"the finger" in 1932 Hollywood epic

[Garson O'Toole]

One day television star Mister Rogers was unable to control the anger
he felt toward the children in his studio audience, and he gave them
the finger. In fact, he gave them two fingers simultaneously! Here is
a link to the indisputable photographic evidence. (Scroll down to
number entry number 11.):

http://goo.gl/IbNXr
http://www.cracked.com/blog/14-photographs-that-shatter-your-image-famous-people/

Of course, hand gestures are sometimes misleading. Apparently, Mister
Rogers was not really flipping off his audience. Out of context images
are subject to misinterpretation. In any case, list members may find
the picture amusing.

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:30 PM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "the finger" in 1932 Hollywood epic
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>> BTW, the 1932 ex. is unequivocal both in appearance and context. It could
>> be argued that the gesture in the 1886 photo is not what it seems, but
>> given the exposure time of cameras in the 1880s (not that I know precisely
>> what that was) it may be that Radbourn had to hold his pose for several
>> seconds. The image isn't blurred as I would expect it to be if his hand
>> had innocently been in motion while the shutter was open.
>>
>> Whose shoulder is his other hand resting on?  Was there some animosity
>> there?
>
> As this was a joint photo with players from both the Boston Beaneaters
> and New York Giants, it's possible Old Hoss Radbourn's gesture was an
> acknowledgment of an early Boston/New York baseball rivalry.
>
> At least that's the suggestion of Ira P. Robbins in his 2008 UC Davis
> Law Review article, "_Digitus Impudicus_: The Middle Finger and the
> Law" (p. 1415).
>
> http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2010/03/middlefinger.pdf
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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