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is saying someone is nuts. In Poland flicking a finger against someone's neck means you want them to join you for a drink. You only do this with close friends. In Russia giving someone a thumbs up and making a sprinkling motion over it means job well done. In India you say sorry by tapping someone on the shoulder and touching your forehead. In Turkey pretending to throw salt over your shoulder with an open palm means don't worry about it. (Kachka, 2008)

Just like words gestures have their own origins. But since gestures predate verbal communication and thus written record the origins are difficult to trace. This does not keep people from speculating. Here is a myth behind a common gesture; the Roman emperors thumbs down gesture telling the gladiator to finish off the other gladiator. Today's popular culture has it that a thumbs down meant death while a thumbs up would grant the loser his life. There is no evidence of this. In fact most scholars now believe that the finish him gesture was a thumbs up while a thumb hidden inside a fist spared the loser. This is not absolutely verified. However since the thumbs up was an insult in Roman times this makes more sense than the accepted folklore. (Kachka, 2008)
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Now we will exam hand gestures in friendship. To do this we will be examining an episode of the CW show Smallville. As you might guess this show centers around the character Clark Kent played by actor Tom Welling. The series follows Clark as he deals not only with his developing powers and fighting meteor freaks (people exposed to Kryptonite who gain special abilities) but also school, friends, and crushes. Clark has two best friends, Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan. The episode we will be focusing on is the episode Duplicity in which Pete finds out Clark's secret. The other notable characters in the episode include Clark's parents, Lex Luthor, and Dr. Hamilton.

After Lex refuses to give Dr. Hamilton, who is dying from exposure to meteor rocks, any more funding for his research Dr. Hamilton runs someone off the road. Pete comes along and while helping the man comes across Clark's spaceship which was lost in a tornado in the season one finale. Pete gets Clark to help him hide it in his shed although Clark tries to get him to leave it but can't come up with a logical reason. Dr. Hamilton talks to the hurt driver in the hospital who admits he saw a spaceship and that the boy who saved him saw it too. When Clark tells his parents about Pete finding the spaceship his father makes him go with him to get the ship. But when they get there it is already gone. They drive away and Pete sees them leaving. When Pete confronts Clark he shows Pete his powers. Furious that Clark has been lying to him for so long Pete leaves. Clark's attempts to talk to him are rebuffed. But when Pete goes home Dr. Hamilton is searching the shed and Pete is kidnapped. Hamilton tortures him to see what he knows about the ship. Just as he is about to kill Pete by injecting him with meteor rocks Clark bursts in. Unfortunately he collapses due to the Kryptonite. Pete saves him by pushing Dr. Hamilton into a shelf full of meteor rocks. After they return the ship to the Kent's cellar Pete says he understands why Clark and that he won't tell anyone. We will examine three scenes from the episode: the scene where Pete gets Clark to come with him to the cornfield, the scene in the cornfield where they are talking about w