did you know

[uriaheep]

Okay, that's me trimmed up. Glass of port I think. ........ or several.

[Accounting Troll]

people need to remeber that its the thgouth that counts not what gets spent! grrr dont get me started on that!

That's the kind of tightfistedness I love to see at this dismal time of year. By being too mean to spend money on presents, you are helping to make the world a much nicer place Think of how you are helping the environment as well!

[Toey]

The two finger salute comes from around the time of the Battle for Agicourt. Because the French hated the English Long Bowmen, they threaten to cut the first two fingers off of any English Bowman captured. By cutting off those two fingers, the archers would no longer be able to draw the bow, thus making them ineffective.

 

Therefore, when ever an English Long Bowman faced off against the French, they would proudly show them the first two fingers on their hands. The two finger salute was born, and the rest, as they say, is history.

[Matri]

The two finger salute comes from around the time of the Battle for Agicourt. Because the French hated the English Long Bowmen, they threaten to cut the first two fingers off of any English Bowman captured. By cutting off those two fingers, the archers would no longer be able to draw the bow, thus making them ineffective.

 

Therefore, when ever an English Long Bowman faced off against the French, they would proudly show them the first two fingers on their hands. The two finger salute was born, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Not quite as funny as the "pluck yew" story.

[uriaheep]

It's also little known that the strings of Welsh bows were made from the underarm hair of virgins. Needless to say it was all imported.

[Accounting Troll]

I've often wondered about the story about the English bowmen. Any bowman who got captured by the French back then would consider himself extremely fortunate if those two fingers were the only bits the French cut off...

[Kernel]

You mean the French didn't surrender at the first sight of an english longbowman?

[FullAuto]

Sometimes it took two of them.

[Accounting Troll]

The best 'English' longbowmen were from South-East Wales. The men of Crickhowell (my home village) had a large contingent at Agincourt.

 

The Battle of Pilleth was a rehersal for the Battle of Agincourt. During the Owain Glyndwr War, a Welsh army defeated a slightly larger English army through the use of longbows. Few English people have even heard of the Battle of Pilleth because nobody likes remembering the battles their country lost. English historians tend to empahsise Owain Glyndwr's links with the English establishment before the war because his early victories don't hurt as much if he is regarded as an honourary Englishman.

[Matri]

You mean the French didn't surrender at the first sight of an english longbowman?

If you think that's shocking, wait'll you hear this: The French actually won a few battles.

 

[Kernel]

Woah... what kind of crazy world have I ended up in?

 

The French winning battles and the Welsh good on the Longbow.

[Matri]

Ahh, here's the story. I love this, even if it isn't true!

[uriaheep]

English historians tend to empahsise Owain Glyndwr's links with the English establishment before the war because his early victories don't hurt as much if he is regarded as an honourary Englishman.

 

So much so that there was an HMS Owain Glyndwr at Trafalgar. Not so popular in the 15th and 16th Century though, hence the change of Tydr to Tudor.

[Kernel]

Ahh, here's the story. I love this, even if it isn't true!

 

Umm... Matri that article is about the "Middle Finger Salute" not the "Two Finger Salute".

 

I think it does come from the battles between the French and English however I'm not sure from what side it originated.

Some people say the sign was made by the French AT the English Bowmen and was meant as a threat to say "We'll cut your fingers off if we capture you".

Other people say that it was made by the English towards the French to say "We still got our Fingers".

 

 

I found this on Wikipedia too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign

[Ivory]

i LOVE the three finger salute... but thats another story lol seriously tho, at school we used do do three fingers, so that it was the middle finger "in brackets" the teachers couldnt do owt cos technically it wasnt offensive!

[NKF]

I'm not the sort to use humerous hand gestures like the middle finger for causing aggravation on anyone, but I did use a parody of it one or two times when I was with some friends - I'd use the third finger (after the middle, but penultimate to the pinky).

 

Speaking of Did You Knows, here's something I didn't know until very recently. Some console games come with multiple voice tracks - it all depends on your console's regional setting. For example, I tried setting my XBox to Japanese and popped in the recently released Shadow The Hedgehog and sure enough I was listening to and reading everything in Japanese - not that I'd understand any of it which lead to a fierce battle with the game menu and then later setting everything back to English - but I hadn't realised it was possible.

 

As a lot of similar games are released on multiple consoles, I'm sure the same can be done on them as well. I must try it on the PS2 once I get some games for it. I wonder if this'd work with Halo? Ah well.

 

- NKF

[Ivory]

the third finger, the one after the middle finger and before the little finger = the ring finger (cos its the one traditional to wear rings on)

 

plus- isnt the finger penultimate to the pinky actually the middle fionger?- cos penultimate means one before the last, and the last one before the pinky would be the ring finger/third finger...would it not?

 

did you know, taking out contact lenses when your pissed is NOT an easy task...even when you have two friends trying to hlp you! lol a very merry new year everyone

[NKF]

Good catch there. I think I was having a bit of a fencepost problem in my head at the time. Must've started counting the thumb, twice. Ah well.

 

Did you know that when you crack your knuckles you aren't really cracking the bones. If I'm not mistaken, what happens is that you're just bursting bubbles of air that have gathered in the joints, and that's what makes the bone cracking noise. Mind you, that said, you don't want to be doing it too much. It makes others feel uncomfortable and your joints can start to hurt if done repeatedly.

 

- NKF

[Accounting Troll]

I used to know someone who liked to gross everybody out by doing that with his neck!

 

Some scholars think that the legend of King Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone dates back to a Bronze Age method of maufacturing swords in which the molten bronze would be poured into a stone mould. His decision to sacrifice the sword to the 'Lady of the Lake' at the end of his life is thought to reflect the religious practices back then of making sacrifices to the water spirits.

 

The Welsh legends of King Arthur and Merlin tend to confuse both wth a Romano-British general called Ambrosius Aurelanius who fought a series of battles against the Anglo-Saxons that slowed down their assimilation of Britain.

[Ivory]

i HATE it when peopel do that cracking their knuckles thing! half of them never stop to ask the person next to them if they mind before thye do it either! in my GCSE i called my histyory teacher over and got him to tell the chap behind me to stop doign it, i could not think at all with him going snick snick snick all the bloody time! grrrr