8/5/10

Territorial Chin Jerking


I like to walk around Target without a shopping list.  They have a café with fairly decent coffee, as well as several toy aisles that keep Isaac preoccupied despite the fact that he can’t take anything out of plastic.  I’m also somewhat fond of the $1 section.  Admittedly, it’s mostly junk, but the whole concept of actually being able to buy batteries or pens for one dollar has some kind of special appeal for me.
On one such occasion I was out with the boys, watching Isaac play with little plastic cars that make whirring noises when rolled across the floor.  We walked past a fairly tall guy with a goatee and those absurdly baggy shorts that can never seem to decide if they were meant to be pants or some kind of tent.  In passing, both Tim and Baggy locked eyes and greeted each other with an upward jerk of the chin. 
“Why do guys do that?” I asked, somewhat incredulously.  When I pass girls I don’t know, I don’t jerk my chin at them.  I’m fairly certain I never do this to men, either.
Tim laughed.  “It’s like saying, ‘I acknowledge you, and there’s no threat.’”
What I said: “I see.”  What I thought: Oh.  So that’s what it’s like to be a guy.

2 comments:

  1. Well Lauren I am sorry to acknowledge but I too do the chin thing. Maybe I am androgenis? But when riding my bike and passing walking passerbys instead of voicing hello I just, chin them, because in most honesty I did not want to speak to them, know them, but felt compelled to at least acknowledge that indeed I do see them, they are not totally invisible to me. LOL. Sanj.

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  2. That sort of falls into the category of raising a single finger off the steering wheel when passing another car. I think this is a southern thing.

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