Why We Give `Em the Finger

Our good friend Steve Rankin from Free Citizen passed this interesting piece along, and, although many of you have already received it from Steve, I thought it would be fun to post it up for those who didn`t. Be advised; this is an adult topic:


The History Of The Middle Finger
>
> Well, now......here's something I never knew before, and now that I know it,
> I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligent friends in the hope
> that they, too, will feel edified. Isn't history more fun when you know
> something about it?
>
> Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory
> over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured
> English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw
> the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of
> fighting in the future.
>
> This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the
> act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").
>
> Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and
> began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated
> French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew!
>
> Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant
> cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodentals fricative
> F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute!
>
> It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the
> longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird."
>
> IT IS STILL AN APPROPRIATE SALUTE TO THE FRENCH TODAY!
>
> And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!


Steve has some great posts you aren`t going to want to miss, so head on over to his site; you will be well rewarded!