giving the finger
Who hasn’t done this?
Done it to some bloke who cuts you off in traffic or drops in, who tailgates you or gives you a stink-eye and mouths the word fuckwit because you looked at him, right? – They get the finger in reply. But there’s something they don’t know, and that is getting the finger is really not what they imagine it to be. But try and explain that when they’re heading your way with assault and battery in their eyes needs more time than you have before their shit hits your fan.
So, it’s best to do it the other way around.
One of the uncorroborated origins of the gesture is that it was used by the French back in the day when they fought England with spears and longbows, the Poms being the best archers. That being so, when the Frogs managed to overcome a bunch of Pom archers first they’d kill them then they’d chop off their middle fingers. That’s the one between index and ring finger, the one used to draw back the bowstring.
That one ..
Then …
the next time their armies faced each other the French would stick their hands up and give the English the finger, as in you don’t have as many of them as the last time we met.
So, I’m down the beach today and having a yarn with Geoff, he’s ex-Newcastle now living at Shaws Bay and I’ve just told him the bow and arrow story before he continues going south and me I go north, only to meet again on our way back and this time he’s been bailed up by a bloke I don’t know and they’re having a natter so I cruise on level and slow down, waiting for them to look over. They do. Both of them.
And I give them the finger.
Geoff bursts out laughing. The other bloke looks like he wants to go on with it.
Fletch and the Bruce
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