When do left handed people notice the most?

[rickwright01]

Somewhat off topic... but the handedness of President-elect Obama came up and the fact that 1/2 of presidents are left handed.

When do left handed people most notice that we are in the minority? (Tools, doors, whatever that are harder or less intuitive if you are left handed.)

Scissors (yeah yeah I know)
Some power tools (clearly designed for right handed persons - shape of handle, where buttons are located)
Watches (even digital - which side is the main button on?)
???

For some reason I never had a problem adapting to frisbees, golf clubs, guitars, computer mice.

[russ]

In a perfect world, our handedness would no longer stand between us. So let me extend a hand - nay! - both hands - for the one is lost without the other - and direct you to:

http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/index.html

Where you can meet all your left-handed scissor and watch needs.

[Big Daddy Weaver]

Being Left-Handed was a pain growing up.

I loved baseball growing up until I burned out later in High School.

Since Left-Handers are limited to to Pitching, First Base, and the Outfield, it kinda stunk. I went through a phase where I wanted to play Catcher. I had to have a Mitt special ordered. I had great hands, well-suited for the infield which kinda stunk early in high school when the starting First Baseman for our team was a pro-prospect. With no other positions to play, I rode the bench and pitched relief. Had I been right-handed, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have been a 4-year starter at Second Base on a State Championship team. I could handle Second-Base in Middle School. But at the High School level, that awkward spin to turn a double play just took too much time.

There are advantages to being Left-Handed, I guess. In addition to baseball, I played tennis competitively growing up. It is quite challenging to return a Left-Handed player's hard first-serve. Left-Handers usually have a natural spin on their serve (same goes for Left-Handed pitchers in baseball).

Most of the desks in college were made for Right-Handed folks. I adapted. Same goes for PC Mice and the Guitar. I'm right-handed when it comes to Frisbee.

Nowadays, I only face regular frustration when I'm out of town visiting friends and family and someone comes up with the idea of going to play golf. Most golf courses don't have a set of Left-Handed clubs to rent.

Shopping for Left-Handed sports equipment in general is no fun. The selection is usually terrible.

As a side note, my whole family is/was left-handed. My mom. My dad. Me. And my sister was left-handed until the age of 4. I was 9 at the time. We were going down a Hardees slide together together. Basically, we got tangled and I sat on her arm, breaking her forearm. While wearing a cast, she became right-handed. Her son, my nephew, appears to be left-handed. Fortunately for my dad, his father taught him to hit a baseball and play golf right-handed. When my dad realized his son was left-handed, all he could think about was that extra step I would have from homeplate to first base....

[William Thornton]

We - the few, the proud - internalize the adaptation process. I don't recall any big issues. In baseball, if you aren't good enough for five of the nine positions, tough luck. I played first base and outfield and pitched until I set a record - hit the same batter twice in one inning. I think that record is still standing. When I played outfield, I did have to educate the infielders to allow for a natural screwball movement on my throws to the bases; the ball might move six or eight feet to the fielders right on a long throw. The only drawback was, as you said, a paucity of lefthanded gloves. You could go through a whole bin of gloves in a store and have maybe one or two for lefties.

Scissors? No prob, apply a little squeeze, pressure when cutting.

Mouse? No prob. Never had a lefthanded mouse to learn on, so having one now would be strange.

Bumping elbows with a diner next to you? Manageable, but it would help if you married someone lefthanded (I did).

Tennis? On an amateur, moderate skill level, an advantage because of the infrequency with which righties see us.

Took me a year in college to figure out that there was one lefthanded desk on each row. Whoo hooo...

I never got any awards for penmanship, all that crook-handed smudging going on, but who cares?

My mother and one brother are lefties.

My two sons and wife are lefties.

I will invariably take notice at a dinner table of how many lefties and righties there are.

Little known theological fact: everyone is born lefthanded. You become righthanded after your first sin.

[Haruo]

Little known theological fact: everyone is born lefthanded. You become righthanded after your first sin.

And since Baptists tend not to sin until sometime after Little League, when the patterns are indelibilized, this explains the amazing preponderance of sinister types on this board.

Haruo
right-handed, i.e. dextrous, but advocating for the full inclusion of the sinister in the life of the church, up to and including ordination and salvation

[Haruo]

Little known theological fact: everyone is born lefthanded. You become righthanded after your first sin.

And regeneration is Latin for "growing a new left hand", I imagine.

[Jonathan]

- Chopsticks are always placed on the right side of the table. When I move them over the left side (I can use them with both hands but get lazy sometimes), I get strange looks.
- Sighting a rifle. Do you guys notice that your left eye is your dominant one? Seems that right handed folks tend to have a dominant right eye. Same for us. I'm not sure why this is but it probably goes to the argument that left handedness is not just a choice (I just set mysefl up for a political comment from Joshua or Haruo). This is not a hurdle unless your platoon drill sergeant in bootcamp insisted that everyone sight along the same side of their rifle (mine did not, thankfully).
- Several handgun grips are designed for righties. That's why you need to go very simple, leave the fancy stuff to chicks and Hollywood posers.

I've noticed very few left handed folks in China. Most of them are from either extremely rural areas or lived their formative years outside the mainland.

How about driving? If you drive a standard shift (the only testosterone acceptable transmission style...at least for dudes under 50), being left handed would seem to be an advantage...unless you drive in Hong Kong, the UK, and an astonishingly large number (more than 30) of nations, of course.

[Haruo]

Do you guys notice that your left eye is your dominant one? Seems that right handed folks tend to have a dominant right eye. Same for us. I'm not sure why this is but it probably goes to the argument that left handedness is not just a choice (I just set mysefl up for a political comment from Joshua or Haruo).

In all seriousness, I think a study of the correlation in Christian populations between handedness, sexual orientation, and openness to the "handedness analogy" as an elucidation of sexual orientation would be interesting. This place, at least in this thread, reminds me of my time spent attending MCC.

[rickwright01]

I've noticed very few left handed folks in China. Most of them are from either extremely rural areas or lived their formative years outside the mainland.

Okay this is getting weird. BDW. Jonathan. William. Tim Bonney. Uh... the list groweth and groweth.

Are lefties the majority on this forum?!?

Seriously - Jonathan reminded me how much my Chinese friends (read - more than half of my congregants and most of those who participate in our church's various activities) Notice. With a capital N. Not "oh you're left handed" but more like "you write with your left hand! whoa! that is so unusual!"

[JaneFordA]

- Chopsticks are always placed on the right side of the table. When I move them over the left side (I can use them with both hands but get lazy sometimes), I get strange looks.

Maybe China has a "rule" similar to India's. Toilet etiquette has included western-style "facilities" and -tissue only very, very recently; maybe China's, too? So if there's no tissue, you're back to using water and a hand--the LEFT hand. And since the left hand is considered "unclean" because of this function (even after you scrub and scrub with a soap that would make Lava feel like a deep moisturizer), you'll shock everyone at the table to death if you move that left hand into the eating area. My only solution was to sit on my left hand... not great when the food is so good I prefer to shovel it in with BOTH hands.

... Sighting... Do you guys notice that your left eye is your dominant one? Seems that right handed folks tend to have a dominant right eye. Same for us. I'm not sure why this is but it probably goes to the argument that left handedness is not just a choice (I just set mysefl up for a political comment from Joshua or Haruo).

I guess I'm going to be the token problem child in this one. I'm right-handed--REALLY right-handed. BUT I sight with my left eye and back a million years ago in high school phys ed, when we did the requisite track-and-field, I took those hurdles left foot/leg first. Drove the PE teacher crazy. And me, too, when she insisted on my taking the jumps with my right foot and I ended up nearly breaking my neck. I was never force-handed like a lot of kids were but I can't help but believe that a smidgen of this weirdness is responsible for the neurological whack I got about 20 years ago.

So what really determines handed-ness???

[Timsings]

. . . Little known theological fact: everyone is born lefthanded. You become righthanded after your first sin.

I don't know what it says about me theologically, but I did it the other way. I was born right-handed and became left-handed due to some temporary paralysis on my right side after I was born. I do everything left-handed. No one else in my family is left-handed.

I have more trouble with left-handed scissors because I am so used to using right-handed ones.

My right eye is stronger than my left one.

In sports, I had a difficult time with soccer. Because I had been a straight-on kicker for my HS team, I had a lot of trouble in college learning to kick soccer style with my left foot. For about half a season I could better right-footed.

And, from looking at the list of left-handers on this thread, apparently there is no correlation between handedness and political orientation.

Tim Reynolds

[Cathy]

I like Jane am right handed and left eye dominant. I have the usual right handed persons left sided parietal clockwise hair whorl. My sister like Timsings and BDWs sister had a hand switch because of a problem with natural handedness due to an injury. My sister was right handed and became left handed because of orthopedic issues. She has the left sided parietal whorl of a right handed person. I believe that it is said that those who are left handed only have a right sided counterclockwise whorl 50% of the time, so are still likely to be left brained about half of the time. That suggests whatever the handedness 75% of people are still left brain dominant.

[Jonathan]

- Chopsticks are always placed on the right side of the table. When I move them over the left side (I can use them with both hands but get lazy sometimes), I get strange looks.

Maybe China has a "rule" similar to India's. Toilet etiquette has included western-style "facilities" and -tissue only very, very recently; maybe China's, too? So if there's no tissue, you're back to using water and a hand--the LEFT hand. And since the left hand is considered "unclean" because of this function (even after you scrub and scrub with a soap that would make Lava feel like a deep moisturizer), you'll shock everyone at the table to death if you move that left hand into the eating area. My only solution was to sit on my left hand... not great when the food is so good I prefer to shovel it in with BOTH hands.

That is a great point (and one that every new traveler should take to heart...do the research on the cultural norms before heading off shore), Jane. I'm a hand shaker, shake with the right hand (correct hand in Western culture). I visited a very rural Asian village where, I later learned, the right hand was the "wiping hand". So when I extended my right hand of fellowship, my hosts only saw an unsanitary right hand.

The issue if tissue is another thing completely. When I travel, I bring packets of disposable/flushable wipes with me and enough hand sanitizer to swim in (I'll risk the immunity problem in my later years...I probably have enough heavy metals in my system from these trips that I'll do well to survive my 50s anyway). Note to folks traveling to Asia. In public restrooms, there will nearly always be tissue dispensers...but only 1 and it will be near the sink, not in the stall. So plan ahead or pay the price.

Further drift: I ate at an excellent Indian joint in Hong Kong on Sunday night. Sag panier rocks!

[ALin]

I am right-handed and left eye dominant.

I am hoping that my baby will be left-handed because it would thrill his granny (my mom). My older boys are both right-handed although my middle one does throw with both hands. My mom is left-handed, and only she and my cousin are left-handed on that side of the family (of 45+ people).

ALin

[Haruo]

I'm right-handed as far as I know but my mom was ambidextrous. There were some tasks she did better left-handed and others she did better right-handed, and some where it didn't matter to her.

[David Flick]

I am right-handed and left-eared. Allow me to explain. I am severely hearing impaired and have been since childhood. As Mother tells the story, at the age of six months (in 1941), I had a severe case of German measles (Rubella) accompanied by high fever which endured for three days. According to an otologist who examined me in 1948, the nerves in my ears were damaged, leaving me hearing impaired. I have worn hearing aids for better than 30 years now. My left ear is stronger. Even with hearing aids, I cannot hear well enough to talk on a telephone. Thus, I am restricted to using my left ear when communicating on a telephone.

My elder daughter, DaLeesa (on the right), is cross dominant (handed wise). She eats, writes (when sitting), and does many things with her left hand. She shoots basketballs, throws and bats right-handed. When standing at a blackboard, she writes right-handed. It's crazy. She isn't truly ambidextrous, just cross dominant, depending on the activity...

[Haruo]

Yeah, my mom always said she was ambidextrous, but I think "cross-dominant" is more accurate. Although I think there were some activities where she truly was ambidextrous, and many others where she was closer than "normal people" to being so.

Unfortunately, she died when I was 14 - forty years ago - and so my recollection on this matter is pretty rusty. And unless handedness, unlike giving in marriage, is carried over into heaven, I am unlikely to be able to refresh my hazy memories with fresh data.

[JaneFordA]

I am right-handed and left-eared. Allow me to explain. I am severely hearing impaired and have been since childhood. As Mother tells the story, at the age of six months (in 1941), I had a severe case of German measles (Rubella) accompanied by high fever which endured for three days. According to an otologist who examined me in 1948, the nerves in my ears were damaged, leaving me hearing impaired...

My mother's father almost certainly had this, too, David. I have the sneaking suspicion it was complicated because his mother was exposed while she was pregnant with him (the two older boys brought it home... you know how that is! Kids bring it in and it goes through everyone standing on the premises); therefore, Papa was not only deaf in one ear but blind to that side, too. Very blind; his eye was seriously deformed and I betcha the inner workings on that ear were, too; we just couldn't see it!

Serious thread-drift: we need stories like yours, David, out there on the 'Net! There are SO many people choosing not to immunize their kids these days; I can't really believe they thoroughly understand what's at stake!

[JaneFordA]

... Unfortunately, she died when I was 14 - forty years ago - and so my recollection on this matter is pretty rusty. And unless handedness, unlike giving in marriage, is carried over into heaven, I am unlikely to be able to refresh my hazy memories with fresh data.

[Timothy Bonney]

Everything runs to the left for me. I am left-handed, kick with my left foot in soccer, and and left-eye dominant as well.

Scissors used to be a challenge in school but, I have a good pair of left-handed office scissors now. My hand-writing has always been sloppy I think due in part to a first grade teacher that tried to switch me to right-handed. It didn't work and this made be both a stubborn person and one who never cared much for hand-writing lessons from right-handed teaches who could help me figure out what to do to improve it much.

Other than that, I don't find being left-handed a disadvantage. I play violin and guitar like a righty with no problems. It actually helped my fingering ability. I use a mouse like right-handed folks do but, the touch pad on my laptop is used by my left hand mostly.

I can say that being left-handed made me aware early of being different and has given me a bit more sympathy for other larger differences.