Today's Slice question: I don't know how it started. It was some sort of inside joke, but the origins elude me now. Must have been our shared mocking of some insanely angry behavior we had witnessed or heard about.

Anyway, years ago, I used to be able to make a former colleague laugh by giving her the finger from a block away when I caught sight of her downtown.

Of course, those who weren't in our little joke might have misunderstood. They could have wondered just what I had against that nice Kristina Johnson, the colleague in question.

This came to mind recently because of another humor styling.

When I'm slowly riding my bike up the South Hill after work, a friend who is an STA driver often pretends for a few seconds as if he is going to run into me head-on.

I get a kick out of this. And sometimes he manages to surprise me. (From a distance, I cannot tell that he is behind the wheel.)

But lately I have found myself wondering. What would this make-believe collision course look like to an onlooker?

"Did you see what that bus driver did? I'll bet he's drunk. That old guy on the bike is lucky to be alive."

So here's the question.

Are you now or have you ever been part of an acted-out inside joke that almost certainly would be misinterpreted by the uninitiated? 

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