This one's interesting! Really!
Harrison folks -- note mass of extra names on this list. Don't use it to
send Harrison messages. Also, please take Mereki off any Harrison lists you
may be using.
Thanks.
Sandi
---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj: Fwd: SOS HUMOR: Pluck Yew (fwd)
Date: 97-01-16 22:27:07 EST
From: Deecubed
To: Varow48,ASDSAIL,Homes2Di4
To: Thegrids,[email protected]
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From: [email protected] (SOS)
To: [email protected] (Singles on Sail)
Date: 97-01-16 12:20:39 EST
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 10:14:11 -0500
From: Sam Bowden <[email protected]>
========================================
>The 'Car Talk' show (on NPR) with Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers,
>has 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 thought yew knew everything!
>