Talk:Handkerchief code

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 19 August 2019 and 29 November 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ryanccraw (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Gstock1, Mxrlena, Ekaufman1998.

is it possible someone is playing with the direction?

I have little knowledge of the subject except for the first hand experience listed below so consider this real life testimony and adjust as required

late seventies I was a naive overweight kid, i knew ZERO on the subject. I was window shopping at a local mall and the call of nature came upon me. so i walked into one of the three Anchor stores of the mall (J.C Penny's should it have any bearing) and entered their public restroom. (I repeat i was naive concerning the goings on of public toilets in addition to the subject at hand) Upon entry i observed i was alone but still was shy about open urinals so i walked into the handicapped stall and proceeded to urinate when I felt a tug at my pants leg (it was my left pants leg in case it makes a difference) While still urinating I looked down to see an "ugly man" (see full description later) reaching from under stall wall tugging at my leg.... when i turned to look he started pointing to his mouth. again i was still urinating in the toilet, i automatically went into defensive attack mode and started kicking at the intruder and likely saying/yelling "leave me alone" or similar verbal objections. "ugly man" quickly left the restroom and i took another minute to restart my stream and then left (and no, I doubt i washed my hands, i was too upset) no longer in the mood for window shopping i perceded about 200 feet to exit the store and another 400 or 500 feet to the mall exit where the local public bus stop to town. the bus arrived about as soon as i did so i queued up and a "natty man" (desc later) walked up behind me and told me to turn my pocket in. checking, i found my jeans back pocket inside out showing as a distinctive white flag. i turned it back in and "natty man" disappeared (I don't think he boarded the bus although i have no memory for or against)

after i saw The Minnesota Connection (movie based on the book) (may have been a TV movie or a TV airing of a theatrical release) upon seeing the movie was the first encounter with the flag system and i quickly remembered the encounter retold here thus I am sure they both thought my pocket was a flag until my reaction. plus the likely hood that "natty man" knew of my supposedly lone encounter of a couple minutes earlier makes me wonder if they wernt both undercover cops since by rumors that i heard much later, that particular restroom sounds like it is the east sides "meet-up" location

MY POINT HERE IS THAT THE POCKET WAS MY RIGHT POCKET NOT MY LEFT POCKET. thus the aggressive would have been me urinating, (had i known about flagging) making the right side aggressive/top not the left mentioned in the article.

further descriptions of the players: I was a 6 foot fat kid at the time, well over 200 pounds (probably 250) and a youthful, clean-shaven "Baby" face (i always looked younger than my age which is added weight to why i always have a beard now)

"ugly man" had rough stubble as a beard, uncombed hair and dirty clothing... he likely would have been quite handsome, man next door type, had he cleaned up but "ugly" fits his appearance quite handily.

"Natty man" was overdressed even for a businessman with the slightest hint of a "dandy" added to his appearance. think of "Mister French" on TV show family affair but with body type of "Uncle Bill" or even slightly thinner than Uncle Bill. the man might even had a hat at a time when they were rare but not yet reserved for pimps....

I only now connect the two men due to the white pocket liner possibly being thought of as offer for "white rain". Let's face it, the possibility that the two encounters so close to each other being a coincidence is astronomical (i had been "out and about" for hours and supposedly the pocket had also been out just as long yet the incidents took place about five minutes apart, definitely less than ten minutes. Qazwiz (talk) 08:28, 20 December 2015 (UTC)

List of colors

Are we really still pretending the list only has 10 colors? I remember it being at least 20 colors long, including mustard (size queen) and plaid (into red heads, a reference the British Isles have a higher ratio of them), etc. --RThompson82 (talk) 03:12, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

If you're asking if anything has changed since the last time you asked (over four years ago, two sections above this one) the short answer is "no". HalJor (talk) 14:45, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Rewrite!

Any article that makes a number of factual claims and only after several paragraphs inserts a sentence to the effect of "This is not a universal thing and is different depending who you talk to and where you are" needs to be totally rewritten. If nothing else the point that "this is not a universal thing" needs to go at the very front of the article.

Beyond that this article sounds a lot like someone is describing an urban legend as if it were fact.

Imma look into this and if no one else wants to take on the rewrite I'll do that. (I'll probably delete 80% of the material.) Hmoulding (talk) 14:57, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

The last two paragraphs of the lede do seem to indicate uncited/original research, but the Origin and Examples sections are better and have at least of a couple of reliable sources. I'll take a look later, when I'm not supposed to be working. HalJor (talk) 17:10, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

I took a stab at it. I removed a fair amount of uncited/original research and rephrased a few sentences. What remains is pretty general and (despite any additional citations) is reasonably true based on the citations that remain. I can't find my copy of the reference for the "Origin" section, or I'd confirm that the entire section comes from that reference. The "Examples" section is based on the citation mentioned there -- I rewrote that section a while back, more or less in its current form, so it should stand (the final sentence speaks to the current state of the code, where there is no consensus among the additional colors and the regionality of any deviations). The only part that could use additional work is second paragraph of the lede. Some of that is probably in the other works cited here -- I just don't have them handy. HalJor (talk) 00:56, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

THE BIG LIST

Has anyone else seen this? I'm not sure why the expanded version of the list isn't allowed in this article. https://unicornbooty.com/the-new-hanky-code-film-art-comedy/ --RThompson82 (talk) 00:15, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

Because it doesn't satisfy WP:RS, perhaps? That's a blog supporting a social networking app, and we've gone over this several times already. HalJor (talk) 02:52, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

Much earlier origin?

I've read about handkerchiefs being flashed as part of a signal for gay men cruising as far back as 1702 - http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/twicken.htm

86.0.28.58 (talk) 13:47, 7 November 2017 (UTC)