On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 6:51 PM, Rob Schnautz bobthewikipedian@gmail.com wrote:
And re: the Star Trek stuff, I think the most credit we can give Star Trek (if even this) is coining the phrase (if they in fact did). It's found throughout common American culture predating Star Trek.
To not belabour the obvious, but the source claiming the Star Trek connection is poor. Hearsay on a mailing list is even poorer. What is needed is for someone to find some *real* sources about this (and about hand-face body language in general).
Despite probably not being a reliable source, this (and the other pages) are not bad:
http://www.indiabix.com/body-language/hand-to-face-gestures/
Certainly far better than Wikipedia's lamentable efforts on the topic.
Carcharoth