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Reader question: Please explain this sentence (particularly “well-heeled area”): Orange County, California is a largely well-heeled area and its residents are known to flaunt their wealth. My comments: In other words, Orange County is wealthy and you can tell, by observing their extravagance lifestyles that its residents don’t try to hide their wealth. You may have inferred from “a largely well-heeled area” that women in this place all wear stilettos, or high heels. If that were the case, you wouldn’t be too far off as a matter of fact. There are many versions as to the origin of the phrase “well-heeled” (which means rich and well-provided), and the one that I prefer to believe is a simple and straightforward one. At one time in Europe, it is said that only aristocrats wore high heels as a form of fashion. The poor weren’t allowed to wear them – There were even laws prohibiting poor folks from doing the same (according to a Guardian.co.uk article, listed below). Therefore in those days you could readily distinguish the noble and wealthy from the rest of the populace by looking at the high heels those ladies wore. Presumably the loftier the heels, the higher their status. A minor point to note is that it is difficult to walk on high heels and therefore it goes without saying that those high heels are to be made strong and secure, i.e. they are high quality shoes. Imelda Marcos is said to have had thousands of those in her wardrobe, and sure enough the Marcos family, the erstwhile first family of the Philippines before people power swept them off their dictatorial perch, were one of the richest of them all. | 
