In fact, I’d like to see legislation that states that 10% of all taxes MUST be invested in local government or domestic corporate bonds. The whole idea is to make it SOO hard to go into debt that most times the country will operate above board. Likewise, if the budget has no deficit, then a veto can still be over-ridden by a super majority. Bear in mind, if Congress decides to actually, don’t faint now, spend ONLY what it has without a deficit, then it only needs a simple majority and a signature instead of a super majority AND a signature. But ONLY if the Congress decides to spend MORE then they get in taxes. It would only make vetoing a budget a thing of the past, in other words, it would streamline the budget process. Although, English originally evolved from German, so… This sounds like a joke, although a well crafted one, and one that sounds entirely appropriate to the atmosphere of Car Talk.ĪFAIK, the “F” word came from German - Frick, if I recall correctly, which means to strike. If this topic is unpleasant, then let me simply know and I will delete it, I don’t want to offend anybody! If this topic is unpleasant, then let me simply know and I will delete it, I don’t want to offend Yew (Origin of ‘The Finger’) ![]() ![]() I allways wondered where this gesture came from and what it former meant. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as “giving the bird”. 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), 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. Over the years some ‘folk etymologies’ have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, they said, “See, we can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW!” This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the longbow was known as “plucking yew”. The body part which the French proposed to cut off of the English after defeating them was, of course, the middle finger, without which it is impossible to draw the renowned English longbow. ![]() Thank you for the Agincourt ‘Puzzler’, which clears up some profound questions of etymology, folklore and emotional symbolism. The puzzler was: What was this body part? This is the answer submitted by a listener: The English won in a major upset and waved the body part in question at the French in defiance. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, threatened to cut a certain body part off of all captured English soldiers so that they could never fight again. Their most recent “Puzzler” was about the Battle of Agincourt. ![]() The ‘Car Talk’ show (on NPR) with Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, have a feature called the ‘Puzzler’. ‘Pluck Yew’ – how one of the most popular curses in the English language, not to mention a certain profane gesture involving the middle finger, supposedly originated as a medieval battlefield taunt.
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