Perhaps cheek to cheek contact, but lips in the air.

I'm with SpiffyRob--cheek to cheek. But I've seen the actual lip-to-cheek thing, too.

It depends how much I like them and how happy I am to see them. Big wet and prolonged kisses under the ear are how I roll.

When other people's customs force me into intimate contact like cheek kissing, they don't get air kisses. Usually I'll extend a hand for a shake if it looks like someone's gonna corner me into smooches. But if I can't avoid it, you can be damn sure they're the ones gonna be blushing and feeling my lips on their cheeks for the next few minutes, and they're the ones who are going to feel the awkward panic of having missed some mysterious social cue. I honestly think making other people (by this I don't mean old friends whom I'm usually glad to hug or kiss once we've moved beyond my wall of middle American reserve) kiss or hug you is kind of rude.

Of course there are cultural differences, but people who offer a cheek usually get my warm handshake instead, and if that embarrasses them they can get over it easily; it isn't as easy for people like me who aren't really into touching others to get over the embarrassment of being forced into kissing. They say for guys that you're supposed to take your cue from the woman on how to handle greetings, but fuck that, let's try and make a free and equal society where we respect the shyest common denominator instead of some medieval sexist trope and don't force our public displays of [is it really affection? If not get your lips off of me] on others.

Of course, in countries where cheek kissing is de rigeur, I'm okay with that and I'm sure I'd learn if that's where I lived, and with individuals who have clearly been raised in such countries or cultures, it's forgivable and even sometimes quaint or charming, but if it's just another social affectation, you will feel my stubble, my lips will be a little wet, and you will never try to air kiss me again.

Hugh - is there a subset of people in the US, born and raised, who expect cheek smooches from people who aren't their immediate family/current significant other/very close friend? Because I'd be pretty uncomfortable with that... I also hate that convention that the woman determines the greeting, because I'm socially awkward and never know when to hug and when to wave clumsily while stumbling over something.

...but if this were France or something, then I remember reading that the closeness of the friendship usually determines the level of contact. I watched a video where teenaged acquaintances didn't make kissy noises at all - they just touched their dry cheeks together.

Yup, I really run into that subset only here in New York, and it seems like mostly people who are just trying to make clear to me how cultured or beautiful they are. Which I generally react to negatively. One of my tactics is to reward the attention-grabber by clearly giving all my attention to someone else. I figure, the beautiful people have been told they're beautiful by enough people, I can spend my attention elsewhere. I've seen beautiful people being fawned over by half a dozen admirers get all pissy when I look at them like they were just another face in the crowd. But I guess that's another thing entirely.

But the "When in Rome" thing (or When in France, with the cheek kissing and whatnot), oh yeah, I have no problem with that. I say I'm not much of a hugger, but I never had a problem with my close Italian friends draping themselves all over me; contact feels different when it's natural and isn't being done to make some point or other. And when people are transplants here, I have no problem with different levels of social contact. Hell, in Japan it's all bowing, and though handshakes are fairly commonplace now, they're somewhat furtive, too.

But now I've derailed my derail, and probably people are getting uncomfortable because I'm so strident about something that is essentially people trying to be nice to one another, so take this as you will, growl growl growl, roar!

I've seen beautiful people being fawned over by half a dozen admirers get all pissy when I look at them like they were just another face in the crowd.

Ha! I did that once to a hockey player sitting with a friend of mine at a bar once. He was totally disgusted & practically spit out his last name when I asked him who he was. It was great! To top it off, he took his ball & went home to some other team and the next year we won the Stanley Cup.

Thanks for all the cheek kissing assistance, all.