Monday, May 28, 2007

Gesticulating

I was on the M66 crosstown the other day when I noticed that many riders were involved in animated conversations. A woman leaned forward and whispered. A man laughed and spittle came out. A child scissored his legs while he talked about his day. Most of the conversers were gesticulating. It was like when everyone was on stage at the end of "The Night of 1,000 Sock Puppets". Fingers made points, emphasized pauses, and were wrapped around words. Some riders gesticulated in time, while others were off a few beats. For example, someone finger-jabbed three seconds before making his point. That's just confusing.
Nobody on the bus seemed cross. Some were happy to be out of the sun. Others were pleased to be off their feet. Others seemed excited to be going home. I was happy because I was on my way to a bookstore. There I would buy a book with new characters, each with their own set of gesticles.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

was the book you bought a dictionary to look up whether 'gesticles' is actually a word?

Anonymous said...

I don't think gesticles is a word in any regular (boring) dictionary. Only in the Urban Dictionary:

Gesticles

BC said...

The urban dictionary entry for gesticles is dated 2004. I'm only three years behind the quick witted. I'm catching up.