Some more dubious history

May 28, 2010 at 5:17 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

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 they would be incapable of fighting in the future.

This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as ‘plucking the yew’ (or ‘pluck yew’).

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew!

Since ‘pluck yew’ is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodentals fricative F’, and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute!

It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as ‘giving the bird.’

THE NEWS

Lethal lipstick?: “Tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration last year on 22 red lipsticks found lead, a neurotoxin, in every single lipstick sample studied. The highest levels were in three well-known and common brands: Cover Girl, Revlon, L’Oreal. While the FDA is continuing lead research on additional cosmetic brands and colours, it is reassuring consumers that the lead levels it found in the red lipsticks are very small and not a health threat. Studies suggest the average woman inadvertently consumes about 1.8 kilograms of lipstick in the course of her life, licking her lips, eating fruit, sipping tea. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is calling on the FDA to require cosmetics manufacturers to reduce lead to the lowest achievable levels. “The reason we’re worried is that lead builds up in the body over time,” Ms Malkan said.”

Sea of Galilee is out of fish, and miracles: “Were Jesus to return and fish the Sea of Galilee today he might tell a parable, not of prolific catches and the sated crowds of biblical times but of empty nets and a hefty fine. Israel’s parliament is poised to impose a two-year ban on fishing for the famed St Peter’s fish — a type of tilapia indigenous to the Sea of Galilee in the north of the country. Stocks have dropped drastically in the past decade because of environmental and human factors. Annual catches of the St Peter’s fish, which takes its name from the New Testament story in which Jesus’s disciple, Peter, netted a fish with a gold coin in its mouth — and paid his taxes with it — have dropped from 300 tonnes to only 8.”

Shark attacks spike on new moons: “Sharks are most likely to attack surfers and other unsuspecting swimmers in shallow water, on Sundays, during new moons and hot weather, a study reveals. The University of Florida study released today found young surfers in black and white bathing suits were most vulnerable to shark attacks or bites. It based its conclusions on observations and statistics gathered over a 50-year period in Florida’s Volusia County, known as the “shark attack capital of the world”. Mr Burgess noted that the greatest number of attacks took place during new moons, followed by full moons. During both periods, the moon has its biggest pull on tides. August is the peak month for shark attacks (in the US) because of the large number of people in the water in the northern hemisphere, particularly on Sundays. Movements like splashing hands and kicking feet attract sharks, which lunge at the moving body parts through surf thinking they are prey, the experts said.”

Man “too good looking” in Australia’s wild North: “A man who claimed he was kicked out of a pub for being too good-looking has had his complaint upheld. Casanova Colin Belle [above] claimed that door staff at the Shenannigans Irish Bar in Darwin resented his success with the venue’s female clientele, The Northern Territory News reported. He also accused them of targeting him because he was black. Bouncer Gene Hocking was given a formal warning by the NI Licensing Commission for using undue force on Mr Belle when refusing him entry. The commission watched surveillance footage of the incident, and said the force used by Mr Hocking was inappropriate. Mr O’Sullivan said the commission took into consideration Mr Hocking’s good record and reputation into account, as well as Mr Belle’s “argumentative and at times somewhat annoying nature”. The commission declined to suspend Mr Hocking’s license, and instead issued a formal warning for breaching the code of practice for crowd controllers.”

Kitten survives 30 minutes in a washing machine on spin cycle: “A FOUR-month-old female kitten survived 30 minutes in a spinning washing machine in Sydney after she crawled inside a load of dirty laundry while her owner’s back was turned. The Manly Daily said Lindsay Rogers was loading the washing machine at the laundromat in the northern Sydney suburb of Manly when the Persian kitten, named Kimba, sneaked into the open door of a machine filled with dirty clothes. Mr Rogers turned around, closed the door and switched on the machine without realising Kimba was inside. “I put the clothes in, put the powder and the fabric softener in, put it on a cold wash – which was very lucky – and put it on for a 30-minute cycle,” he said. “When I opened the door, it just went ‘meow’ and stuck its head out. He rushed Kimba to the local vet and she was put on an intravenous drip. After a couple of hours Kimba was stable and “purring like a little motor”, Rogers said.”

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