To touch or not to touch

"OMG, She touched the Queen!" I'm sure the mouse under the Queen's throne is having a fit over Michelle Obama touching Queen Elizabeth during their "private" meeting.

I have to admit I was surprised to see the bit of video that HLN has shown over and over again during the Robin show.

And then I remembered an incident from when Paul was going through flight school.

The Army trains certain allied soldiers in helicopter flight. Among those allies are the United Arab Emerates. We had a few such students in Paul's flight class.

At some point or another there was a formal gathering of the students, teachers and spouses. I had been very specifically drilled that the Arab students do not shake hands with women. I was told to not hold out my hand for a handshake. I was instructed to keep my hands at my side and make the greeting verbal. No problem.

When Paul introduced me to one of the Arab students with whom he had forged a "friendship", I kept my hands to my side. I said "How do you do? " without lifting a hand.... and he... well.. he stuck out his hand for a traditional american handshake!
I felt that etiquette required me to take and shake. So I did. But I could tell he was very uncomfortable with the handshake.

Who knows.. perhaps they were drilled to shake the spouses hands... that it would be rude to do otherwise.

So.. I think we can cut Michelle Obama some slack. After all, the Queen touched her first.