The foot is a noble appendage. None other than Leonardo da Vinci recognized that. As further evidence, think about the upcoming Super Bowl XLVI. Millions of people around the world will be watching this momentous FOOTball game. How many could you round up to watch a HANDball match no matter what kind of a halftime show you promised?

"The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art," Leonardo said. I'm sure he knew what he was talking about. He was known to improve his knowledge of anatomy by dissecting cadavers.

I count 14 Apostles' feet in a reproduction of da Vinci's famous Last Supper" painting which took three years to create. The original had two more feet, but about 150 years after he painted the mural inside a convent, a new doorway was installed that eliminated the feet of Christ.

From his post mortems, da Vinci would have learned that our two feet contain a total of 52 bones or 25 percent of the entire bone count in the human body. If you suffer from foot pain, it could be in one of the 33 joints or 107 ligaments in each foot or maybe just from the corns and calluses your feet create in response to the friction of ill-fitting shoes.

Some podiatry experts claim that three out of four people wear the wrong size shoes and women have four times as many foot problems as men. That's probably because most men like comfortable clodhoppers while the ladies are attracted to the latest designer footwear which might feature towering spiked heels or slippery clogs. The barefooted Zulu tribes are said to have the world's healthiest feet

Another interesting foot fact is that not all animals hit the ground with the entire bottom surfaces of their feet. Humans do, and so do baboons, bears, gators and frogs, but dogs, cats and birds walk on their toes. Paleontologists say that T-Rex, the huge dinosaur, also walked on his toes. It's hard to believe that this seven-ton, meat-eating monster would be able to sneak up on his prey by tiptoeing through the jungle. Wouldn't they notice the ground was shaking?

Some modern heavyweights also try to be graceful on their feet. A portly friend of mine was taking ballroom dancing lessons and thought he was making progress. Waltzing with his wife at a wedding reception, he boasted, "I think I'm getting close to being a talented dancer."

"You're just two feet away," she replied. "Two big, clumsy feet."

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A look down out our amazing feet