BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day

Subject: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Janie
Date: 13 Aug 14 - 10:16 PM

South paws of the world, unite!

Just for fun, http://www.lefthandersday.com/

I often wonder if the one of the reasons more of us lefties are more ambidextrous than are most righties is simply brain training as a result of growing up in a world where the vast majority of people are right handed.

Would be fun to hear what sense other lefties have made of this right-handed world to which we appear to have adapted reasonably well.

When I was a kid, there was no such thing as left-handed scissors-at least that my family or school had heard of or purchased. I think I handled my first pair in my 40's. By then I was long adapted to using right-handed scissors - imprinted muscle memory and all that - and actually prefer right-handed scissors, which I use in my left hand, to left handed scissors. Not saying I am great at cutting things, but I manage well enough.

My first grade teacher (1956, USA) embarrassed the crap (literally) out of me on my first day of school. Called me up in front of the class, had me draw a line on the board with each hand, and demanded the class assert the line drawn with the right hand was better. Went home in tears, determined to never go back to school. Mom was parked in the principal's office the next morning as soon as it was unlocked. End of that story except that my first grade teacher had it in for me the rest of the year - though she never again tried to intimidate or force me to hold my pencil in my right hand.

I'm one of those folks who can not tell my left from my right hand when giving directions. I think lefties are more prone to this problem than righties but am not sure. I anecdotally attribute this personal fact to being left handed in a right handed world. Everyone knows the hand one uses the most is the right hand. It logically follows that my left hand is my right hand *grin*

I was never a good guitar or autoharp player, even when my fingers worked. Not dexterious, brain/body not connected in a way that fostered all that 'muscle memory' wiring, not good hand-eye coordination, slow reflexes, etc., etc. Don't think that has to do with handedness in particular. But there are a number of things I have always been right handed at, including playing a guitar or autoharp - (not to mention a few things I was right-handed at that I didn't realize I was right-handed at - cranking an apple corer for instance.) I do wonder if whatever happens in the brain that controls handedness, for those of us who are task specific 'switch hitters' if the coordination on both sides may tend not to be as fine as for those who are more exclusive with their handedness.

My handwriting sucks and always has unless I print, and slowly. However, I can write nearly as legibly with my right hand if need be, though it feels somewhat awkward. I can also write in cursive backwards very easily with my left hand -right to left completely reversed. How's that for a life skill!

My son's handwriting is even worse than mine. His printing or writing, at age 20, looks like a 3rd grader's. He is predominantly right handed, but plays guitar, bats, and played some sports right handed, and handles some tools left-handed.

Now I'm gonna go figure out which hand I use to pick my nose or scratch my bum. Full report to follow:^)

How about the rest of you lefties and ambidextrous folks?

One last assertion -must be true because I saw it on a coffee cup. "People are born left-handed. As soon as they commit their first sin, god makes them right-handed."

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 01:09 AM

You know, I don't notice that people are right-handed (or left-handed, for that matter). Why is it that they always seem to notice that I'm left-handed?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 03:30 AM

Recently I've noticed that many people don't hold a pen or pencil properly whichever hand they use. They have their hand curled round in a sort of fist with the pen clamped between the knuckles of the thumb and first finger. No wonder they have barely legible handwriting.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: bubblyrat
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 06:37 AM

It all sounds a bit sinister to me . No ! But seriously ; I wonder if it has anything to do with vision ? I do some things left handed , like dealing cards ,or shooting (bolt-action rifles were always a problem as I had to change hands to work the bolt on my service-issue SMLE .303 ,and sub-machine guns were out,otherwise I got a faceful of empties !) and I mount a bicycle the "wrong" way .I believe this to be due to having a "lazy eye" (my right one) on which I had several operations as a child , resulting in a very dominant left eye. My father was perfectly normal ,although he used a knife and fork left-handedly.
Personally , I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous .

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: gnu
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 08:22 AM

Hehehehee!

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 09:24 AM

True left-handers are rare.

I'm like most lefties. I write left and sew left, but for big jobs requiring strength, I switch to the right.

Topsie, there probably is no 'proper' way to hold a pen. What's right for one person may not be right for another.

But let's get to the important stuff: how are we going to celebrate? Cake, ice cream, ribs on the grill? What music, what instruments?

Never pass up the chance for a party.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Mysha
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 09:53 AM

Hi,

True left-handers rare? If you go to a smithing class, you wouldn't say so. Smiths tend to be left-handed. Smithing classes is where the occasional right-hander finds out what it's like to have to do everything the other way around from how it's explained.
That's also a theory why lefties tend to be less provicient at some stuff, regardless of doing them left or right, but excellent at other things: The division of brain-functions is mostly the same for lefties and righties, giving lefties less often occurring combinations of functions with hands to perform them with. A smith, left-handed, controlling his hammering hand with the side of the brain that also does the creativity stuff, can shape metal almost intuitively, in a way the right-handed minority finds difficult to master.
(My maternal grand-father was a smith, and a left-hander; his son, my uncle, is a left-hander; I'm more of the ambisinistrous type.)

I'm not so sure ice cream on a grill would work so well, but they say you should try everything once. I'm game if you are.

Bye
                                                                Mysha

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 10:36 AM

Leeneia - the 'proper' way to hold a pen is the way that gives the best control and allows the small intricate movements required for writing and drawing - usually achieved by holding the pen near the point, between the end of the thumb and the tips of the first and second fingers.
Obviously there may be some people who are physically unable to do this, but I am puzzled as to how so many would be affected all of a sudden.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Rumncoke
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 10:45 AM

I am classed as left handed as I prefer to write with my left hand, I bowl left arm, use a badminton or tennis racket and scissors in my left hand and tend to punch southpaw.

I shoot, bat, swing a golf club right handed, but a lot of things are just whichever hand is most convenient at that moment.

We had two PCs side by side and I could use a mouse in each hand for tasks such as transferring files between the two.

I use a knitting machine and am fairly ambidextrous on that, after 40 some years, as there are numerous occasions where the same thing is done first on one side and then the other of the knitting. People who are strongly one handed find it more difficult as they try to use the same hand to work in opposite directions. The mirror image is the easier option, but I find it surprising that some people I teach will not even attempt to use both hands.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 06:49 PM

THIS IS DISCRIMINATION AGAINST LEFT FOOTERS!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 07:04 PM

Janie, I just want to say that that teacher you described was a mean and ignorant person. There was no excuse for her behavior.

About the same time you had your experience, my teacher told me to try to write with my right hand. I told my mother, and she put the kibosh on that. She had just read a magazine article explaining that it is wrong to force handedness.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 07:11 PM

I am left-handed in everything I do, with the somewhat odd exception of using a knife and fork. I always hold a spoon left-handed, though. I bat, bowl and throw left-handed. If I punched (I don't, as I'm a softie), I would punch left-handed. I have to hold a telephone in my right hand as I seem to be right-eared, but I wish I didn't have to. I use all tools of any kind left-handed. My handwriting is terrible, as I have to avoid smudging what I've just written, meaning I have a bad writing action. I have forcibly taught myself to use a mouse with either hand in order to prevent RSI. I play the harmonica the right way round, low notes to the left. I don't play string instruments at all, but if I pick one up I hold it left-handed. There would be absolutely no chance of my holding a fiddle bow in my right hand, or plucking guitar strings with my right hand. Not a hope in hell, I just know it. If a lid or a screwcap is on too tight, I can't work out which way to go to undo it unless it's vertical. Same with screws that are in too tight, especially if I'm having to get at them upside down or from the side.

But I kick a football with my right foot only. Never worked that one out.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Ed T
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 08:48 PM

My wife is a lefty. No main issues, except when we dine at a restaurant booth with others. If I sit next to her, I have to sit on the inside, to avoid clashing elbows when we eat.:)

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Janie
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 08:54 PM

I can use a mouse with either hand, but prefer the right hand

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Ed T
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 09:27 PM

A few boxers use both stances, Marvelous Marvin Hagler did it best.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Janie
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 11:00 PM

My most spectacular bike wreck occurred on a town ride when my boyfriend said "go left", and of course, I went right and T-boned him at a fast speed as we crossed paths. He was very particular and meticulous about all his mechanical toys, be they cars or bicycles, and I expected him to blow up at me immediately because of the mechanical damage done to both our bikes and the scratches on the paint. Although his expression was ominous while we wiped off the blood and cinders, all he said was "I knew I should have pointed."

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Janie
Date: 14 Aug 14 - 11:09 PM

leenia and Mysha. Don't know about ice cream on the grill but can definitely fry it. Let's party!

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: JennieG
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 02:38 AM

My father who was born in 1920 was left handed and seems to have been allowed to be left handed, which may have been unusual for that era. I was told several years ago by his brother that he (my father) was beaten by his father and had a hard life as a child - wonder if they were trying to beat the left-handedness out of him? Sadly, people used to think that way, didn't they.

My older son, Stephen The Drummer, is a lefty who has been forced by circumstances to be a righty. When he was almost 7YO he fell out of a tree on a family picnic and broke his left arm - so learnt to write and do other things with his right hand, just at the stage in school where they were really getting into writing. Eighteen months later, would you believe it, he fell off playground equipment at school and broke his left arm again!

Now at the age of 38 he uses a knife and fork in opposite hands, writes with his right hand, throws a ball left-handed, wears a watch on his right wrist rather than the left, and is a very good kit drummer - both hands and feet going at once. A drummer playing a full kit needs to be ambidextrous, and he certainly seems to be.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 04:35 AM

I'm right-handed, but bust me arm once and had to sign things left-handed for a couple of months. I didn't go for the claw approach, and still got somethere.
Sure, some kit is designed for right-handed use, and the claw is designed to keep wrists out of the ink - right-handed scribes have their wrists over blank paper. But how often does anyone use ink these days?
So I go for the old one about the little deer who could write with both hooves - Bambidexterous.

So, tell me, when do we have International Right Handers Day? Or is this a celebration of an unoppressed minority? Today, it seems, is International Sartoriality Day, and we're getting comments from the distaff side which wwould earn a slapped chops if put the other way round. Which self-appointed busibody decies such BS anyway? Because perhaps it's time to tell them where to get off.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 04:49 AM

Not all languages are written from left to right (some even go backwards and forwards). Do Arabic scribes use non-smudging ink? Or do they tend to be left-handed?

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Rumncoke
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 05:03 AM

Writing Arabic left handed is not allowed - as the hand is considered dirty.

I use a fountain pen for writing and don't smudge the ink - nor do I 'hook' when writing.

My grandmother was educated by nuns and was punished for using her left hand - the damage to her knuckles was always noticeable as she used her left hand all the time.

I think that the Great War changed attitudes to handedness - there were so many injured men that just having a useable hand was enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Mysha
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 06:48 AM

Hi Topsie,

Arab is usually written with the paper at an angle, in some cases so much so that it's written almost vertically. That way, your hand moves lower on the page while you write to the left, and passes under the newly written text without smudging it.

That can mm. indeed be a solution for writing lefthanded; however, the type of teacher that enforces right-handed writing, sitting straight, and putting the paper straight on the table might interfere with that.

Bye
                                                                Mysha

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 08:38 AM

I wear my watch (£5.99, eBay) on my right hand too.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 09:26 AM

"Writing Arabic left handed is not allowed - as the hand is considered dirty."

That's true in other places, too. We know better, having been introduced to toilet paper at a young age.
=========
Steve, I too wear my watch on the right - gets it out of the way of the important things in life.
=========
Janie - thanks to the link for fried ice cream. We did have a party last night; I invited a left-handed friend and her husband over, and we had a pork chop dinner. Chocolate, not fried ice cream for dessert.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 04:56 PM

Steve, I too wear my watch on the right - gets it out of the way of the important things in life.

;-)

Toilet paper does not mean your hand's any cleaner. When I taught biology I used to show the kids a video in which it was experimentally demonstrated that botty germs can get through six layers of toilet paper and several handshakes!

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Janie
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 07:11 PM

Start one, Rahere, if you like. This is just for fun.

Elizabeth Cotton played what is basically Piedmont style blues guitar. Left-handed on an up-side-down guitar. Other guitarists who have done so?

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Janie
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 07:16 PM

Not that anyone cares or it matters, but a correction to my earlier post regarding my son's handedness. He plays guitar, lacrosse, bats and does several other things left handed - not right handed. Writes and ties his shoe laces right-handed.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Janie
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 07:18 PM

Which reminds me...Mom to this day asserts one of the hardest things she ever had to do was learn to tie shoes left-handed so she could teach me to tie my shoes.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Mysha
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 08:01 PM

Hi,

I never thought of that: I just tie them.
I now looked around the internet, and everyone seems to tie them the other way around. Belt and watch I was taught right-handed, and I consciously changed them to make them easier, but this I either have done left-handed from the beginning or switched very early on. I never knew that I did. (Things you learn on the Mudcat.)

Bye
                                                                  Mysha

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 08:27 PM

'Scuse me for protruding, but…

I'm right handed, but due to a physical handicap (polio when I was two), I learned to fence left handed. I also shoot (targets) left handed and I prefer to use a mouse left handed. But eat right handed and I handle a pen or pencil with my right hand (writing, drawing, etc.). I could already print block letters when I started school and I was taught cursive writing in school. But my handwriting has gone to blazes because the vast majority of writing I do these days is on the computer and I don't seem to pick up a pen or pencil all that often anymore (shame on me!). But I hold pen or pencil with the finger tips, not like I'm going the stab the paper with a dagger, the way kids seem to learn it these days. I really like fountain pens.

I'm not really ambidextrous. Things I can do with one hand, I can't necessarily do well with the other.

One advantage I had as a fencer was that there are not all that many "southpaw swordsmen" and most fencers don't run into left-handed fencers that often. It tends to throw them a bit.

But that goes for lefties, too. A bout between two left-handed fencers is liable to be pretty sloppy and tentative.

I've heard that about one out of six people is naturally left-handed, and that trying to force a young southpaw to be right handed can result in psychological difficulties later on.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Janie
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 08:56 PM

When I think about playing nearly any instrument, the left and the right hand may do very different things, but the good players have clearly developed the neural pathways that allow both hands to engage in some very fine motor skills.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 11:26 PM

I wonder if today's boys are learning to use their hands at all. If they spend their free hours manipulating game controllers, phones and joysticks (or are joysticks obsolete) when to they learn fine motor control?

I asked my sister-in-law, a Scout leader, at one age a kid could be expected to thread seed beads (about 1/16th inch across) on a necklace. She said, "If it's a girl, age ten. A boy, age 12." What!? The boys have lost two years, and they're not even in their teens.
=====
Don, no wonder you get so much respect around here. If anybody messes with you, you whip out your fencing foil.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Aug 14 - 11:28 PM

My brother-in-law showed me the new Pilot Varsity Disposable Fountain Pen. The elegance without the messy ink. I might get myself a pack.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Crowhugger
Date: 16 Aug 14 - 01:28 AM

I'm left handed for the most basic things: eating, writing and sewing (well yes, sewing is basic to ME :-)). And ironing which is also basic when you sew. Beyond that, the hand I use often depends on who taught me. My right-handed grandmother taught me to knit, so I do that right-handed. My right-handed mother taught me to tie my shoes and a couple of other knots, right-handed. I taught myself to crochet left handed by propping the book up in front of a mirror to follow the diagrams. Recently learning to conduct music it's been a lot of work to teach my right hand to behave, but I've decided to do learn to do it either-handed. Double the practice time and then some!

My father taught me badminton left-handed, and I play it that way still. Broomball- and hockey-handedness was all about best option at the moment, constantly switching if that was most efficient. Tennis I had lessons by a right-handed teacher, so that's more right-handed though I did practise somewhat with both, I didn't want to invest the time to do theme equally well. There are things I appear to do right-handed, like winding wool into balls from a skein, but even though I hold the ball in my left hand and one might assume I wind with my right, I actually hold the right hand still and wind with my left -- Grandmother's influence wasn't total, I guess.

In my pre-teens and early teens I had a medical issue with my left arm and that's the same stretch of time when I learned softball, so I throw and bat mostly righthanded. And poorly.

I play stringed instruments right-handed and have always felt glad to have my co-ordinated hand doing the fretting. My right hand dexterity was nicely developed by piano lessons so to learn various fingerpickings never seemed onerous; that might also be thanks to the teacher who taught me well how to practise and learn things accurately.

Where I really feel left-handed in a right-handed world is with power tools. I use them left-handed, so with a circular saw for example I have to poke my head over at a weird angle to follow a line. Very awkward! Learned early to clamp on a guide when possible. The weedwhacker controls drive me batty. I cannot get comfortable using it right-handed but the controls are counter-intuitive to use left-handed. Since I haven't the budge for left-handed tools I just take my time and pay extra attention to safety. The one power tool where handedness matters little, the vacuum cleaner, is the one tool I prefer to avoid.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Rumncoke
Date: 16 Aug 14 - 07:57 AM

Forcing a natural left handed boy to use the right hand can result in a speech impediment - my grandfather had a stammer until wounded in the right arm, and when 'taught' to use his left hand it vanished away.

It is thought that the impediment in 'The King's Speech' was due to his being forced to use his right hand against his natural inclination.

Women have their ability to speak stored differently - which is why the speech of far fewer women than men is affected by strokes.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Aug 14 - 12:10 PM

Thanks, Rumncoke. That's interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Ed T
Date: 16 Aug 14 - 12:16 PM

A few myths from Phychology Today:

myths? 

Subject: RE: BS: Who knew? International Left Handers Day
From: Janie
Date: 16 Aug 14 - 02:05 PM

I worked at a mental health clinic for several years where most of us were lefties. My treatment team of about 8 people were 75% lefties and total staff was about 60% lefties, including non-clinical staff. Slow treatment team meeting one day, when we suddenly realized it. To quote Jeri above, "Weird."