The Bird? I have questions.......

[Sparky Kronkite]

Why do they call it "the bird?"

It doesn't look like a bird to me - not really.

In fact when I was first taught "how to" at the ripe age of 8 - I was told that the middle finger (the fuck finger) represented the male penis and the adjoining fingers represented the male gonads - a cock and balls. So, that's the image in my head - not that of a bird.

And who invented it - and when?

And do you guys actually finger your women - using this digital configuration?

It seems awkward to me so I do not.

 

[insideShiraz]

Finger Bang...

Flippin' the Bird...The Next Question I'll ask God after I find out who shot JFK...

 

[Purple Haze]

I believe the use of the "fuck finger" as a gesture of ill will originated in the Civil War. It continues to be an effective means of getting yourself killed.

I could be wrong.

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

Gosh! Noboby knows this?

Amazing!

 

[Purple Haze]

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 be incapable of fighting in the future.

This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mockingthe French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French,saying, "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 for the longbow), 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".

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

Very good Purp! How the hell did you know that shit?

And that brings up other such - flying member insults - I don't even know the name of them but - you know?

Flickin' yer fingers under yer chin.

Making a fist with one hand and while grasping your forearm with the other, you kinda punch the air.

Where did all these things come from?

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

PS Purp?

What'd ya do - look up "flying finger bird" in the encyclopedia?

 

[Purple Haze]

Giving someone "the finger" is one of the basest violations in modern culture, but its origins date back over 2500 years. The first written record of the insult occurred in ancient Greece, where the playwright Aristophanes (the Adam Sandler of his day) made a crude joke mixing up the middle finger and the penis. Even back then, the bird was considered an aggressive, phallic put-down.
By jabbing a threatening phallus at your enemy like a wild animal, you aren't just belittling him, but also making him your sexual inferior. In Greek comedies, actors often appeared with long leather flaps tied to their belts in a representation of the male appendage. These actors slapped each other around with their 'comedy dicks' in a bit of wacky shtick akin to today's whoopee cushion. Yet, the average Greek citizen probably couldn't afford (and didn't want) to wear his or her own leather cock around the Acropolis. Instead, these ordinary Janes and Platos called upon the substitute wieners within their own hands to mock, threaten, and humiliate opponents.
And boy, did it. When the Romans imported the art, music, and culture of the Greeks, the finger came along, too. Roman Emperor Caligula, a pioneer in perversity, frequently shocked his citizens by forcing them to kiss his middle finger instead of his hand. One of his subjects, Cassius, who Caligula often taunted as being too effeminate, finally had enough humiliation and assassinated him. Clearly, the bird was not to be taken lightly.
During the Middle Ages, the finger went underground. It was still known, but the Catholic Church frowned upon its use, as the middle finger was supposed to be holy in the Mass. The unholy insult lurked deep within the hearts of filthy- minded folks everywhere, hiding from sight until the 19th century when it began to crop up again thanks to a new invention -photography.
In 1886, Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn slipped his little finger fastball into the Boston Beaneaters team picture. The split-second art of photography could turn the once-boring painted portrait into a spontaneous work of rebellion, humor and spunk. Americans everywhere quickly got into the act.

In the polyglot, immigrant mish-mash of early 20th century America, the finger was the one symbol every man, woman and dog could understand. With the invention of the automobile, it could be delivered from behind the safety of glass & steel, and at great speeds. All the finger needs to deliver its punch is a clear line of sight. Check out THIS horizon line, baby!

Throughout the 20th century, the finger has penetrated all levels of society. Roughhewn farmers did it, hippies did it, and even the Vice President of the United States got into the act. At a campaign stop for Senator Bob Dole in 1976, Nelson Rockefeller was heckled by protesters telling him what they thought of his Vietnam war policy by casting their middle finger votes.

 

[DarkAngel]

Ahhhh.....


Thank you for the history lesson Prof. Haze

 

[Sparky Kronkite]

Purp?

I do beleive that this is the most informative reply to a thread you have ever contributed. Bravo dude!

 

[FlamingoBlue]

Cudos to Purple Haze for the .....

wonderful history lesson. Either you are a great story teller or you have fantastic fount of knowledge. And, thanks to Sparky for asking the question.

blue

 

[Purple Haze]

http://markharp.8m.com/babyfinger.jpg

 

[Deborah]

Half of what Purple Haze says is bullshit and the other half he doesn't even believe himself.

He is, however, absolutely correct about PLUCK YEW!

I know because I heard a famous preacher tell that story and preachers don't lie. I'm serious and I can prove it. Bet me.

 

[DarkAngel]

Preacher lies... they say I am forgiven and then The police still want me to pay traffic ticket...

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

And one time, in band camp...

The reason Alexander the Great won so many battles was because of a rag dipped in a chemical mixture that made the cloth change color every hour. His troops wore the band of cloth around their wrists, allowing them to actually tell time, and permit the troops to attack together.

This is the origin of Alexander's Rag Time Band.

 

[DarkAngel]

Dam....

And here I thought it was because they were all women..

(Don't hurt me! Please!!!)

 

[Deborah]

Bullshit, Dixon.

Alexander the Great was demonically possessed. And he was the first to sing "Purple haze all in my brain" and not Jimi Hendrix.

 

[DarkAngel]

Purple Haze in my brain..

Dam...

Now I got that dam song stuck in my head...

 

[Purple Haze]

Astronomer Galileo's meticulously preserved middle finger can be seen today in Italy's Museo di Storia del Scienza. The famous astronomer's appendage was plucked from his dead body by a souvenir-seeking Anton Francesco Gori in 1737. Gori detached this prize while moving the body from an undignified storage closet to a nearby chapel. Isn't it fitting that Galileo is still giving 'the finger' to all those who doubted his proofs of Copernicus' theory that the sun was the center of the galaxy?

 

[Ally C]

This thread is ...

... finger licking good!

And it's not every day, month or year that I can say that.

 

[Purple Haze]

GOOFY ON TRIAL
Êby Dana Parsons
reprinted from the LA TIMES
Wednesday November 25, 1998
Kevin Bogart has been a cop for 20 years. Has he seen too much, grown too cynical, or is it possible that Goofy÷that beloved madcap character÷did indeed make an obscene gesture when Bogart's wife snapped a photo of him and their children at Disneyland?
Goofy, he of the previously unimpeachable reputation, giving someone the bird?
And while dressed as Santa, at that?
Sounds pretty farfetched, frankly, and Bogart didn't believe it himself until the photos came back the next day. But there it was.
Or was it?
To say the least, the photos from the family's day at Disneyland on Nov. 10 unsettled the Bogarts, who live in Alta Loma in San Bernardino County. So much so that Kevin wrote to Disneyland and sent them a copy of the "disturbing photos," as he described them.
"Our 9-year-old son opened the pictures first and looked at them. He had a strange look on his face," he wrote. "He walked up to my wife and asked her, 'Why is Goofy flipping you off?' "
That reinforced what the Bogarts had discussed privately the day before when Mrs. Bogart told her husband about her Goofy suspicions. Kevin Bogart was skeptical: "Who would think Goofy would do that?"
Two photos offended the Bogarts÷the one from the sleigh and another showing Goofy walking away alone with a finger extended downward.
In his letter, Bogart told Disneyland officials he showed the photos to his co-workers at the West Covina Police Department. "Everyone who viewed the pictures came to the same conclusion that Goofy was indeed flipping us off," Bogart wrote.
A longtime admirer of Goofy's work, I phoned Bogart, who was more mellow on the phone than he was in his letter. Within minutes, he backed off from his suggestion in the letter that Disneyland consider giving his family a yearly pass "so that we may be able to come back again and again to recapture the magic of Disneyland."
Are you trying to extort Disneyland? I asked Bogart. "I'm a policeman," he said. "I'm not looking for something for nothing. They don't have to send us anything."
It's just that his family was offended, he said, and they wanted Disneyland to acknowledge the offense and make things right.
I asked Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez what the photo of Goofy in the sleigh looked like to him. "It looked like Goofy holding his hand up," Gomez said dryly.
Disneyland investigated the incident and cleared Goofy, Gomez said. I took that to mean Goofy was apprised of the allegations but Gomez wouldn't confirm that.
The tight squeeze in Goofy's glove makes an obscene gesture virtually impossible, Gomez said. He invited me to try on a pair of Goofy's gloves, but I declined.
Stymied by the conflicting accounts, I knew what had to be done. On Tuesday morning, Bogart and I rendezvoused at a service station in Corona and he showed me the photos.
"Interesting, huh?" he said.
I brought them back to the office and asked colleagues what they saw in them. "It's Goofy sitting on a sleigh next to a kid and giving someone the bird," one editor said. Four other colleagues agreed, but a couple of others scoffed at that interpretation.
My investigation wound up taking a lot of time, and I flashed on Ray Gomez sitting in his office, trying on the gloves himself to see if he could make an obscene gesture with them. It struck me we were all spending a lot of time.
Why did you take things so far? I asked Bogart. "If it's a dead issue, I understand," he said. "I just wanted to talk to someone and see if it was worth making a big deal about or not."
Kevin, it wasn't.
But now that your allegation is in play, though, be advised: I understand Goofy is talking to an attorney.