Hostile handshakes

At work, I started a small project on a new client not so long ago. The week before last I went out to meet the client for the first time, and we had a short meeting discussing the project.

There are two main client contacts, and they both took us to the reception of their office to show us out. When I shook the hand of the junior one, he seemed to frown in the most thunderous way he could whilst giving me a penetrating stare. This struck fear in my heart - I immediately wondered if I had made some sort of gaffe in the hand-shaking method. Or perhaps my flies had worked themselves open? (see Abstracts passim)

Anyway, I tried to forget about it and left as normal. Last week we had a second meeting, and again when it came to departure outside my office, the guy did exactly the same thing! It was most disconcerting.

So I began wondering why he would do this. Is it to try to impose an intimidating persona upon the people he meets in the business arena? Or some facial tick associated with the action of shaking hands? I suppose I genuinely could have done something offensive on two separate occasions, however no-one else present seemed to notice! If I get the chance to shake his hand again I will probably try to mirror his expression and observe the results.

Sports graffiti

At the end of my row of houses is a boiler-room type block. There is some crude graffiti on the doors of this block, as expertly photographed by my phone:



Now, the key issues of the Abstract are:

(a) Did the graffiti artists spray sports symbols in earnest or were they ironically highlighting the evils of sports branding and the work of 'cool hunters' who work for these large brands? (in the past we have seen campaigns - I think Nike and possibly Sony may have been involved - where graffiti artists have been paid by the companies to spray expert corporate murals)

(b) If the latter, was the misspelling of 'Adaidas' and 'Hi-Teck' done with a mischievous tongue in cheek?

(c) Am I crediting the youth of East London with too much nous / level of social commentary? Are they simply poor-spelling louts with no better message to convey through spray than their favourite trainer designs?