Shaking hands may become a thing of the past

Posted By David Gough

Posted 3 months ago

A good friend of mine refused to shake my hand last week. It wasn't bad blood or he wasn't angry with me, but he was just being cautious.

With the media harping about H1N1, he probably won't be alone in refusing to have his hand shaken.

We settled on an awkward fist bump. I like the fist bump. It's hip, it's masculine and it's way cooler than a handshake.

A fist bump is also cooler than a pound hug. A pound hug is when two people shake hands and then reach over with one arm and give a small hug. It's also called the bro hug, man hug, thug hug or hip-hop hug. I call it awkward. When I see two guys giving each other a pound hug I can almost see the H1N1 fly from one person to the other.

A fist bump is quick. It does the job of acknowledging someone and giving respect.

If I had my way I would love to see the handshake give way to the fist bump.

I don't like the handshake for a number of reasons.

First, I don't know how to do it correctly.

I was always told to give a nice firm handshake. However, I remember I gave one older gentleman a handshake and I heard something crack. That's not good.

I've also been the one who has been in pain. I shook Gordie Howe's hand once. It was like a vice and his hand went up to my elbows. He also made my hand crack.

I also don't know how long to hold on for. There is one gentleman in town, who I will not name, who whenever he shakes he just keeps on holding on. For me, it's now a game to see how long I can shake his hand. I have gone over two minutes and god willing one day together we will break the three-minute barrier.

A good fist tap is over in one second, two seconds tops.

Minor hockey teams traditionally have a pre-game handshake, where players line up and shake hands. To be fair, it's not really a handshake, it's just a bunch of kids mumbling something about a good game and slapping hands.

However, that practice has been changed, and the kids now slap gloves due to fears of a H1N1 planet.

I would be cool with switching to the fist bump from the handshake as the proper North American greeting.

Like the Japanese and Chinese cultures, I'm not big on touching. There is nothing like shaking a clammy, sweaty palm in the morning. It feels like...defeat.