The shoes tossed at President Bush by a journalist in Iraq are the insult that’s been kicked round the world. Many Westerners believe that the thrower acted inappropriately.

He did, however, act in accordance with his cultural traditions. There’s a long history of foot-based disapproval in the Middle East, as well as in other parts of the world. Pop Omnivore spoke with anthropologist David Givens, an expert in nonverbal communications, to learn more about symbolic insults. We’d also like to ask our readers: Have you ever been symbolically insulted? Or have you unknowingly insulted someone in another culture by your actions?

Was the shoe thrower’s action typical human behavior?
It is pretty much a universal trait of humans to have nonverbal gestures that are negative and insulting.

There’s no doubt what it means to throw shoes at someone, is there?
I think most people know. Your feet walk on dirt. If you turn that back toward a human—show the sole of your foot in Middle Eastern countries, in Thailand, and in a few other places—it’s a terrible insult. People get into huge fights when they think someone has purposely shown the bottom of their foot, barefoot or in shoes. If you cross [your] legs and let the sole of your shoe face someone, that can be a terrible, terrible insult. People have been killed for that.

That’s something that travelers should know!
Make sure you keep your feet on the ground in Thailand.

Iraq was involved in another highly publicized shoe condemnation.
Remember when Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled? Folks that really hated Saddam beat on the statue with their sandals to symbolically stomp Saddam.

Is that an ancient custom?
When you look back into ancient Egypt, [people] sometimes drew a pictograph of their enemy on the bottom of their sandals and walked on them symbolically.

Is there any animal behavior that’s similar?
Yes. Chimpanzees, for example, will slap the ground with their hands in a pronated position, like the position for a floor push-up, turned down to the ground. That gets into that kind of stomping mode.

Lots of people do a variation of a stomp.
Yes, like when [Soviet Premier Nikita] Khrushchev pounded on a table with his shoe. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is what I’d call a “table-pounder.” When he gets excited, he pounds on a table with the flat of his palm held down. It’s a symbolic stomp.

Any parent knows that kids like to stomp off to their room when they’re mad.
The kid is stomping on you symbolically.

Are there other gestures of anger that people might not be aware of?
Quite a few. There’s one called the “hand ring.” In the U.S., it’s the A-OK gesture, where you oppose the tactile pad of the thumb and forefinger and make a little circle and extend other fingers, a little bit like making [an] A-OK sign. But in other parts of the world—like Germany and Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, parts of South America—that same gesture, if turned so the palm is facing upward and parallel to the ceiling and moved up and down a bit, it’s a sexual insult much like giving the finger.

Where did that come from?
It goes back to ancient Greece. It appears in certain vase paintings. It symbolizes a body orifice, male or female. And then it spread. Who knows why? And once [these gestures] get going, they kind of persist.

Any other anger sign people might not recognize?
My favorite is called the “double moutza.” It’s a Greek word for a palm thrust. Again, it’s the position of your hands when you do a push-up. But [in this case you] extend your forearm and upper arm straight ahead toward the person you’re giving an insult to. Palms are open, and arms are fully extended, like you’re going to push the person back. You and I might use it if we want to symbolically push something back. It’s an insult only in Greece.

What does it mean?
The meaning of even one moutza is “Go to hell.” The double moutza, with both hands out, means “Go to hell twice.”

George Bush is lucky he didn’t get a double moutza.
He probably got a lot of them. We just didn’t see them.

- Marc Silver

Dear Madonna,

We at Pop Omnivore were saddened to hear of the demise of your marriage. And puzzled by one of the supposed reasons for the breakup. According to a pre-eminent celebrity blogger, you fought wrinkles with an “ancient alien remedy”: slathering up with cream and then going to sleep inside a "zipping herself up" in a plastic body bag.

Now first off, we hope that you had an air hole. Or two.

And second off … really? We think not!

We asked a colleague, wise in the ways of ancient Egypt, if there were perhaps better old-school wrinkle-fighting strategies.

By golly, it turns out there were! According to the writings of Lisa Manniche, an expert on ancient Egypt who specializes in cosmetics, fragrances, and remedies, there were several formulae.

“An allegedly successfully remedy to treat wrinkles,” she writes, is:

1 part gum of frankincense
1 part wax
1 part fresh Moringa oil
1 part Cyperus grass

Ground finely and mix with fermented plant juice. Apply generously.

Then there’s fir oil. To extract fir oil from fir chips, steep the chips in fermented plant juice.

The oil had many uses. Combined with other ingredients, it was thought to be a worm expellant. (Insert Guy Ritchie joke here.) Add honey and an unidentified ingredient and voila—a face wash.

But for the real deal, mix it with dough and fermented plant juice and apply to wrinkles.

So there you have it, Madonna. Maybe your marriage would have been saved if only you’d had a vat of fermented plant juice and a pile of fir chips instead of a plastic bag.

Sincerely,

Pop Omnivore

Faster than a speeding dogsled, the town of Wasilla, Alaska, has rocketed into the pop culture vernacular. Town officials didn’t return our calls, but that didn’t stop us from gathering up some useful information from sources like the U.S. census and the official Wasilla web site to help you prepare for the inevitable release of Trivial Pursuit: Wasilla Edition.

Namesake:
The town is named after Dena'ina Athabascan Indian Chief Wasilla. There’s debate among as to the origin of the word “Wasilla” itself, but prominent theories peg its meaning as "breath of air" in the Dena'ina Athabascan language. An alternative theory: It’s the Russian version of “William.”

Previously known as:
Knik (in 1917 the settlement of Knik became part of present-day Wasilla).

Current Population:
7,028

Median Age:
29.7

Median family income:
$53,792

Average home selling price:
$151,082 (a steal compared to $221,148 in Anchorage, an hour’s drive)

Largest Employer:
Wal-Mart (341 residents employed)

Most popular crime:
Larceny (318 incidents in 2007)

Reason you may have heard of Wasilla before last month:
Until things warmed up in 2002, the town was the official starting point of the Iditarod dogsled race.

Cost of a movie ticket:
$9.22

Cost of a sled dog ride at the town’s Iditarod Headquarters: $5

-Winona Dimeo-Ediger

Winona Dimeo-Ediger is an intern at National Geographic magazine. She is a fashion blogger.

What does Paris Hilton want? Besides lasting fame and beauty and wealth?

Apparently, a cheetah.

According to the New York Daily News:
“A hotel spy tells us: "Every time Paris saw something she liked [on a recent trip to South Africa], like a woman's dress, she would ask how much it was. That included a cheetah she saw at an animal park. She asked how much it was and said, 'If I bought a cheetah, would it run away from me or could I keep it?'"

Actually, that’s the wrong question. A better question might be: Would it hurt me? Try asking the cheetah owner who was attacked by her cheetahs a few weeks ago. She owns a conservation center in Florida and was showing off the cats to an audience. Distracted by a child playing with a ball, they bit and clawed their owner.

The woman survived. Cheetahs are, as it turns out, not as dangerous as other big cats. “They’ll hurt you but they won’t kill you,” says Louis Dorfman, the animal behaviorist at the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary. But that doesn’t mean they’d make a good pet. In fact, he says a pet cheetah would be a “terrible idea.” Here’s why:

1.    They are wild animals, people!
“It’s always wild, it’s never a pet,” says Dorfman. “Wild animals have no inhibitions so they always will hurt somebody. It’s only their size that determines the severity of the injury. If they get angry, they’re going to strike out the only way they know how."

2.    They need lots (and lots and lots) of care.
A wild animal is “very sensitive,” says Dorfman. “No one should get one impulsively. You have to devote a great deal of your life to it.”

3.    They need lots of space for their mental health.
Cheetahs are the fastest cats: 70 mph in short bursts. If they’re cooped up, they get nervous and stressed out.

4. They get nervous and stressed out even if they do have enough space to run.
Since larger cats prey upon cheetahs and their young, cheetahs are “much more nervous” than other big felines, says Dorfman, and “need much more peace and quiet.” He adds: “They need someone with them that really knows how to react to their moods.”

In that respect, they sound a lot like celebrities.

-Marc Silver