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# Weekend Words: Handshake
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/weekend-words-handshake/
- Published: 2013-12-15T14:30:14.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:34:08.000Z
- Description: "When is a handshake not just a handshake?" asks the New York Daily News. "When it happens between the presidents of Cuba and the United States, two countries whose enmity has lasted well over half a century and resisted all attempts to normalize relations."
- Author: Weekend Editors
- Tags: Opinion, Weekend, Weekend Words, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2)

![handshake](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/12/handshake.jpg)

Vittore Carpaccio, “Meeting of the Betrothed Couple” (detail) (1495), tempera on canvas (Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice) (image via Web Gallery of Art)

“When is a handshake not just a handshake?” asks the [*New York Daily News*](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-castro-handshake-gesture-article-1.1543910?ref=hyperallergic.com). “When it happens between the presidents of Cuba and the United States, two countries whose enmity has lasted well over half a century and resisted all attempts to normalize relations.”

> “Out where the handclasp’s a little stronger, Out where the smile dwells a little longer, That’s where the West begins.”  
>  
> **—Arthur Chapman, “Out Where the West Begins” (1916)**

> “When I make a vow to God, then I would suggest to you that’s even stronger than a handshake in Texas.”  
>  
> **—Rick Perry**

> “The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace.”  
>  
> **—Jhumpa Lahiri**

> “Only truthful hands write true poems. I cannot see any basic difference between a handshake and a poem.”  
>  
> **—Paul Celan**

> “There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.”  
>  
> **—Lord Acton**

> “The love the land because it is their own And scorn to give aught other reason why; Would shake hands with a king upon his throne, And think it kindness to his Majesty.”  
>  
> **—Fitz-Greene Halleck, “Connecticut” (1847)**