HI-FIVE, Hardy...

How do You Greet a Stranger - With a sturdy handshake, a wafting peck on the cheek... 

Or are you tormented by an agony of indecision? 

If so, you`re not alone.  For aeons, meeting someone for the first time has caused untold anguish; hiding in the kitchen at parties and refusing to join evening classes are but seven of the silly things some will do to avoid New People.

Help is at hand.  The biggest study ever into this behavioural quandary has now been conducted – we need suffer no more.

The study suggests that most people harbour an underlying reluctance at being touched by a stranger anywhere but on their hands.

(Must make a note).  But Yes, I probably harbour that reluctance... 

Apart from the odd pedicure.   And the cheek to cheek greeting we got accustomed to when living in France. 

There, you had the additional problem of How Many cheek to cheeks – should it be the four kisses of our own village, or the three-ser, two-ser or one-ser of everywhere else?

Although we who exchanged cheeks weren`t Strangers – cheeks were for friends or at least,  friendly gatherings. 

So the Hands still have it, the Hands have it…  Except one of our French neighbours warned us severely that she didn`t like handshakes because hands are where all one`s horrid microbes live.

Boldly, our French GP always shook hands when we turned up with our ills and microbes, as did workmen coming to repair problems electrical, boiler or plumbing-y.  What a  potent melange we must all have concocted...

George and I unthinkingly continued these greetings when we came back to EnglandOurOldCountry. 

Our new handshaken GP was somewhat taken aback but kept her composure and as for friends here, well, they do their best to just take it on the chin...

Anyway, The Study found that kissing at first meeting was now acceptable, but people would often "put their hand on the arm of the person as a braking mechanism and to let the other person know that they are not about to chomp them."

 (Oh hell - that`s a braking mechanism)?

The general conclusion was that Strangers should stick to Handshakes, which must be a huge relief to us all.  Specially if we`re a freemason, perhaps. 

And if a Handshake doesn`t seem quite right...