If Nikki Sixx can do it...

Why can't you? Too shy? Worried about the possible awkwardness of going for the solid while the other guy (or gal) goes for the Wonder bread? I guess it comes down to what you got inside, what Mr. Rocky Balboa calls, "the stuff in the basement." What the kids today call, "the junk in the trunk." Well, maybe that is something different, I can't explain every fine point to you. Big picture here is I know you've got it in you, so check the basement and trunk both. Quit thinking LCD, that's "lowest common denominator" from back in Sister Ramone's math class. (Yes, I did have a Sister Ramone, and later in life I did come to wonder if Joey or Dee Dee ever know that one existed.) Now, it's "liquid cyrstal display". What is it with people and crystals these days? Think LED sometimes, like the "Ghost in the Machine" cover. Keep it simple and be your own person (and maybe that involves crystals somehow) but don't dumb down your game. Nikki Sixx doesn't. At least not in this particular example. Are you going to focus-group your handshake? Keep in it smart, stay ahead of the curve - or so far behind it you're ahead of it, anyway - and people will catch up to you, but don't let them lap you. Bring people up to your level, don't crouch down to theirs. You can do it. You were TIME's person of the year for christsakes. Help me here, meet me half way. And when you do, you know how to do it.

From the Image Wanted dept:

I can understand, given the source, why the author would not hope to see more solid displays of electoral sportsmanship. I just need to see a picture of this.

Sharpton and Kerry then clasp hands in what is the first, and it is to be hoped last, soul-brother handshake of this election.

- http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=3356&R=EEC1916

Solid is as Solid does

It’s true, the standard handshake is a time-tested method of salutation and farewell, its pedigree well documented: from the Roman soldier to the Mongol pillager to the Plwigians of Rigel 7. There is the obvious physical connectedness the handshake makes possible. But what about something deeper, something a little more spiritual, but not at all new-agey? What about metaphysical connectedness?

This is what the dap or the solid handshake is all about. It bespeaks an examined life, one spent in reflection, one spent getting on the good foot and staying on it. The solid says, you’re my brother (or sister) and I recognize within you what Marcus Aurelius called “the divine fire”. It says you’re part of the team and so am I, without the messy business of everyone having to get their Player’s Club cards out of their money clips.

There comes a time in everyone’s life, when you have to be good to yourself and make that jump from Black Label to Blue Label. When you’re successful and confident, when you’re sitting at life’s banquet table and you’re not afraid to send back the garlic bread because it’s not really garlic bread, just some soggy toast with oil on it, and you want what you ordered, which is real garlic bread: crispity, with pieces of real golden carmely garlic on it. Delicious.

From the ballfield to the boardroom, those of us in the know understand life is too short for half-stepping with that straight-arm, dead-fish, phone-it-in handshake. We pull it up to about 90 degrees, look you in the eye and say, “Hey, brother, like solid…”

A Solid by Any Other Name

The solid is, well, "the solid." While there are other names for it, there really are no other names for it.
Sure, some have tried to make it exclusive, tied to markers of identity, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, calling it "the soul brother handshake" or "the soul handshake" (as seen in the great PBS documentary Wattstax).
While we will go into greater detail in our upcoming Solid Manefesto, let it be said that the solid as we see it is straightforward - a bond, a connection, a meaning shared. There are no twisted permutations of position and movement, no pantomimes, no slaps or claps. The solid is the moment and we won't be party to its trivialization.

The clipping that launched a thousand handshakes

The correct clasp, the serious jaw clench, the turtleneck, the beaming look of pride. It is an exceptional solid, and the prototypical political solid.