"Flippin' the Bird"

[Highlander 0]

I received this from a dear friend earlier today and thought this would make your day...

 

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the following, but it should to be true!

 

 

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

middle-finger-salute!

 

Also, because of pheasant feathers used on the arrows for the longbow,

the pluck yew gesture is also known as "giving the bird."

Because the act of "giving the bird" is usually done in a waving to and fro

motion, it is also known as "flipping the bird."

 

 

 

IT IS STILL AN APPROPRIATE SALUTE TO THE FRENCH TODAY!

 

 

 

And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing

 

* labiodentals fricative F means: "friction between lips and teeth" secksy, heh! Those French anyway...lol

[Guest gogoblender]

heh, good story

But Cel...

c'mon man...is it for real?

 

gogo

[fRACTAL 0]

/lmao Lol nice one mate /lmao

I heard it was the 2 finger sign, I have experience with a bow and those were the 2 most important fingers, and the french were going to cut them both off

Maybe I'm wrong about the 2 fingers

/blink

~Doom

[Ankhanu 0]

The middle finger gesture is of Roman origin and is a phalic representation... there's also a clitoral representation with essentially the same meaning, where the fist is oriented vertically with the thumb protruding between the index and middle fingers. As you might guess, this is a less common and pretty archaic gesture

[Schot 407]

lol Celebrimbor. Cool story! /rofl

 

I did a little searching about this story and I read that on top of the middle finger gesturing the number 2 also gives some of those old french folk a stinging feeling.

 

Peace!

[Eruntalon 0]

Yup Cel, I heard that story on the History Channel /lol

I'm gonna say hello to every french person I encounter from now on /rofl

[fRACTAL 0]

The middle finger gesture is of Roman origin and is a phalic representation... there's also a clitoral representation with essentially the same meaning, where the fist is oriented vertically with the thumb protruding between the index and middle fingers. As you might guess, this is a less common and pretty archaic gesture

/blink

~Doom

[Katran 0]

I love history battles and have read and seen every thing about them.

The story is all true and a nother thing :

The king ordered that every goose in the kingdom was to give one feather for making arrows.

Now that is cool /lmao

[Llama8 8]

heh, good story

But Cel...

c'mon man...is it for real?

 

gogo

 

 

Yes Gogo, it's real:

 

http://www.geocities.com/beckster05/Agincourt/AgMain.html

 

A small army of (~5,000 archers & ~900 men-at-arms, certainly not nobility) exhausted English beat a much larger (~20-30,000) fresh French army of knights (nobility) & men-at-arms.

Mwahahaha.

[Katran 0]

A small army of (~5,000 archers & ~900 men-at-arms, certainly not nobility) exhausted English beat a much larger (~20-30,000) fresh French army of knights (nobility) & men-at-arms.

Mwahahaha.

 

Well the battle and victory was more complexed then 6000 wining against 20000. There were nobility in the French army but not even close all of them.

 

P.S. Alexander the Great crushed 250.000 with only 10.000 /rolleyes

[Llama8 8]

True, but there would presumably have been a somewhat higher proportion of nobility in the French army (what with all those mounted knights) than in the English army (archery not being a suitable military profession for the nobility). So there was also the morale aspect of (generalising/sensationalising) a bunch of bow-wielding English commoners defeating the cream of the French aristocracy on the field of battle.

 

And we haven't forgotten.

/diablo /viking

 

Ever read/seen Henry V? Excellent play/film. That was about Agincourt. 'S the kind of thing that enters the soul of a nation.

[Guest gogoblender]

hmmm

guess this isn't the time to see who wants to go out fer french fries?

 

 

gogo

[fRACTAL 0]

Nope, and don't try we're watching the shop with our longbows

/diablo /viking /diablo

/viking

~Doom

[Guest gogoblender]

awww...c'mon man...it's just a frenc...YEEOWCH

 

/diablo

 

gogo

[fRACTAL 0]

Hehe this is the only site that makes me laugh outloud and it does it a lot, I'll let you off for making me laugh GoGo.

*runs over and bandges GoGo, then apologises*

and heres soem money for the fries

/hug

~Doom

[Guest gogoblender]

throw in an extra cheeseburger and yer fergiven

 

/devil

 

gogo

[Llama8 8]

*Stuns Gogo for good measure*

 

Ok, I guess you're forgiven.

 

 

Kinda.

[fRACTAL 0]

*pours cold water on GoGo and comforts him*

there, all betta now /hug

2 extra cheeseburgers at that

~Doom

[Firefly 0]

I feel I've learnt my new things for the day.... I can go to sleep happy. Thanx Cel:)