Left or Right

[mayeeta]

Right handed here. Any left handed people having problems buying used pens?

[Siv]

I'm a rightie but my sister is a leftie/ambi depending on what she does.

 

One of my colleagues has this poster on his desk which reads, "everyone is born right handed, only the talented overcome it."

 

Anyway, the fact that we read/write left to right means that society finds right more acceptable. It would, I think, be more natural for a leftie to read/write right to left.

[ihavepen]

im a right handed here and i don't have any problem at all. . .infact.. i love what my right hands can do.. haha..

[Sapphire]

  BillTheEditor said:

Nobody is ambidextrous?

 

My mother-in-law was truly ambidextrous as far as writing went.

 

She was left handed but forced at school to write right handed and just learned to write almost equally well with both hands.

 

She died this year at 84

[MrMGWard]

I use my right hand for everything. Although my left has the ability to do most things aswell (not naturally though, I have trained it a lot) I am a professinal dancer, and in dance you must be able to do everything on both sides, so I decided to use that mentality for everything I do.

 

When I write with my left though, I MUCH prefer the outcome of writing right to left "mirror script" than normal. It just feels natural for my brain to reverse everything.

 

Swavey

[calliej]

I am not an ambi writer (I can get by at a good speed and it is readable but it has the telltale signs of shake) but I do other things ambi - like picking up saucepans, pouring the kettle and even ironing. I even played pool with the cue in my left hand.

 

I went to school with an ambi girl her writing was the same with both hands no difference - what was REALLY cool was that she could write backwards as well. With little pause for thought she could write anything and it would be the mirror opposite of what it was the otherway round! now that was impressive...

[calliej]

  Siv said:

I'm a rightie but my sister is a leftie/ambi depending on what she does.

 

One of my colleagues has this poster on his desk which reads, "everyone is born right handed, only the talented overcome it."

 

Anyway, the fact that we read/write left to right means that society finds right more acceptable. It would, I think, be more natural for a leftie to read/write right to left.

 

perhaps the egyptians were more inclusive - you can read hieroglyphs left to right, top to bottom in fact which ever way they were writen. I guess the we could say that the left to right was written by righties and the right to left was written by lefties :roflmho:

 

[MikaLa]

One of my friends is ambidextrous. He is a natural talent in billiards and can play both ways. Has won Finnish championship three times in a variety of the game we play here and also done well in the pyramid-variant leagues they play in Russia. Has won quite a few bets challenging players to play against him left-handed.

 

  wspohn said:

I knew a guy that could write normally with his right hand, and write backward with his left hand at the same time!

 

In other words, starting in the middle, and write out both ways, one regular, one mirror image. Always wondered how he was wired to be able to do that!

 

[wacomme]

  jsonewald said:

  anniemac said:

I wonder if the results of the poll are skewed slightly by the fact that if you're lefthanded you're more likely to notice the poll and actually give a flying fig ...

That is a valid source of error. Self reporting will nearly always be biased. Actually I started the poll because I'm a lefty. I tell people we're the best 10% of the population.

 

I think this is the biggest source for the skewed poll. I noticed the poll because I'm a lefty. I'm so left in fact that the right side of my body is essentially along for the ride. A contributing factor for my extreme leftward ways is that I have right radial-ulnar synostosis, a congenital defect that has my right radius and ulna fused together near my elbow, resulting in the lack of right hand pronation. My right arm has limitations. For motion, rhythm, and other movements, the right side of my body is generally compromised. I'm athletic and from an outsiders perspective, this isn't noticeable. However, my whole right side, head to toe, is weaker and not as adept to everyday tasks as the right side of my body. All of this, including my synostosis, I attribute as a consequence to my mother taking thalidomide during pregnancy. In hindsight, I'm one of the lucky ones. At least I don't have phocomelia (flapper arms). Still, even without the effect of thalidomide I think I would still be a lefty.

 

Now to work on my handwriting. . .

 

Michael

[retrogunslinger]

I'm a righty myself. Noticed the poll just find and consider myself quite the stand-up human being, thank you.

[HenrysPens]

Righty here

[tawanda]

Im a left underwriter. According to the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, underwriters are not true lefties and will often do many other things with their right hand. This is true for me - I write left handed but sew and knit right handed.

The book says that hookers or overighters are true 100% lefties in that their brain halves are completely reversed (or something like that. Its been a while since I read it), and they do everything left-handed.

What are your experiences?

[JDlugosz]

  calliej said:

perhaps the egyptians were more inclusive - you can read hieroglyphs left to right, top to bottom in fact which ever way they were writen. I guess the we could say that the left to right was written by righties and the right to left was written by lefties :roflmho:

 

No, horizontal writing alternated direction. That way you can walk down the wall reading, then walk back reading the next line.

 

For vertical writing, the columns are left to right.

 

 

[offscott]

Its weird because its about 10% of the world is left handed, then shouldn't 10% of this be left handed? It dosn't look like it.

[shoppy]

I and my wife are both right handed, my mother is left handed as is our daughter.

[thibaulthalpern]

I write with my right-hand but I'm actually a left-handed person. I was born left-handed but made to write with my right-hand so that's how I write. However, using the mouse, scissors, knives, fork, and almost everything else is left-handed. I do use chopsticks with my right hand because, again, born into a Chinese family that's the way you're taught. You have to use your right hand for writing and your right hand for chopsticks.

Edited September 12, 2008 by thibaulthalpern

[thibaulthalpern]

  calliej said:

  Siv said:

I'm a rightie but my sister is a leftie/ambi depending on what she does.

 

One of my colleagues has this poster on his desk which reads, "everyone is born right handed, only the talented overcome it."

 

Anyway, the fact that we read/write left to right means that society finds right more acceptable. It would, I think, be more natural for a leftie to read/write right to left.

 

perhaps the egyptians were more inclusive - you can read hieroglyphs left to right, top to bottom in fact which ever way they were writen. I guess the we could say that the left to right was written by righties and the right to left was written by lefties :roflmho:

 

You can do the same with Chinese. With Chinese writing, you can write it top to bottom, left to right, right to left, bottom to top, diagonal. You can still read it. However, traditionally we write from top to bottom advancing from right-side of paper to left-side of paper. With western influence, we have added writing from left to right although that is usually written in a horizontal fashion rather than vertical. But, you could write any which way and it can still be read easily.

[Renzhe]

  offscott said:

Its weird because its about 10% of the world is left handed, then shouldn't 10% of this be left handed? It dosn't look like it.

 

FPN members are not a common lot.

[musok]

  Renzhe said:

  offscott said:

Its weird because its about 10% of the world is left handed, then shouldn't 10% of this be left handed? It dosn't look like it.

 

FPN members are not a common lot.

 

Exactly, you just can't compare the world to FPN ! Go out to the street and ask who cares about letters and they'll just tell you one of two things "i don't f*cking care" or just say "i barely know how to write!" so you can't compare.

 

As a lefty i've a got a lot of problems. I love to be a lefty since i can compare myself to Leonardo DaVinci (or not) ehehe. I even tried already is method to write but... he was too much crazy, it didn't work for me. My problems are most on the type! On normal type, well, i'm already used to write but when i try to do some copperplate it's just pain! Italic at the beginning was pain too but know i'm getting used to it.

Other thing that i have problems on, i don't know if other lefties have the same problem, is ... SCISSORS, i just can't cut straight! I know there are lefty-scissors but... most of the times... you don't have a lefty-scissor next to you...

[xmattxyzx]

I'm left handed and left footed. In fact, the right side of my body is pretty much useless.