Ever wonder about the origins of the middle finger as an insult?
It seems I tend to the Portuguese style.
In public, Iāve always been a āread between the linesā kinda guy. 
Itās a little less likely to get you shot at then having that bird fly alone.
āJames
Wikipedia reports, āIn Canada, showing the middle finger is sometimes called the Trudeau salute after Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau because of a famous photo of him giving the finger to protesters in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.ā
The funny thing is, this happened smack in the middle of an election campaign! He and his party were in power at the time, but they had no seats in the west. When the campaign train rolled through BC, protesters showed up to give him an earful. His response, displayed as the train passed by, was the Trudeau salute.
Needless to say, he couldnāt pick up any extra western seats in that election.
Jef
Thereās pictures of that floatinā around out there.
Another great one (also found on the Wikipedia site) is GWBush giving the finger!
Until now I didnāt know it was called Portuguese style. I called it Texas style since when I moved to Texas I was shown their way of flipping the bird as opposed to the closed-fist method.
The real question is, which is quicker?
For me, the Portuguese/Texan. I fell upon the method after much empirical research. Plus I think it looks classy, if one can put it that way. 
Iād be interested in any papers from your research. Iāve often wondered at the migration of the two styles of bird flippage from their original habitat.
Who knew a thread on ornithological gestures could be so informative?
It even led me to a Wikipedia page on the Bronx cheer which tells us:
- In the terminology of phonetics, this sound does not appear to have
an official name, but might be characterized as a labiolingual trill.
ā¦
[The Bronx cheer is also] known as a raspberry, rasp or razz - the
origin of which is an instance of Cockney rhyming slang, where the
non-rhyming part of a rhyming phrase is used as a synonym. In this
case, āraspberry tartā rhymes with āfartāā¦
Facinating! Cockney rhyming slang is wierd, but gives us many common
nicknames, like āBobā and āDickā.
Iām afraid my research was limited to the scope of the most efficient (for me) method of flippage possible. I leave the bluestocking-type statistical stuff to theā¦uhā¦bluestockings.
I never knew it represented a penis. Itās an awfully skinny penis. And I never knew penes had knucklesā¦
Only the very dexterous of usā¦ 
What, you mean yourās doesnāt have knuckes? 
You are obscene.
Iām obscene!?
I fail to see that it was any less or more obscene than your comment, but Iām not going to sit here and argue with you over it. If Iāve offended, I appologize.
I didnāt mean that being obscene is a bad thing. 
Well, you know, you can get offended pretty easily, Cran, and without using the smilies itās hard to tell if youāre trying to be serious with me or not, yāknow what I mean?
p.s. edited to add
ok, youāre right there, its not neccesarily a bad thing!
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I think you may have just made my day!