I think he was being facetious. Or, who knows, she can probably swim .

I'm with the "smile & wave" crowd. For one thing, every once in a rare while the person honking/yelling is doing so because it's someone you know, and it's embarrassing to accidentally flip off your friend .

But also, being rude / cursing back can, BEST case, result in them going off even more pissed. It can go pretty far downhill from there. So tempting as it is I try to avoid rude gestures (not always successfully).