[Leica] History Lesson (this is soooooo O.T.)

[jsmith342 at cox.net (Jeffery Smith)]

I got this in an email from a 71-year-old retired Marine friend of mine. I 
was hoping that Chandos or some other history type could either verify it or 
disprove it. Here goes...
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The history of the middle finger salute.

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."


Jeffery Smith

Jeffery