Had this sent to me this AM from another Brother and just had to share it here.
Quote:
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 labiodental 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.
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Don't know if that is historically accurate or not, but it's still funny.
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