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A 42-year-old Italian workman from Como, near Milan, has been fined 200 euros and ordered to pay 1,000 euros in court costs for "ostentatiously touching his genitals through his clothing," reports The Guardian (U.K.).

In upholding a lower court ruling, Italy's highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation, has criminalized a centuries-old practice of superstitious Italian males of touching their genitals to ward off bad luck when discussing a tragic event or when a hearse passes by. "Io mi tocco..." (I touch myself) has long-been an Italian equivalent to "touch wood," and is traditionally accompanied by a grope of the utterer's own crotch.

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But now that tradition "has to be regarded as contrary to public decency, a concept including that nexus of socio-ethical rules requiring everyone to abstain from conduct potentially offensive to collectively held feelings of decorum," according to the Rome court's ruling.

The Italian jurists' opinion has sparked a vigorous in the blogosphere, with many waggishly wondering how such a ruling might effect American baseball players, rap artists, and three-year-olds. Others muse more seriously as to how police and courts are to determine when an innocent adjustment becomes a criminal self-grope.