Left hand

I recall that on one of the Monday Night Travel shows they said he tends to fiddle (or maybe they said gesture) with his hands, so they had to give him something to do with them.

I just watched over an hour of Rick Steve presentations, like his Travel Tips & Tricks, where he is basically talking on stage, and I have to say that he doesn't always have his left hand in his pocket. In fact I would have to say that most of the time he does not have his left hand in his pocket. At the beginning of one of the presentations, he does have his left hand in his pocket a lot of the time, but for most of the time, later on, he has his left hand out of his pocket, holding a slide "clicker".

So is this really a Left-handed Complement?

Rick’s Website over the past 5 years or so has featured a lot of photos taken by himself with other people, and it seems he’s usually the person on the left of the photo, so he’s holding his camera with his left hand, left arm outstretched. It can’t always be in a pocket.

He’s also a piano player when he’s not promoting travel, and he needs the left hand for bass notes.

RS talks with his left hand in his pocket a lot on the taped travel shows that you watch on pbs and on this site. I have noticed it often. It comes across as a posed shot. He still does an excellent job in his videos and has an expressive voice on camera.

I haven’t seen many RS videos, but I watch Antiques Roadshow and have observed for years I think how guests never use their hands...in fact they seem to be essentially out of sight, or clamped in a grasp on the table. Could it be a TV thing that moving hands distract viewers? It has always struck me as odd. And, “somebody” says that if you want to shut me up, just tie my hands behind my back.

Maybe so Rick won't be tempted to "Pass the Dutchie" .

I recall that on one of the Monday Night Travel shows they said he
tends to fiddle (or maybe they said gesture) with his hands, so they
had to give him something to do with them.

You beat me to it. I remember him explaining that as well.

several years ago in one of the 'making of' or 'behind-the-scenes' segments of the TV show they explained that holding the civita day bag strap at his shoulder and/or keeping his hand in his pocket were ways of keeping him from gesturing in a distracting way.

Consider that RS has been producing TV episodes for much longer than is currently evident when you look at the compilation DVD sets that are now available -- those are only from after the broadcasting standard switched to letterbox format, and after the resolution switched to digital -- he made plenty of shows before those changes, and got the habits of appearing onscreen ingrained way back when.

"Maybe so Rick won't be tempted to "Pass the Dutchie"

I'd love to see some WA state entrepreneur cook up a sativa hybrid called "Rick Steves Red" -- three hits of this and you won't care even if your flight lands at Charles de Gaulle!

Ah, CDG . . .

It's a sad thing that many Americans' first introduction to Europe is Charles de Gaulle airport, which serves the same purpose in European transportation as Hell does in Christian theology. CDG is how France punishes Americans for telling World War 2 jokes.

When you're landing at CDG, the pilot says "We are now arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Please prepare to weep tears of blood and rage." That's when you realize the scenes below of people running in circles and screaming in panic is just the line for passport control. It gets worse from there and differs from Dante's Inferno only in that Dante' escaped Perdition within a single human lifetime.

(Story: I got lost in that place once -- and by 'once', I mean 'every single time' -- and couldn't figure out how to get to the taxi stand. Since no one will give you help at CDG like no one will give you ice water in Hell, I approached this French military guy toting what looked a lot like a MP-5.

"Bonjour, Monsieur," I began, "je ne parle pas français; parlez-vous Anglais?" and I'm trying to scrape together enough of the infantile French I know into some semblance of "how the **** do I get out of this failure of architectural design and absence of God's mercy to get a taxi?", which came out as "Taxi, S'il vous plaît?", probably much to my advantage.

The dude with the MP-5 gives me the Gallic stink-eye, shakes his head slowly, and then points up.

"Taxi -->" said the giant sign directly above his head.

"Ah, merci!" I said brightly while he, my mortified wife and pretty much the entire nation of France rolled their eyes.

I love France so much!)

(BTW, if your lower legs turn bright red and start spontaneously bleeding, you should rush passed Death as he's coming up the walk and proceed directly to a cardiologist. Bring lots of money. I mean LOTS of money. Seriously, cardiologists are a degreed black hole from which no money escapes. Oh, sure, they keep you from dying suddenly, but they're all "You need to exercise more and butter isn't a vegetable. Also: is that MONEY in your pocket?"

In all seriousness, thank you Dr. Woo, Virginia Mason and their cardiac surgery team and everyone here who wrote to my of their concern for me health and well-being. I love you all.)

Mikie....Back in the Saddle Again. So happy you're above the turf. Enjoy that daily V-8.

The Beebemeister proves once again that one man's trash is another man's treasure -
my sashays through CDG have always been smooth and relaxing.
Especially when the Cars Air France coach buses were still running - I felt like I was at the curb stop as soon as I'd rubbed the sleepy out of my eyes from the flight.

Mike Beebe, to kind-of tie in with the original topic, did the airport employee use his left hand to point to the Taxi sign? Nobody should’ve been dismayed, or expected you to be able to read the sign ... after all, it was in French!

Cardiac surgeons deal with major arteries and veins, so they must arrange it so their patients can bleed money.