>From: Bennett Cullen <p21988@gegpo8.geg.mot.com>
>To: "'tigers'" <tigers@autox.team.net>
>Subject: ?History lesson?
>Date: Tue, 18 Mar 97 09:21:00 MST
>Sender: owner-tigers@autox.team.net
>Precedence: bulk
>Reply-To: Bennett Cullen <p21988@gegpo8.geg.mot.com>
>X-UIDL: ac98b1c8520619b0da63d8a654bb36d8
>
>
>Hi group,
>The enclosed message came across my desk this morning. I have seen it in the
>past and thought it to be mildly humorous. I still have suspicions as to the
>authenticity of the material, but be it as it may, here it is just as I
>received it. The car show is the only automotive reference in the ditty
>though.
>start quote"
> The origin of 'the finger'.
>
> The 'Car Talk' show (on NPR) with Click and Clack, the Tappet
>Brothers have a feature called the 'Puzzler', and their most recent
>'Puzzler' was about the Battle of Agincourt. The French, who were
>overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, threatened to cut a certain
>body part off of all captured English soldiers so that they could never
>fight again. The English won in a major upset and waved the body part
>in question at the French in defiance.
>The puzzler was: What was this body part?
>This is the answer submitted by a listener:
>
>Dear Click and Clack,
>
> Thank you for the Agincourt 'Puzzler', which clears up some
>profound questions of etymology, folklore and emotional symbolism. The
>body part which the French proposed to cut off of the English after
>defeating them was, of course, the middle finger, without which it is
>impossible to draw the renowned English longbow. This famous weapon was
>made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the
>longbow was known as "plucking yew". Thus, when the victorious English
>waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said, "See, we
>can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW!"
>
> Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this
>symbolic gesture. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like
>"pleasant mother pheasant plucker", which is who you had to go to for
>the feathers used on the arrows), 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 that the
>symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird".
>
> And yew all thought yew knew everything!
>
>"end quote.
>Cullen in Tempe (B9472658)
>
>
Frank Marrone MK I Tiger B9471116 (without original rivits)
marrone@wco.com 1966 LTD
Series I Alpine "fix me"
Yamaha Seca 900
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