What is that gesture called?

[Wilson Gray]

On Nov 2, 2004, at 8:39 AM, James A. Landau wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: What is that gesture called?
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> In a message dated  Mon, 1 Nov 2004 20:40:30 -0500, our sage hen
> <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> writes
>
>>> The clenched fist pulled downward, usually accompanied by an emphatic
>>> "Yess!!"
>>   ~~~~~~~~~~
>>  I don't know what light it might throw on the term for it, but one
>>  application of this gesture used to be seen in street demos where
>> there
>>  were signs "Honk for ______" ("Choice," as it might be, or "Peace.")
>>  Semi
>>  drivers operating their air horns apparently with some overhead
>> apparatus
>>  made the gesture &/or we would prompt them to with the gesture.
>
> If the gesture is made with the clenched fist held so that the fingers
> are
> horizontal, then it is a friendly request to a semi-trailer driver to
> honk his
> horn.  I learned this gesture either in 1966 or 1967 from a college
> friend.
> The gesture is made gently---it is a friendly gesture, remember---and
> there is
> only a single downward pump, as the truck driver is only going to give
> a single
> blast on his horn.
>
> There is nothing inherently political to this gesture---it can be made
> to any
> semi.  Sure, someone in a street demo might make this gesture, but the
> thought of semi-trailers joining a political street demonstration is
> rather
> mind-boggling.  Anyway, for obvious reasons of safety, a semi-driver
> finding a
> demonstration on the street ahead of him will wither make a detour or
> call for a
> police escort.
>
> I have a suspicion that the gesture originated not in trucking but in
> railroading, dating back to the days when all locomotives were steam
> engines.  In a
> steam engine the engineer has nothing resembling a dashboard in front
> of him.
> Instead he has a throttle, a Johnson bar, and the air brake controls
> in front
> of him,   With the exception of Shays and cab-forwards, he has a very
> narrow
> workstation, since the boiler restricts him to a very narrow window
> looking
> forward.  There is not much space for a whistle button to be placed in
> front of
> him, so the whistle control was probably a cord hanging down from the
> roof of
> the locomotive cab, said cord running over the top of the boiler to
> the whistle
> which was mounted somewhere on top of the boiler.
>
> Still, many semi tractors must have an overheard control for the air
> horn,
> which is frequently mounted on top of the tractor cab.
>
> Linguistic note:  the horn on a Diesel locomotive is still called the
> "whistle" even though Diesel locomotives use an air horn.   If all
> engineers are
> supposed to blow a whistle at a particular point on the tracks, there
> will be a
> sign (called a "whistleboard") by the side of the tracks carrying the
> letter "W".
>
> The whistle [horn] signal for a train approaching a grade crossing is
> long
> long short sustained long ending when the locomotive reaches the
> crossing.
> Sometimes you will see by the tracks near a grade crossing a sign with
> the cryptic
> inscription
>    -
>    -
>    .
>    -
> This is of course telling the engineer to sound long long short long.
>
> While I have your attention (if I still do), an aside to Stephen
> Goranson:
> Machiavelli's most famous work (he was also a playwright) was "Il
> Principe", a
> title best translated into English as "The Ruler".  "The Art of War"
> was by
> Clausewitz (actually compiled by his widow after his death.)
>
> Aside to Wilson Gray: the Britannica (Fifteenth Edition, volume 3 page
> 361
> article on "Clausewitz") reads:
> <begin quote>
> In maintaining that "war is nothing but a continuation of political
> intercourse with the admixture of different means," he denied that war
> is an end in
> itself.
> <end quote>
>
>                - Jim Landau
>

Well, okay. That seems to be an interpretation rather than simply a
translation. Nevertheless, I find it fully acceptable as the last word
on this point. Thank you for caring, Jim.

-Wilson Gray