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| CANADA'S SOURCE FOR HUMOUR, PARODY, AND SATIRE
BEND, OR-- Kent Butterfield doesn't claim that he invented the "finger-gun" greeting gesture, but he states that it is unique to him, among his friends and acquaintances. The gesture, sometimes coordinated with a goodbye wink, is Kent's signature.
Many people like to use a simple wave when they depart company, while others will leave with a nod of the head. But Kent has convinced his social peers that a farewell gesture is as important as a baseball player's handshake, or a football player's touchdown dance. "Your greeting gesture is an important part of your social interaction," said Kent, who has been "shooting his friends" for several years. "For me, it's my way of saying 'I love you guys' without having to use the mushy dialogue or insisting on a hug. It's no different than a woman blowing a kiss to her boyfriend." Sociologists agree that gesticulating during introductory or farewell ceremonies is an important acknowledgement of social forms. "Most people concur that the handshake was the first formal body motion that emphasized an expression of attitude," said University of Oregon professor Diane Crofft. "Many however, felt that handshaking was too formal and maybe just a little unhygienic, especially during flu season. In the past 25 years, people have adopted more informal greeting forms." Kent has been encouraging his friends to express themselves more through gestures. "Right now many of my less expressive buddies are just using a simple wave when they go to say 'goodbye'. Others are nodding or lifting their heads in a casual 'hey, c-ya later' sort of fashion. It's a start, but I'm hoping to get at least one or two peace-signs out of them soon." "Many of them are starting to get it," added Kent. "Some of my friends, the more open ones, are using the finger-to-the-forehead-and-flick, which is really just a lazy salute. Others have been experimenting with the two-finger-slide, in which the index and middle fingers are used together in a curving 'catchya later' motion. One of my friends, a real kook, does 'the tilted prayer', a sort of Taoist zen thing, that real pisses us off. He's almost saying that he's got it together and we don't. But really, the guy's a bit of a fruitie. I think he's really just stealing it from Arnold Swarzenegger's Total Recall." Not everyone, however, agrees with Kent's gesture revolution. "Kent is trying to force people to follow his ideals, but it's not right," said Margo Leffler, a gestural conservative. "Men should only shake hands or tip their hats; women should bow or curtsy. All of this acting nonsense smacks of copulation. And that leads to sex!" Kent can think of one or two gestures that could be used to respond to the conversative attitudes, but he insists that he'll stick to using his "finger gun" gesture--which should not be confused with the the "double hand-gun" gesture, which is frequently used by car salesmen, and is sometimes known as the "Australian Touchdown". "It's
a statement," said Kent. "It gives people the impression that
I'm a straight-shooter. It says, 'hey, I'm an honest guy'."
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