In the planes that we flew, the Captain had one hand on the hydraulic steering and the other hand on the power levers adjusting power as needed.  The First Officer would unlock the flight controls and check for proper operations.  The Captain would not actually take hold of the flight controls until actually running down the runway after the aerodynamic forces gave him controllability.  We will hold that scenario with the Captain's hand some were between letting go of the hydraulic steering and griping the flight controls.

I'm sure each field has its own set of slang words for its operations.   When a Flight Attendant would ask us if we would like something to drink, we would ask for a "jail-bird on the rocks" and they knew we wanted some orange juice (O.J.) on ice.  I guess you can figure out when that saying came about!  Peanuts were referred to as "Pilot Pellets".  I don't think that I'll repeat a lot more of the sayings.

Speaking of peanuts, often when the planes were sitting on the ground especially in Philadelphia, the Flight Attendants and Pilots would feed the pigeons that were hanging around outside the plane.  That lead to putting peanuts on the steps to the planes to coax the pigeons up the steps.  Occasionally, the pigeons would come on board looking for peanuts when no one else was around.  Back in those days you could keep the doors open for air flow to help keep the cabin cool.   

Now back to our unsuspecting Captain (fortunately, not me) as he moved his left hand from the hydraulic steering to the flight controls.  If you have been reading between the lines, you know what happened.  A pigeon had gotten onboard while the plane was on the ramp, went to the cockpit, sat on the captain's controls and...down the back side of the controls, and flew out of the plane before anyone knew what had happened.  The Captain discovered it at a not so convenient time and had to continue the messy take-off when he said Oh sh_t!!!