Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 10:00:02 -0500 From: Grant Barrett Subject: RE>Very TAN--Giving Finger Are we sure Roger Ebert isn't poking a little fun at us for saying it's "unlikely" that a young lady would have given someone the finger in 1912? Bundled up in that "unlikely" are a lot of assumptions about behavior of young ladies of that period and the validity of the official and personal historical records. Also, if we buy the storyline, by the time Kate Winslet's character flips the bird, she's been fraternizing with low-class passengers for some time and could have acquired the gesture. Grant Barrett gbarrett[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dfjp.com -------------------------------------- FROM: Roger Ebert, REBERT In "The Wings of the Dove," a film based on a Henry James novel, two of the characters make love outdoors while braced up against a pillar in Venice. The novel is set earlier, but the film moves the action up to about 1910. In what year, according to the society's best thinking, did young ladies of the sort Henry James writes about begin to participate in such practices?