Bush Gives the Finger?

It's here on video, or copy and paste this into your browser: http://www.doubleagent.com/vid/lv_677.jpg . I don't know if it's for real, you never know on the Internet.

If true, somehow it suits Bush more than Scalia; somehow before a stressful TV interview is more appropriate than in front of a cathedral. Plus the fact that giving the finger is an American gesture.

Did he give THE finger, or was it a thumb's up? How could it be a thumbs up? Well, some people think it is, and you can read about it here: http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2005/07/bush_flips_out_1.html .

IT IS ALSO KNOWN AS THE TRUDEAU SALUTE



Pierre Trudeau, Canada's Prime Minister back in the 70s, claimed it for his very own -- up there it's called the Trudeau Salute, so-named after he gave it to some protesters, or, according to another writeup, to an opposition MP in the House of Commons during a question period. Supposedly he called the man a "Mother F*****," too, but it was out of earshot of the press. Later he claimed what he had said was "Fuddle duddle."

I could not find a photo of this!

Flipping the bird, giving the finger, the Trudeau Salute (huh?) -- where did this lovely gesture come from? Well, nobody knows, but here's what wikipedia had to say about it:

Ancient Romans referred to the digitus impudicus ("impudent finger"), a gesture intended to insult the other. One theory is it resembles an erect penis, statues of which the Romans used as a talisman against evil spells. Says our wikipedia informant, "As a consequence, displaying this gesture to another may not have been a pseudo-sexual insult but rather an insulting statement along the lines of – 'I'm going to protect myself against your witchcraft, before you even start.'" How that is not a pseudo-sexual insult, I don't know. It begs the point because, as well know, after Freud told us, "Everything is about sex except sex, which is about aggression." Hello? Don't you get it??

A popular, but apocryphal, story claims its from the gestures of English archers at Agincourt, and this might make sense considering it's called "flipping the bird."

Allegedly the French cut off fingers from archers, and that the 'finger' was a sign of defiance by those who retained their fingers. The same story also claims that 'f*ck you' is a corruption over time of 'pluck yew' since bows were made of yew, or the phrase "I can still pluck you!".

While it has been debunked many a time, says Wikipedia, the story still crops up ... and here it is again. (Doesn't sound too plausible to me. What do you think?)

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

It's been a 2-wk stint of "EQ practice" for me. I prayed to go to the next level in EQ, and the Lord send me a lightning storm which destroyed my hard drive, a new computer that was a lemon, and another new one tonight.

During this two week period, I considered the loss of all the data on my hard drive, including eBooks, family photos, courtship emails from my love, and a wealth of beautiful graphics and art, most of which I paid for, PLUS major inconvenience and frustration, plus "there went my trip to Rome this summer" -- pricey.

I practiced the EQ competency of being "adamantly and relentlessly self-forgiving" because, honest to gosh, I a backup drive in my hands to buy just the week before, but was encouraged to wait for a sale. Ha!

I'm convinced that those Help Desk people are the most patient people in the world. I've spent every spare moment during the past two weeks on the phone, in a constant and senseless round with first Roadrunner (British Columbia), then Compaq (in desperation I call their overseas 800 number which goes to California), with CompUSA here in town, and finally ipowerweb, somewhere in the US of A as well.

Waits on the phone took up to 2 hours. My phone battery went dead just as I connected w/ Roadrunner one time. GRRrr. I couldn't send any email and then, per instructions, clicked a button and received 1013, which froze the computer, of course. At one point I was even told to call MicroSoft!

But, long-story, short, I have a working computer now, it's fully loaded, I've retrieved and/or rewritten all ebooks, and ... life goes on.

Except -- if you've been to my website today, www.susandunn.cc, when the hard drive crashed, some of the graphics came off my website. (I know, I don't get it either.) My sister quickly fixed them, adding a nice menu. It had disappeared this morning, along with other graphics. Bear with me as I proceed to sort through that one.

if you've tried to email and received no response, please write back now ... just to give me your email address again, if nothing else.

WHAT ELSE DID I DO?
I re-wrote my eBook on how to develop your child's EQ. There's been so much new research since I wrote it 3 years, plus I've had that much more experience with techniques, and teaching parents how to do it, there was a lot I wanted to add to it.

YOU CAN ORDER IT HERE.

I also had FUN this weekend hunting up humor on the internet, and watching a million great videos. A new site springs up every day it seems. When you're tense, it's always good to laugh, so I went after it. What a feast!

I belong to a couple of unofficial lists that send me amusing things all the time, and I generally collect a bunch at once and send them out over time.

Well, I noted Gerry Alifano, Esq.'s email was "overquota" this evening, so I know I did my job. :-)
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