Handshakes
 

O.k., this is probably really trivial, but.....

I met a buddy's visiting cousin yesterday when I dropped off some hamburgers for his boxer, Cleo, that I brought from Fudruckers, that weren't cooked as ordered (good manager there - his new cook failed twice and he gave me a box for the burgers, refunded my money and the cook finally got it right the third time - but I digress).

Cleo was enthused to say the least and pretty much occupied all our attention while my bud demonstrated how Cleo was so well behaved as she waited for him to feed her a burger.

Anyway, his cuz is a burly young dude into football, hunting and fishing (Louisiana boy). When Cleo finished wolfing down her burger my bud introduced us and we shook hands.

Damn! When I grab a dead fish I just wanna recoil and spin in circles shaking my hand in disgust to try to make the feeling go away!

Of course, ya can't politely do that. Point is, my positive first impression of his cuz, a perfectly nice guy, was instantly tainted by shaking hands with him. This has happened to me numerous times in my life and I always get that feeling. Truth is, when I'm about to shake someone's hand the first time I'm consciously hoping they have a decently firm grip.

I know I'm not alone in experiencing this; I didn't coin the old "dead fish" phrase.

Do you guys feel the same way? I just Googled this, http://research.ua.edu/archive2001/handshakes.html and found it interesting.

"Having a firm handshake is important for making a good impression," Chaplin said. "We found that men had firmer handshakes than women did, on average, but we also found that women who had firm handshakes tended to be evaluated as positively as men are. We thought this finding was interesting because often when women have characteristics that are more similar to men, they tend to elicit a somewhat more negative evaluation — simply because it's counter to the usual stereotypes."

The art of the handshake was one of the best things my father taught me, and has served me well.

I shake hands with people 100's of times a month.

Never really gave it much thought.
Are we wanting people to be like us or be themself?


KT

This is well & good for us normal folk...but politicians and celebrities who must shake hands often quickly learn the technique of only offering fingers to shake, in order to avoid hand injury.

Same here.

God forbid everybody from being like me! :D

That never occured to me; makes sense. But shaking s fistful of fingers doesn't leave me with a positive impression either, ;)

We're talking hand shake not disarming a bomb. Just kidding! What are the injuries that come from a firm handshake, is it just the repetitive nature of the gesture.

I think I can honestly say I've never shaken hands with a politician or celebrity so can't speak from experience. I would bet that shaking with Eastwood, Newman (even today) or Hackman etc. would be firm. I guess I can agree with the politician thing as they spend so much time glad handing. They are more concerned about contracting some kind of disease from someone by touching them.

I like a firm handshake and when I don't get it in return that just means I have to find out more about this character, doesn't mean I don't like them. It does get my attention though.

I'm guessing there aren't too many wimp handshakes for Pcar drivers, got to keep a firm grip on that wheel especially the older ones.

Always some bozo who goes beyond "firm"...that, and the repetiveness both take their toll.

Agreed, i've had a few of those guerilla's that want to take you to one knee. Those are the ones that have some kind of complex.

I just feel a good grip is the right way to start off an introduction. I often shake hands w/ good friends, just a nice gesture.

on my right hand i've had the thumb ripped out of it's socket, and broken three fingers.


i hate retards who try to crush what's left.

Crushers suck...they must have tiny peepees.....

I shook hands with a Tai Chi Grandmaster just the other day - one of the top 4 in all of China -- so I guess you can divide 4 by 1 billion. He just offered his fingers too.

BTW - was the guys Boxer a heavy weight, middle wieight or what? Pretty cool to have your own.

I give a firm handshake to men and try to give a "polite" handshake to women. When I tried this with a woman last month who was a)German and b) a fitness buff, she nearly crushed my hand. My ring was in-between my knuckles, so she actually caused me to buckle when she shook. She laughed, I turned red.

The limp hand bugs me as well. Dealing with engineers, I get it a lot.:p I try to be firm, but not wanna-be macho man firm. Those guys drive me nuts. Of course, you have to play it off like they didn't just crush every bone from the wrist out, but WTF?

Do politicians and celebrities normally give you a positive impression?:p

Politicians: shaking your right hand, picking your left pocket!!:eek:

And a wimp shake at that.

yup! Since my SCI my right hand tends to curl into a half fist that I can only open with my left hand. I formerly tried to hide that process but it always resulted in my gimpy hand being crushed ( there's quite a bit of metal in my hand as well which hurts like a beotch). So now I do it conspicuously or I offer my left hand.

How do you guys react to a left handed shake?

Not well, that's the one the bad guys don't like because they use it to wipe there bums.

I shook hands with Bill Clinton (and I got a huge round of very rude flak from right here on OT). I can say that might have been one of the best handshakes ever. But, then again, a lot of practice on his part. The funny thing was that he really didn't want the be the first to let go. Being a normal wokerbee in society I figured he was doing me a favor and I shouldn't prolong it. This guy made me feel the opposite.

I guess my point is that one can't really do that with a limp fish.

OK, you that are children can now start on your crap again. I don't care, that's most likely the only President I will ever even meet.

I hate the dead fish hand shake. Sometimes it happens accidentally, but most times when you get it, it's on purpose. If I think I get a dead fish accidentally, I've actually asked for a re-shake.

I was doing some consulting for a small company. Second or third day at the job site I met the president of the company. He shook my hand and I just about cried/passed out. He had the strongest grip I've ever (still to this day) encountered. Funny thing is he was a jovial guy about 20 yrs older than myself. Average build. But every time we met we would shakes hands and for the next half hour my hand wasn't right!!!

After working there for a few weeks, turns out the guy I'm working with is his son in-law. Eventually he lets on that his father in law used to compete professionally at gripping contests (who know they even had such a thing). Usually he just shakes normally, but the son in law knew I was a wise ass and told his father in law not to let up until I complained. After the cat was out of the bag, he admitted he only went about 2/3's of what he could have done!!!

And I've yet to meet a famous person (i've run in to a few) who gives a dead fish hand shake.

are you sure you didnt grab too early and get his fingers by mistake? :)

when people do that to me i say: stop and try again

i dont want people thinking i give limp handshakes!