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Finger Wiggle OT

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Robert Bannister

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Apr 26, 2012, 3:15:11 AM4/26/12
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Off Topic as it concerns human behaviour rather than language, but it
started bothering me, and to whom should I turn but to you, dear readers
of the AUE?

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"I stepped forward and kissed the air above Veronica's cheek, a gesture
that, combined with the form of the thanks, surprised me perhaps more
than it did her. Hospitals did odd things to one's personality, even if
one were only passing through.

Fighting the urge to wiggle my fingertips at them in farewell, I left
them to their uncomfortable love."

Laurie R King, _A Monstrous Regiment of Women".
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Now, this story is set in about 1920. I'm not sure about air-kissing,
but to the best of my knowledge finger-wiggling has only been around for
about the last twenty years. We all learn to wave round about the time
we start to talk - "Say bye-bye/ta-ta" - and we learn to wave more or
less from the elbow. Many of us continued to wave that way; others
adopted a more daring wave from the wrist. There is the Queen's wave,
the limp-wristed wave, the not-quite-military salute-wave, but
wiggle-fingers is something fairly new for me.

To the best of my recollection, it began mainly with younger (i.e.
younger than many of us) women and spread out from there - I'm not even
sure how long I've been doing it myself. What is your reaction? Do you
remember when or how it started or do you believe that you and yours
have always waved that way?
--
Robert Bannister

James Hogg

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Apr 26, 2012, 3:38:42 AM4/26/12
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An interesting question. It might be hard to do research on something
for which there is probably little documentation. Perhaps finger waving
spread with the coming of motor vehicles, as a way to wave without
letting go of the steering wheel or handlebars.

--
James

Snidely

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Apr 26, 2012, 4:30:19 AM4/26/12
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James Hogg used his keyboard to write :
I seem to recall some old films, as on AMC (in the '80s) or TCM, where
the blonde gal with the cloche hat would turn at the door, look back,
and with her hand near her face ... wiggle her fingers as a wave
good-bye.

/dps

--
Who, me? And what lacuna?


Isabelle Cecchini

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Apr 26, 2012, 4:37:35 AM4/26/12
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Le 26/04/2012 09:15, Robert Bannister a �crit :
What it brings to my mind is old Laurel and Hardy movies.

At the very beginning --19 seconds-- of this trailer to "Pack Up Your
Troubles" (1932) Stan can be seen waving his fingers to Ollie who's
going over the trench:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VkXBsYDfFk

--
Isabelle Cecchini

Peter Duncanson (BrE)

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Apr 26, 2012, 5:25:14 AM4/26/12
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On Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:37:35 +0200, Isabelle Cecchini
<isabelle...@wanadooo.invalid.fr> wrote:
My feeling is that that style of finger wiggling has been around "for
ever". What is much newer, to me, is the type of waving in which the
hand is held with the palm forward (as in the finger-wiggle) and the
four fingers are waved in unison. In effect the hand is repeatedly
partially closed and opened again.


--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

John Holmes

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Apr 26, 2012, 6:00:10 AM4/26/12
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On 26/04/2012 6:37 PM, Isabelle Cecchini wrote:

>
> What it brings to my mind is old Laurel and Hardy movies.
>
> At the very beginning --19 seconds-- of this trailer to "Pack Up Your
> Troubles" (1932) Stan can be seen waving his fingers to Ollie who's
> going over the trench:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VkXBsYDfFk
>

Oh, great catch!

--
Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus a u e
at tpg dot com dot au

John Varela

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Apr 26, 2012, 11:53:09 AM4/26/12
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I can't recall ever having seen finger wiggling except, perhaps, as a
gesture signaling disapointment or annoyance.

Frank S

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Apr 26, 2012, 12:49:47 PM4/26/12
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"Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote in message
news:0p4ip7pq037e9sqeb...@4ax.com...
Somewhere I got the impression the Italian version was the same with the
palm toward the wiggler/waver. Sort of a "Y'all harry up back, heah?"


--
Frank ess


Robert Bannister

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Apr 26, 2012, 9:22:26 PM4/26/12
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On 26/04/12 4:37 PM, Isabelle Cecchini wrote:
Interesting. It strikes me, in the context, as being a baby-ish gesture,
even though babies don't really have that much control over their fingers.

--
Robert Bannister

Robert Bannister

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Apr 26, 2012, 9:23:19 PM4/26/12
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I have seen that a couple of times and wondered.

--
Robert Bannister

Robert Bannister

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Apr 27, 2012, 7:08:39 PM4/27/12
to
On 26/04/12 4:37 PM, Isabelle Cecchini wrote:

> What it brings to my mind is old Laurel and Hardy movies.
>
> At the very beginning --19 seconds-- of this trailer to "Pack Up Your
> Troubles" (1932) Stan can be seen waving his fingers to Ollie who's
> going over the trench:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VkXBsYDfFk
>

A question that sprang to mind: how did you come to find this clip so
quickly? I can only guess that you had seen it very recently and that
the hand waving had somehow stuck in your memory.
--
Robert Bannister

R H Draney

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Apr 28, 2012, 1:41:20 AM4/28/12
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Robert Bannister filted:
I don't know how recently Isabelle saw it, but the movie was just on MeTV within
the last month on their weekly "Laurel and Hardy Show"....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

Isabelle Cecchini

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May 1, 2012, 4:06:24 PM5/1/12
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I had never seen that clip before. It was just pure luck, I guess, of
the sort that wholly haphazard googling sometimes brings. I've since
tried to find other clips featuring that peculiar finger waving, without
any success.

--
Isabelle Cecchini

Robert Bannister

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May 1, 2012, 9:02:05 PM5/1/12
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May you have similar luck in other endeavours.

--
Robert Bannister

Athel Cornish-Bowden

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May 3, 2012, 8:23:57 AM5/3/12
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On 2012-05-01 22:06:24 +0200, Isabelle Cecchini
Something rather similar occurs in The French Connection, where the bad
guy has managed to catch a Metro train that his pursuer has missed. He
gives that sort of wave as the train draws away. I don't know if
youtube offers a clip of it, however.

--
athel

Mark Brader

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May 3, 2012, 4:20:53 PM5/3/12
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Athel Cornish-Bowden:
> Something rather similar occurs in The French Connection, where the bad
> guy has managed to catch a Metro train that his pursuer has missed...

Wrong city.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "[This book] is written in what I believed
m...@vex.net | to be my native language." --Susan Stepney

Athel Cornish-Bowden

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May 5, 2012, 12:56:41 PM5/5/12
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On 2012-05-03 20:20:53 +0000, Mark Brader said:

> Athel Cornish-Bowden:
>> Something rather similar occurs in The French Connection, where the bad
>> guy has managed to catch a Metro train that his pursuer has missed...
>
> Wrong city.

Quite possibly, but that was hardly the point.


--
athel

Mark Brader

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May 5, 2012, 6:24:29 PM5/5/12
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Athel Cornish-Bowden:
>>> Something rather similar occurs in The French Connection, where the bad
>>> guy has managed to catch a Metro train that his pursuer has missed...

Mark Brader:
>> Wrong city.

Athel Cornish-Bowden:
> Quite possibly, but that was hardly the point.

Oh.

Oy! Wrong city.

Is that better?
--
Mark Brader | "Reality aside, we would like to deploy a methodology
m...@vex.net | for how Rooter might behave in theory."
Toronto | -- scigen.pl (Stribling, Krohn, and Aguayo)
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