Ms. Adventure

Jul 31, 2007 - Just What to Do with "The Boo"?

One of my best friends (let’s call him “Bill”) introduced me to a very fascinating hand gesture a few years back. No, not that one (I learned that one in kindergarten; I did experience my formative years in N.Y. and N.J. after all). No, this hand gesture is rather an ordinary one and quite benign:

Yes, a simple “thumb’s down” with some motion to the gesture. You wave your forearm up and down at the elbow joint raising and lifting the “thumb’s down”. Bill used this gesture to express his distaste with something. He’d also say “Booooooooooo” while he made the gesture and so, I came to call the gesture “The Boo”. I, of course, spending much time at bars hanging out with my buddy Bill had immense exposure to “The Boo” and so, came to adopt it as well.

One day, around this time (being fully in the throws of reveling in my newly found gesture) I experienced a moment of serendipity in new use of “The Boo”. I was in Santa Monica heading north on 4th Street and turned right to get onto the 10 freeway. There are two lanes on this on-ramp that merge into one. As was par for the course, the car that was originally waiting behind me to turn onto the freeway sped up and tried to pass around on the right. However, the person driving didn’t leave themselves enough time to get around, so they ended up getting back behind me, very close on my tail and stayed there. Well, he stayed on my tail that is, until I put my right arm up in full view of my rear window and gave him “The Boo”.

Time seemed to stop. The car slowed down and pulled back. The driver, expecting an entirely different hand gesture, didn’t know what to make of this new one at all. His entire body language changed. It was sort of a physical manifestation of the abbreviation “wtf?” used in IM conversations. Very deer-in-the-headlights crossed with things-that-make-you-go-hmmm.
 
I drove on and left the driver, stunned, in the wake of “The Boo”. I laughed non-stop for a solid three miles. So, the next time you’re driving and find yourself in a position to use “The Boo”, go for it and see what type of reaction you get. I’ll bet that the laugh you get out of the confused recipient’s reaction will make any potential road rage you might have experienced otherwise melt away.

10:07 pm | Categories: road rage, freeway driving, driving, l.a. driving Permalink | Alert Administrator

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