>A Little history lesson for you...History of Giving the Finger:
>                               _
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>                    /'_'/'   '/'__'7,
>                 /'/    /    /    /"  /_\
>                ('(    '    '     _~/'   ')
>                 \                 '     /
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>
> Giving the Finger
>
> 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 be >incapable of fighting in the
future. This famous weapon 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! PLUCK YEW!" >Since 'pluck yew'
is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant >cluster at the
beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental >fricative 'F', and thus
the words often used in conjunction with the >one-finger-salute are
mistakenly thought to have  something to do with >an intimate encounter. 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".
 
>And yew thought yew knew everything!
 
 
Of course, I would never think of doing it to anyone on the list!
 
Vicki Price
Concussion Free Zone
violentcontact.net
 
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