Who Is The Best Shoe Shiner In The World?
like clockwork: regularly or exactly as planned
Every year, the best shoe shiners in the world compete for a title. In 2025, three finalists gathered in London. Each man was given one shoe, twenty minutes, and one brand of polish. The man who came third had left the sole unfinished, the bottom part of the shoe almost no one looks at. The gold medalist’s shoe was flawless. Sitting on the panel of judges was Yuya Hasegawa, the first man ever to win the title. “As you continue to polish your shoes, you will also polish yourself and your life will shine,” he says.
But the best shoe shiner in the world never won a championship. Albert Lexie shined shoes at a children’s hospital in Pittsburgh for thirty-one years. Lexie lived in Monessen, and getting there took three different buses. He left home at 5:50 in the morning and arrived at 7:25 every Tuesday and Thursday, like clockwork. He earned only $10,000 a year from his $5 shines, but he was extremely generous. He gave all of his tips to the hospital’s Free Care Fund. The money paid for the treatment of children whose families could not afford it. By the time he stopped, he had donated $202,000.
In 2013, the year he retired, he tried to explain why. He said he wanted to see the children get well. Then he added something else. “I made myself happy.” Perhaps, for him, those two things were never separate.
Sample sentences
My neighbor walks his dog at six every morning, like clockwork.
Our village bus is never late. It arrives at 7:15 like clockwork.
My brother has called our mother every Sunday for twenty years, like clockwork.
Origin
Clockwork is the name for the springs and gears inside a mechanical clock, which turn at a fixed rate and do not vary.
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Meet Albert Lexie, the late shoeshiner who donated all his tips to hospital families
