Monday, February 1, 2010

TMI Tuesday.....









A Mr. John 'Flip' Meehoff from Phuque Utah asks...

"Dear Mr. Knowitall...People of all ages seem to take great delight in making obscene hand gestures in my direction. One gesture in particular seems to be the predominate form of non-verbal communication. Do you know the origin of this very annoying Digital Display"?

Dear Flip....Of course I do!

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed cutting off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers!
Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the reknowned English longbow, and therefore would be incapable of fighting any future battles against France. The famous English longbow was made from the English Yew tree, and launching an arrow from it was known as 'Plucking the Yew' (Pluck Yew) !
Much to the chagrin of the French that day, the English pulled a major upset and defeated them. One of the main reasons for the English surprising victory, was the fact that they were outraged at the taunting by the French toward them during the battle. Cries of " Your Mother was a Hampster, and your Father smells of Eldeberries". And not to mention..."We Fart in your general direction", propelled the English into a fighting frenzy. When the battle was over, the English did a little taunting of their own. Raising their middle fingers toward the defeated French, the English archers screamed..."See, we can still pluck Yew"!
Over the years pluck Yew and a raise of the middle finger, became bastardized to the modern...Fuck You! In conjunction with this little insult, the fact that the English arrows were fletched with Pheasant feathers, an arrow in flight was known as giving the enemy ...'The Bird'!

Good Question Flip...Thanks a lot!

Mr. Knowitall grows weary....Peace!!!

22 comments:

inappropriatesue said...

G-Man, you must have read my post from earlier today, LOL. OK, I just finished writing my 55 for this week. I'm getting great inspiration from Brian and Otin so this week I'm going out on a limb with what is sure to be a controversial piece. Is it Thursday yet? I truly can't wait. Have a kick-a$$ week until then G-man :)

inappropriatesue said...

Just wanted to let you know I haven't laughed that hard in ages. Your comment rocked!

Anonymous said...

Ha, ha, ha! That was a good one G-Man!

Serena said...

And now we know the meaning of my family seal.:-)

Breazy said...

without you I never would have known that. =) How are you G-Man? All is finally well here and I am trying to get myself back into the blog sphere.

clean and crazy said...

you made some of that up!! pluck you? are you serious? that is funny hey if notre dame was in france why is their mascott a funny little leprechaun and why are they called the fighting irish?

Felicitas said...

Imagine that! Thanks for enlightening us again G-Daddy!

Akannie said...

I actually have read that before, and know for sure that G-Daddy is not blowing smoke up anyone's a**...at least not today. At least, not with THIS post.

hahahahahahahaha

AKAnnie, your faithful disciple

G-Man said...

Thank You Annie....

the walking man said...

Now that is information I CAN use. Thank you Mr. Know It ALL!

JStar said...

LOL...Just my mood today too :)

Lou said...

So that's why the French are stilled pissed!

Maude Lynn said...

I do so love a little Monty Python in the morning!

Brian Miller said...

and i thought everyone was telling me i was number 1...

lime said...

since i knew the history i am left really with only one question.

are you a pheasant plucker?

Roxi said...

duh.. We have all known this since.. Forever! a More pressing question would be.. What do you do if a zombie bites off your middle finger and you really want to flip someone off?

USE THE OTHER HAND!

not that it matters much.. You'll be a zombie soon anyway

Shadow said...

pluck yew???? are you for real? i've haven't laughed this hard for a while......

Anonymous said...

Whattt?? I thought all this time that people were just waving in a peculiar way...

Of course, I live in an igloo and greet people with Eskimo kisses, so what do I know.

buffalodick said...

True or not- that was funnier than all get out!

snowelf said...

Mr. Know it all....are you sure that's true?? ;)

--snow

Lulda Casadaga said...

I am learning so much from you my friend! :) My father was a gentleman he used his index finger instead...or maybe that was because he was Polish and didn't know better! :P Either way it was a crack up to see him give the "boid"!!

Nessa said...

Rest up. That was some tail you exposed.

Poor Tuesday