Latest Installment of Fun Historical Facts

Well, happy Monday one and all. Tonight is going to be another installment of fun historical facts and tonight we are going to explain why "giving the finger" got started. I found this information to be very interesting...




Apparently, before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the English Longbow and therefore the English soldiers would be unable to fight. (As an aside, the English Longbow was made from the native English yew tree. The act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew". ) Much to the surprise of the French, the English won the Battle at Agincourt and once they found out the French plans to cut their fingers off, the English would mock the French by waving their middle fingers at them saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!"





So, based on the above information, three guesses how the phrase "pluck yew" got turned around in modern language. Still, I may have now answered the "why do we wave the middle finger" question, but what about when we call it 'giving the bird'? Well, I am glad you asked... Did you know that they used pheasant feathers on the arrows? Well, if you were shot with an arrow, you were "given the bird", so if you had to use your middle finger to pull the longbow (which the French wanted to cut off of the English soldiers), the combination of waving your middle finger was given the connotation of "giving the bird". So there you go. Now if you see someone wiggling their middle finger at you, you can give them some historical facts about it. Be sure you can run fast if they are not history buffs though...





Here is something to keep in mind this week: Did you know that laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system? Six year olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. (have you seen many stressed out six-year olds?) Adults laugh only about 15 to 100 times a day. So, the key here is to laugh like a six year old? Explain to your boss why you laugh so much... that in itself will get you a laugh.

Oh yeah, one more little tidbit that I got a kick out of. Did you know that every time you sneeze, some of your brain cells die? Scary for those of us with allergies.....

Hope you have a great week.





Until tomorrow...