Lake Superior Hand Jive
Does anyone else do this? When people ask where I’m from, I often make my hand into the shape of Lake Superior and say, “This is Lake Superior and I live here, at the western tip.”
I think maybe I’m just a tad jealous of the Michiganders (lower peninsula) getting to use their hands as maps all the time.
Duluth: The shining star at the tip of Lake Superior’s middle finger.
I say, you know how Lake Superior looks like a wolf’s head? I’m from the tip of the nose.
Then I get looked at like I’m insane, because no one else thinks Lake Superior looks like a wolf.
That hand gesture is also one of my favorite Duluth gang signs — sign-language “H” for hillside. We should all be using it. Also, if you then insert the two fingers between the upper two buttons of your coat and say “but who will take care of the miller’s daughter,” you can get into just about any masonic lodge in the country.
We use our hands as maps in Wisconsin too. The thumb is Door County.
All the time! I just wrote a short essay about sneaking off to the Last Place on Earth when I was ten and that description is how I start the story.
I was gonna say, flashing that in my neighborhood will get you cut! (As opposed the “midwest coast MW,” which is fine)
Nose of the wolf, and Isle Royale is the eye.
Russ Feingold used the hand-map the first time he ran for Senate. *sniffle*
Lake Michigan has a body part that can double as a map, too. Chicago and Milwaukee are warts on an old man’s saggy scrotum.
And… if you are a Windows user you may notice the small Lake Superior-shaped cloud in the upper left quadrant of that pretty blue sky w/ the grassy knoll desktop image – which MS calls ‘Bliss.’
Used my left hand last night for to figure out where cities in California were because of this. Thnks.
I don’t think you’re really supposed to tell people about that Mason thing, Alan. The gang thing might also be pushing the bounds of yo’ personal safety, son! Oh hell no!
feel ya on the “tip of the wolf’s nose”…
When referencing a map with out-of-town/country friends, I always say, “I live where the bend in MN meets the point of the lake, and that the lake point is the fingertip tickling the armpit – that’s where you’ll find Dull-uth.” “The Armpit.”
I always just describe Duluth as being at the western tip of Lake Superior.
Ha! I just noticed the Lake Superior cloud in MS Bliss. It’s chasing away a dragon!