When I was a kid and it was just becoming fashionable for men to wear an earring, you had to make sure that you wore it in the left ear... If you wore it in your right, that meant you were gay.

Likewise, later on I was taught that leaving two pennies on a restaurant table as a tip signified that the service was sub-par.

I suspect that this, like the above garbage has just as much truth to it. Cryptic signs and symbols may mean something to a few, select people but everyone else will just look on with staggering indifference.