Mano a Mano

So there's been an absolutely outrageous amount of coverage - to which I know I'm now adding, sorry, but that's okay because only about fifteen people will read this - about the fact that Barack and Michelle Obama good-humoredly pound-dogged each other Tuesday night when he claimed the Democratic nomination.

Personally, I think the pound-dog (the mainstream media seem to prefer the term "fist bump") is a little passé, a little 2003. But the mainstream media appear hardly to have heard of the gesture before. At best, stories in the New York Times and other legitimate media outlets are abuzz because they suggest this explains why today's hip youngsters/young hipsters (take your pick) are particularly able to relate to Barack Obama. At the worst, surprise surprise, Fox "Earth?? Where?!?!?" News has taken out-of-touchedness to a whole new level, pandering to the fist-shaking-old-codger demographic by suggesting that the gesture could be a secret al-Qaida signal: a "terrorist fist jab," in their shrill terms. (Not that they actually said that it was. They just said that's what a lot of people were thinking it might be. Riiiiiiiiiiight.)

Am I missing something here? I know Austin is an unusually hip place. But, you know, I don't get out all that much, and I'm in my late thirties, and still the "pound dog" is something I've been exposed to for years and years, here and there: on the hike-and-bike trail, on Comedy Central, on network TV, fer crissakes. And here's a thought for you interwebz: Just because Oprah Winfrey would look awkward and out-of-place doing something, does not mean it is not a perfectly natural and unremarkable thing to do.

She looks pretty awkward and out-of-place running a book club, come to think of it. Who reads that tripe? But I digress.

Anyway, I'm just pitching in, exactly like the people who reply-to-all to some idiot who has just replied-to-all on a companywide email, telling the idiot in question not to reply-to-all, to say, hello? Been to Earth lately? (I'm not asking Fox News, we already know about them.) What the hell's the big deal?

Meanwhile, here are a few better things for you fist-shaking-old-codger types to do with your clenched fingers.