Today's Tidbit... Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

Shaking hands is a tradition that dates back to ancient times when gents wearing distinctive helmets in the Fertile Crescent shook hands to signal friendship or, at the very least, that they were not bearing arms. Some claim that modern handshaking is a democraticized form of kissing the hands of social superiors. Whatever its origins, the number of 1890s newspaper articles regarding the niceties of handshaking suggests the practice was in transition then or that the lesser classes began rubbing...