Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Crossing Your Fingers

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin explore why “fingers crossed” is secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:

• Katie Goldin on Bluesky
• @ProBirdRights on Bluesky
• ‘Creature Feature’ podcast (iHeartRadio)
• When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide (Audubon)

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• “Finding Lenapehoking” (YouTube / Hudson River Maritime Museum)
• Why Do They Call It Beacon? (The Highlands Current)
• Dutch & Native American Heritage In The Hudson River Valley (National Park Service)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• Crossed Fingers Emoji Meaning (Emojipedia.org)
• 2014 Emoji Additions proposal by Mark Davis and Peter Edberg
• The Emoji Origin Story: Where Those Clever Little Characters Come From (Scripps News)
• 1 Way To Make An Emoji (the bison emoji podcast)
• The Totally Jinxed Map of Global Superstitions (Atlas Obscura)
• Bloggy sources for information on Vietnamese crossed fingers: post in r/Vietnam: “Alternative meaning for Fingers Crossed!?!” (Reddit), Things not to do in Vietnam #1: “Crossed fingers” (“Weird.Wonderful.Vietnam” blog), DAILY DIRT: Never cross your fingers in Vietnam, and other helpful hints for those who like to travel (MuddyRiverNews.com), Your Guide to Vietnamese Gestures (TheCultureTrip.com)
• Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: The Middle Finger
• Bloggy sources about fig amulets: post in r/jewelry: “Some cultural info on this sort of amulet?” (Reddit), catalog page for Mano Figa Pendant (ThistleAndBess.com)
• Romans Used to Ward Off Sickness With Flying Penis Amulets (Atlas Obscura)
• Three of the books Alex searched for solid information about crossed fingers origins: Panati’s Extraordinary Origins Of Everyday Things by Charles Panati, The Giant Book of Superstitions by Claudia de Lys, Christianity Or Superstition by Paul Bauer. None of them, or the blogs citing them, achieve a solid backing for either pagan or Christian origins of the gesture.
• biography of Max Cryer (NZOnScreen.com)
• Crossing your fingers might reduce pain, says study (The Guardian)
• Crossing Your Fingers Could Reduce Pain — No Lie (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Crossed fingers may bring you luck — and pain relief (Science)
• How the ‘Thermal Grill’ Illusion Tricks The Mind (Science)
• Fingers Crossed! How Your Superstitions May Benefit You (Discover Magazine)
• Keep Your Fingers Crossed: Can ‘Magical Thinking’ Actually Work? (NPR) — this article has a major error, where they call the University Of Cologne a Danish university. Source of the error is probably a misunderstanding of the school’s “.de” domain name.
• MPs new and old prepare to be sworn in (BBC News)
• Fighting an election only to refuse a seat: Sinn Féin and Westminster abstention (The Conversation)
• Swearing in and the parliamentary oath (UK Parliament)
• Obituary: Tony Banks (The Guardian)
• You ask the questions: Tony Banks (The Independent UK)
• SNP MP Steven Bonnar crosses fingers during House of Commons swearing in ceremony (The Telegraph / YouTube)
• one example of a pro-Scottish independence post on X.com, reposted by Steven Bonnar