to put up two fingers

Sorry. Wrong Bush, apparently.

It was daddy, George H. W. Damn mine eyes

"palm it" in #8 should be "palm in".

To put up two fingers in my grade school days meant the finger upperer needed to "leave the room." One finger meant to pee, two fingers--more serious. So, context needed here.

I taught English to some kids who had left Kosovo during the war in Yugoslavia. They told me that ethnic Serbian kids raise two fingers in school when they want the teacher to call on them. In the Kosovo section of Serbia, however, kids raise 3 fingers instead (in what I know as the Girl Scout salute.) They were very proud to have their own way of raising their hands. They said that some teachers demanded that they do it that way, even if there were some Serbs in the class. It seemed to be about a lot more than just how to raise your hand, and it even seemed to go past patriotism.

#7: "index and little finger (palm facing you) means your wife is/was cheating (at least in italy)"

Any connection to the Spanish expression "ponerle los cuernos a alguien"? ("Give someone the horns," i.e. cheat on someone) I seem to remember, in Spain at least, that a similar hand gesture is used to mean the same thing... but with palm facing down? hm.

#12 and #13: In the schools where I've worked (in the US), a teacher holding up two fingers is calling for the students' attention.

#15 -- Shakespeare's comedy's are full of (not terribly funny by today's standards) jokes about horns and cuckolds. I think you could make horns at someone at that time in England as well. I don't think the idea or the gesture survived in England into the 18th century.

#15 - Yes, that gesture is also used in Spain to represent horns. You can say that the man being cheated on is "cornudo" (i.e. "having horns").

How do you say "to cheat on someone" in Italian? Is it similar to Spanish?

i don't remember the italien word for it but im pretty sure that it is similar to the spanish one, it means the same- word by word.

#17 and #18 -- Sorry I can't link this correctly, but you might be interested in the following discussion:

Italian expression

Guess I linked it correctly! :)