Background:
Occassionally I am forced to attend social functions with people that are several stations higher than me with regards to the social order (Not that I care, I run in circles that include the homeless at times and CEO’s at other times. Each group has it share of people you want to hang with or avoid). At each one of these hoity-toity events it seems to me that I receive at least one handshake from a male where a finger is tucked into the palm. Very noticeable. This is not necessarily about the status but the coincidence of the handshake/event-type got me to thinking about secret societys and secret handshakes.
Questions:
-Am I crazy? Maybe I just randomly encounter a guy at each event that has a momentary hand-shaking problem. A finger trip if you will.
-Is there such a thing as a secret handshake?
-If so is this a handshake whereby you indicate that you belong to a certain group? Or is it something else?
-If it is should I reciprocate? I mean, what the hell, why not goof on them, play along as it were and see what they say?
Uh oh. You are being scouted as a potential recruit for the Illuminati / Masons / Star Chamber / Grey Ones / Chimera / Skull & Bones / Insertyourfavoriteconspiracytheoryhere. Don’t fool with them!
Well as long as it is just the old “finger tucked into the palm” trick you probably don’t have anything to worry about. If it is accompanied with a slight squeeze of your ass and a “We both know what you want” whispered into your ear then I may have some ideas.
I believe both the ring finger and pinky. At different times. You know, one time some guy slips me the ring finger, another time some other guy it’s the pinky. Although last night it was hard to tell, seemed kind of like both, sort of. Creeped me out. Middle-aged short-ish married guy with a beard, owns his own company and well-off if that helps.
It would be hilarious if I were being recruited as I pretty much have the same outlook as Marx, Groucho that is. Paraphrasing; Any club that would have me as a member I would not want to belong to.
Secret password? Um, is it Thank you sir, may I have another?
It’s a sign they are interested in you – does anyone remember the shaking hand with one finger caressing the palm of the person you were greeting? I’m recalling this from the 80’s, it was an over-used move to say “let’s go, baby!” And, I haven’t received one of those handshakes in a long, long time!
Secret handshakes do exist, but I’ve never run into them in a normal social setting. Phi Beta Kappa has a secret handshake (it’s not like the one described in the OP, though), but I have never used or heard of it being used outside of an actual Phi Beta Kappa meeting or initiation ceremony.
I just have to say that there was a spot of crap on my monitor screen as I scrolled down this page, and on coming to this post, it said…“finger fucked into the palm”…
After deactivating from a frat in my sophomore year, I started showing people the frat’s secret handshake. A friend of mine in a different frat observed that his frat’s secret handshake was exactly the same.
I looked at that wacko Landover Baptist site. I just loved the ad in the lower left, “Accept Christ Now and We’ll Throw In a Free Phone!” Just above that, an animated ad says, “This Month’s Banned Book, Burn It Now!” There’s some major-league boggling, folks.
Well I checked my Big Secrets books and can’t find anything on the Masons’ secret handshake. I thought something was there. I seem to remember reading it as being one or two fingers extended into the palm of the other person. The Knights of Columbus handshake it does describe: the handshake is conventional, but the first person squezes twice in rapid succession, and the second answers by squeezing once.
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