Are you Left or Right Handed

Tak_the_whistler · Post by **Tak_the_whistler** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 1:24 am

Is this question tight?
I might as well try another night.
Fly with all of my might,
with a sigh seeing the sight,
in the light of the Almighty
and realise
I'm right-handed, alright?

Wrong thread?

burnsbyrne · Post by **burnsbyrne** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 7:59 am

Walden wrote:
BrassBlower wrote: Very curious in light of the fact that drive-through ATM's, at least in the U.S., are always on the left side of the car. I am lucky in that respect for not having to get out of the car or lean my entire body out of the window to use it.
Still wondering, why do the drive-up machines have Braille?

This is a good question. I have wondered the same thing about elevators in parking garages. After pondering it for a while I decided that it must be possible to train seeing-eye dogs to drive a car but pushing the correct button in the elevator is beyond their capabilities.

Mike

tubafor · Post by **tubafor** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 8:43 am

I'm ambidextrous (or, as I used to say when I was young, "switch-handed") , with lefty tendencies.

We think it's because my Great Grandmother tried to make me be right-handed when she saw me using my left hand.

So, thanks Grams - it made me the confused person I am today.

chas · Post by **chas** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 9:28 am

I'm about 60-40 right-left, which I consider ambidextrous. I write and throw right, play raquetball and use chopsticks left. I use manual and power tools with either, which is quite an advantage at times such as a couple of weeks ago when I was cutting firewood and raking for seven hours straight. It's also useful when nailing things in corners where you absolutely have to swing a hammer left-handed.

I wouldn't be surprised if lefties show up as over-represented in a musical population. I think they're over-represented in musical and scientific populations. No idea why there would be so many ambis.

Snuh · Post by **Snuh** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 10:24 am

I wouldn't call myself ambidexterous. I do most things with my left hand and a few things with my right hand but there's nothing I can do with either.

So that makes me left handed I guess.

A.J.

Caj · Post by **Caj** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 11:09 am

chas wrote: I wouldn't be surprised if lefties show up as over-represented in a musical population. I think they're over-represented in musical and scientific populations. No idea why there would be so many ambis.

I suspect that lefties in the USA would be a little over-represented in any population of different or exceptional people.

This simply because lefties grow up with the reassurance from others that they must be artistic, or right-brained, or whatever; that there is something special or different about their brains. I bet this belief makes lefties a little more likely to take up weird hobbies or interests, or go to college and beyond.

Likewise, if we believed that blue-eyed people had some deep-seated intelligence or artistic inclination, there would be more blue-eyed scientists and blue-eyed musicians, just due to the expectations with which they were raised.

Caj

John S · Post by **John S** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 8:05 am

If we ignore the Ambis (nothing personal) then the Lefties (like myself) make up about 27% well above average.
Actually thinking about it if we divi up the Ambis equally between the left and right handed, we get 31% lefties.

John S

jbarter · Post by **jbarter** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 8:27 am

The somewhat spectral and currently hidden PMP is a leftie.

Woodpecker · Post by **Woodpecker** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 8:58 am

FJohnSharp wrote:I'm really more of a moderate.

I read this, and then voted, and because of my political position accidentally voted Left.

I am right handed. Pregnent Butterfly for Bush!
Woodpecker

pearl grey · Post by **pearl grey** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 10:23 pm

Caj wrote:The Anglo concertina is actually a little better for lefties. So is, allegedly, the typewriter keyboard (E, T, and A comprise about 30% of English text.)

You'd be surprised how much around you has a right-handed bias without you ever noticing. For example, how many people ever realize that ATMs are right-handed? They all have the screen on the left side, with the card slot on the right. And if buttons are along the screen (or on the screen,) they will be in a column along the right edge. The assumption is that if you ever touch the thing, it will be with your right hand.

I was at a meeting where a signup sheet was passed around, and one employee remarked, "holy crap, this is a left-handed pen!" It was indeed a left-handed pen, but all of the righties thought he was either joking or crazy. After all, how can a ball-point pen be left-handed or right-handed?

It was fun watching people puzzle over the thing and not figure out what he meant. Those silly people who run the world just don't get it, eh?

Caj

How WAS it a left-handed pen? Did it have special finger-grips? I'm a lefty. I hate it when clipboards or whatever have the pen attached with a string or chain on the right side. It's usually such a SHORT string or chain that I can barely write with it! I always try to point it out to bystanders and make them realize what a cruel, thoughtless lot they are. At work I attached a pen to a clipboard with a string in the MIDDLE, but it annoyed people. I thought about putting it on the left to make them suffer! But they switched it to the right anyway (wimps).

And I too dislike when frying pans and spoons are made right-handed. Especially pouring spouts they add on big sauce pans - which are heavy enough without adding extra awkwardness.

I never noticed about the ATMs though. Actually I think the ones I frequent have a keypad below the monitor (on the left) and other buttons on either side of the screen.

pearl grey · Post by **pearl grey** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 10:30 pm

Caj wrote:You'd be surprised how much around you has a right-handed bias without you ever noticing.

The mouse for a computer, my sewing machine, can openers, scissors, measuring tapes, coffee mugs... pens! Ohhhh, now I get it. All the writing on the side of the pen would have looked upside-down (which is how it always is for us lefties!)

Let's start a revolution! Down with right-handed tyranny!

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 12:32 am

Caj wrote:Likewise, if we believed that blue-eyed people had some deep-seated intelligence or artistic inclination,...

Are you saying that we don't? :roll:

An old friend from college days is lefthanded, but writes and plays ping pong righthanded, because he learned to do those two things while his left arm was in a cast.

I'm always amazed that I can do some pretty fancy left-hand maneuvers on the guitar and computer keyboard, and all of my martial arts training was ambidextrous, but my left-hand handwriting is terrible.

Actually, it improves if I write vertically, with the top of the line to the right. This must be connected to the fact that I can write pretty decent mirror-image text (even cursive Chinese) vertically with my right hand--as long as I don't think about it too hard.

sage · Post by **sage** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 2:42 am

pearl grey wrote:How WAS it a left-handed pen?

Think about how the words look when you hold a pen in your left hand versus your right....

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