![]() At Crecy in 1346 and at Poitiers, 10 years later, attacking French cavalry fell in large numbers before a hailstorm of English arrows. The power in the bow, derived from the 100 foot-pounds of pressure required to draw the bowstring, could penetrate the very expensive armour of a noble knight with ease. ![]() An English archer was expected to be able to hit a person-sized target more than 200 yards distant. The longbow, which soon became the standard armament of English infantry, was a weapon of tremendous accuracy and power. The origin of the gesture derives from the appearance of the longbow towards the end of the thirteenth century. We did a little digging on the Internets, and found this article which credits the two-fingered salute as a product of war in 1415: This may date back to the 1400s, talk about old school. There's also movement to the gesture as one moves the hand up in the direction of the two pointing fingers. The two-fingered gesture, to be executed correctly, also requires the outside of the hand face out with your palm turned back toward your body. The extra special factor, as we learned from Rewrite producer/resident Anglophile Nick Ramsey, stems from the fact people in England often use two fingers instead of one. I mean, haven’t we all given a finger at some time or another? That’s not unique. Given that these two artists are British, we began to wonder… is this a common British thing? stole the headlines from Madonna (how dare she!) by giving the middle finger in the Super Bowl halftime show. It all started with a conversation about Adele flipping the bird at last night’s Brit Awards. Today’s gem was the latter and might have been my all-time favorite. These discussions sometimes lead to random discoveries - some relevant to the show, others that would make you the star player on any Trivial Pursuit team. This is when we hash out the show's lineup and pitch story ideas to the team. Everyday around 3pm or so, The Last Word staff meets to discuss the editorial direction of our show.
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