow gets swept away while the compacted stepped-on snow sticks to the pavement. DOH!

End result: They're footprints, Jim, but not as most know them. They're the polar (see what I did there?) opposite of footprints; evil anti-footprints that are convex, not concave like beach footprints.

Now for the annoying part... The reverse-prints aren't easy to remove, even with a shovel, so they often stay where they are and mar the flawless beauty of one's proudly-swept front walkway. Kinda like a kid or dog that walks through fresh cement.

Even worse, if the temperature stays below zero the snowy prints gradually turn to ice. Now you've got a walkway dotted with no-step stepping-stones that are fearsomely slippery, especially if it snows again and hides their locations. Damn you, Will Smith!

(image by ©2025 Aristocratic)