The full-body flip off.

[LaraMN]

My Dad does this when he's driving. I've never seen anyone else do it.
He gets pissed and rather than just flipping someone the bird with his middle finger, he jerks upright, brings one forearm perpendicular to the other and forcefully smacks his arms together while simultaneously raising his middle finger.

It's very impassioned and kind of looks like a cross between an expression of obscenity and a seizure.

Ever see anyone do this? Is it a generational mannerism?


I need to get a job.

[Fran Kubelik]

1. Oh hell yeah - didn't you grow up around any Italians?

I grew up in a small town dominated by Italian families - lotsa that kind of action going on.

[LaraMN]

2. No. Maybe my Dad did.

I can't reenact it without looking ridiculous.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Yeah, we used to call it the Italian Salute

But that was with a fist, not a finger.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. If it's what I'm thinking of

I've bruised my right biceps doing it. :D

[LaraMN]

5. You musta' been mad sumpin big!

:D

:hi:

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. It was before I upgraded

to a better class of drugs. :)

[VaYallaDawg]

7. I think it's kind of a male Italian thing ...

that may be the reason you're having trouble doing it!

I see it often on the downtown expressway here.

[JVS]

8. Is your dad from Minnesota? My dad used to do something similar.

He didn't cross an arm (although some of us kids in the neighborhood did), but his flip off had a distinct convulsive quality to it as he would thrust the middle finger upward and forward violently.

[LaraMN]

9. Yes.

Convulsive sounds appropriate; that's what it is!

[AlCzervik]

10. Nice, you don't see that type of effort anymore.

i like it.

[yellowcanine]

11. He does this while DRIVING? And you still ride with him?

[TZ]

12. Its not just italian thing

I've seen it AND done it too, and I don't have a drop of Italian blood in my Eastern European Jewish body..Maybe its an East Coast thing?