The stink/The stank

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 16:10:33 +0000, Jonathon Green <slang at ABECEDARY.NET>
wrote:

>Of course we Brits are equally enamoured of 'finger-pie', hence Lennon &
>McCartney in 'Penny Lane' (1967): Penny Lane is in my ears and in my
>eyes, / A four [sc. four penny-worth] of fish and finger pie / In summer.
>
>Whether the two Fabs were being dead smart (as they might have put it)
>and making a sly reference to fish = woman = vagina, I cannot say.

"We put in a joke or two...'four of fish and finger pie.' The women would
never dare say that, except to themselves. Most people wouldn't hear it,
but 'finger pie' is just a nice little joke for the Liverpool lads who
like a bit of smut."  -- Paul McCartney in _Beatles in Their Own Words_
(1978)


--Ben Zimmer