The Finger

In school they told us an easy way to start an essay was with a definition. So here we go. Wikipedia defines "the finger":

The gesture is also known as the "bird", "flipping the birdie", the "highway salute", "The New York Hello", "concert C", "sticking your middle finger up", "Showing Off Your Monkey", "The One-fingered Salute", "The Canadian Turn Signal", and "flipping someone off". When both hands are used, it is known as the "double-barrel salute", the "double deuce", or the "dirty double". A variation of the gesture is also made by showing someone the back of the hand, with three fingers extended, and telling the recipient to "read between the lines". A more comical approach is to wiggle all five fingers and query, "Do you see these?" retracting all but the middle finger state, "Its a whole flock of these." (A distinct reference to the aforementioned "bird")

Though the gesture might be thousands of years old, it seems to be making headlines lately. Those sharp reporters from Fox News had the acuity to notice Barack Obama's sly move. Jon Stewart reports on it in this video (about 1 minute and 20 seconds into the video):



I'd just like to take a moment to thank Fox News for letting me decide. I couldn't do it without their permission! However, could it be possible that they missed this other sneaky gesture from President Bush? Watch carefully. It's easy to miss:



And finally, in celebration of Earth Day, I'm going to take Bill Maher's advice: "responsible vehicle owners must show their support for the planet by giving every Hummer driver they see the finger." Amen.