Not it

A few weeks ago, in an effort to get out of a tedious chore (calling a university to ask for permission to film, which I doubted we would get) I quickly put my finger against my nose in what I thought was an internationally - or at least nationally - understood symbol for "not it." Everyone in the room looked at me like I was nuts, or was caught picking my nose and tried to turn it into something more benign.

This prompted a questioning of the entire office to see who understood that finger-to-nose is a silent "not it" - best used so as not to give away that "not it" is being declared, therefore leaving the last man standing confused as to how all parties had managed to get out of whatever odious task was being avoided.

Only one other person in the office knew what finger-to-nose meant, and he and I share neither age (he's about 10 years older than me) nor geographical area of raising (he grew up in the Midwest, I grew up in Northeast/Mid Atlantic). These were the two factors I figured would contribute, but they've been unscientifically ruled out.

The gesture was used on a recent episode of House which indicates that it's nationally understood, though my survey showed that it wasn't. Puzzling.

Wikipedia offers little help on the origins of the gesture aside from labeling it 'The Nose Game," though it does describe it as a subset of "dibs" (or "antidibs"), which is interesting if you've had a really boring day.

Can anyone offer any anecdotal evidence as to whether or not you know of this trick and/or use it?