PAGES : A Calendar With Digital Imagery

“Political satire often lacks an edge,” laments Eric Lefcowitz, 33, whose previous accomplishments include a tongue-in-cheek handbook for the politically correct. “I wanted to do something that couldn’t be misinterpreted.”

Hence, the calendar: “Flip the Bird: A One-Finger Salute to 1994” (Terra Firma Press, $11.95). Part of the profits go to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group.

The salute’s history is unclear. “To me, it’s a really natural hand movement, like the circular OK and the thumbs up,” Lefcowitz says. “The way one finger rises and the four others retract, you have to wonder if it’s some sort of evolutionary behavior.”

His initial inspiration was to depict “people with defiant gestures,” but the concept evolved with a friend, photographer Jim Marshall, who is “famous for bird-flipping pictures.”

Obvious symbols--Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, rapper Ice-T--quickly made the B list. And rocker Billy Idol got the thumbs down.

The winners included: Keith Richards, who represents “the rebel soul in all of us”; Danny Bonaduce of “Partridge Family” fame (“Maybe this will kill the ‘70s revival once and for all”), and John Lennon’s kinder, gentler gesture, a peace sign, for December.