Folklore in the News

Posted on Sat, Jan. 22, 2005

Bush's use of UT hand sign causes confusion overseas
By Jack Douglas Jr.
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

MIXED SIGNALS

President Bush may have inadvertently ruffled feathers overseas by flashing a "Hook 'em Horns" sign during this week's inaugural parade.

Bush and the rest of the first family raised their right hands in the traditional Horns salute — customary among University of Texas Longhorns — as the school's band marched in front of the presidential reviewing stand Thursday.

But in Norway and some other parts of the world, a nearly identical hand gesture is considered an insult or, worse, a sign of the devil. In Mediterranean countries, it implies a man is a cuckold, the victim of an unfaithful wife. In parts of Africa, it's used as a curse, and in many European countries it's used to ward off "the evil eye." In Russia, it's a symbol for so-called New Russians, the newly rich, arrogant and poorly educated.

In sign language, it means "bull----," which elicited a surprised giggle from the first lady's press secretary, Gordon Johndroe of Fort Worth, himself a UT grad. When told its meaning by the New York Daily News, Johndroe replied, "Texans have been known to BS every once in a while."

A headline in the Norwegian Internet newspaper Nettavisen expressed outrage at the first family's collective gesture this week, saying "Shock greeting from Bush daughter" above a photo of Jenna Bush smiling and waving the sign.

The originator of the Hook 'em Horns sign said he doesn't see what all the fuss is about.
"I think 'silly' would be a very kind word for it," said H.K. Pitts, 73, who was a UT student in 1955 when he came up with the hand signal. "It's much to do about nothing."nothing."

"I wouldn't think many Norwegians up there watch Longhorn football," said Pitts, who went on to teach history in public schools and at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. "So I'm not concerned about it that much, to tell you the truth."

Chris Plonsky, UT's women's athletic director, defended the hand gesture: "It is sort of a symbol that is unifying. You know you're around a Longhorn when you see that symbol," she said.
Some Europeans don't see it that way.

Catherine "Cat" Osterman, a Longhorn athlete, found that out in Greece when she pitched for the U.S. women's softball team, which won a gold medal last year during the Athens Olympics.

Plonsky said Osterman drew some "adverse" reactions from other countries' athletes when she flashed the Hook 'em signal.

Pitts, who lives in College Station, said he and a fellow student were killing time in his 1951 Ford sedan outside a drive-in restaurant when he made the shape of horns with his right hand. He suggested it could become a Longhorn tradition, just like the "Gig 'em" hand sign for A&M.

Pitts said he passed the idea on to Harley Clark, head UT cheerleader at the time, and Clark introduced it at a Longhorn pep rally, in preparation for a football game in Austin against Texas Christian University, where the Horns were trounced.
(It has only been a symbol for heavy metal rockers since the early '70s.)

Now a retired state district judge living in Dripping Springs, Clark, 69, advised against using the gesture in Italy, but he called Norway's reaction to Bush's Hook 'em gesture "preposterous."

"I wonder what they think the Aggies' thumbs-up-in-the-air sign means," he said.

This Report Includes Material From the Associated Press.

IN THE KNOW

Different meanings

A closed fist with index and pinkie fingers raised can have various meanings:

• Texas: Horns of a longhorn

• Mediterranean countries: Implies that a man's wife has been unfaithful

• Many countries: Sign for Satan

• Sign language: Vulgar word for nonsense

• Heavy metal fans: Compliment