Are you left-handed?

[bobthedrummer]

I am left-handed and have had many weird experiences in this right-handed world. I play and set-up my drum kit left-handed for instance, which gets noticed by other musicians.

When I worked in manufacturing I had to adapt to using machinetools and handtools.

My mother was left-handed but her teachers would give her smacks with a ruler or something when she would write using her left hand, so she adapted by using her right hand {this was in the 1930's}.

I think there is a lot of prejudice against us lefties still.

Have you ever been hassled just for being left-handed?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I have mixed dominance

which means I do some things left handed and some things right handed. It is awkward to do some things left-handed in a right-hand world. There is a prejudice, but I think it goes beyond being left-handed. If you are left-handed, it is likely you are right-brained, which means you see the world from whole to parts, which can make a real difference in how you learn and organize things. When I taught school, I tried to accommodate the differences in learning styles.

[KC21304]

2. I have mixed dominance also.

I golf, bat, sweep the floor, rake leaves left handed, but do everything else right handed. I have heard that if you roll up a piece of paper and look through it, which ever eye you use should tell you which hand should be dominant.

I don't know if that is true, but in that test I look through my left eye, so maybe I should be a true lefty.

[MAlibdem]

3. I think that's dominance in terms of your eyes

I'm left eye dominant (prolly because I'm less near-sighted in it)

But everything else im a righty

[rucky]

19. Me too - and I'm a total Klutz

[fortyfeetunder]

38. Started out strong left but now mixed

When I was a baby (late 50's)I started out predominant left. My mother did tell me later she tried to switch me to right hand but I rebelled, probably one of many rebellions.

Now I am a definite mix. Whenever I try a new sport, I have to try with both hands until I pick the side I feel most comfortable with.

Writing I struggle. I print everything out because my handwriting is atrocious.

One thing for sure, I can't even use a pair of left-handed scissors.

When ironing clothes, I subconsciously switch hands during the process.

[seemslikeadream]

4. You are among my favorite left-handed musicans

David Byrne
Kurt Cobain
Phil Collins
Billy Corgan
The Everly Brothers
Glen Frey
Kevin Griffin
Jimi Hendrix
Issac Hayes
Tony Iommi
Albert King
Chuck Mangione
Paul McCartney
Johnny Rotten
Joe Perry
Seal
Paul Simon
Ringo Starr

and I just pm'd you minutes before you posted :wow:

[kimchi]

5. Yes.

But I've learned to bat and throw with my right--only because I didn't realize I had a choice when the teacher was demonstrating. I also use scissors with my right, but eat and write with my left. As far as the eye/tube experiment; left.

on edit: never really been hassled about it, just good naturedly teased.

[Bertha Venation]

6. I am left-handed, and do many things right-handed because

like all lefties I too have had to adapt to living in a right-handed world.

I cut with knives in my left hand and scissors with my right hand. I can't even get the hang of using scissors made for lefties.

I'm a guitarist and play the usual way -- not like McCartney, who strums/picks with his left hand. However, I don't think this one really counts, because the hard work in my style of playing is all done with the left hand (the hard work isn't the strumming/picking).

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head.... but adaptation is everywhere. We are definitely at a disadvantage, the degree of which varies depending upon the setting.

[MountainLaurel]

7. Yep

Never been hassled, but the way I hold a writing instrument has managed to draw the attention of almost every teacher I had in school, usually in a 'Girl, who taught you how to write?' sort of way. (Taught myself it seems, before I made it to kindergarten.)

But I'm not completely one-handed. I never got used to leftie scissors, and I am a switch hitter at baseball. Finding out about the latter (when I decided to try batting from the other side) once led a boyfriend of mine to scream "Oh my God, my girlfriend swings both ways!" in the middle of a county park batting cage. Made me feel soooo kinky.

:evilgrin:

[berner59]

9. ditto....

Tough to be totally left handed in this world... I bat righty, throw lefty...cut righty...everything else, left...

The only place I feel special and loved as a lefty is on the tennis court... Righty opponents hate lefties, doubles partners love lefties...

Strangest of all - my hub is lefty and both my kids too!! So our house is very lefty friendly...all the computer mouses are on the left side and no one bumps elbows at the table!!

Also - hub plays lefty guitar and I'm just learning the fiddle - left-handed...very rare but I'm committed!!

[Wickerman]

8. Left handed persecution

That raven on your left-hand oak
(Curse his ill-betiding croak)
Bodes me no good. -- John Gay

My Dad and my daughter are left-handed. My father used to say that meant, by folklore, that they were "of the devil". My sister swears I was left handed but that I was "trained" out of it - no one else remembers that. I remember the kids in school having a heck of time with right handed desks, etc.

Some great leff-handed musicians - McCartney (uh, later years, Hendrix, Dick Dale, and Bob the Drummer all come to mind)

Back to that spawn of satan stuff, the persecution contimues:

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

For thousands of years, the Devil has been associated with the left
hand in various ways and is normally portrayed as being left-handed in pictures and other images. In the seventeenth century it was thought that the Devil baptised his followers with his left-hand and there are many references in superstitions to the "left-hand side" being associated with evil. As an example, in France it was held that witches greet Satan "avec le bras gauche" or with the left hand. It is also considered that we can only see ghosts if we look over our left shoulder and that the Devil watches us over the left shoulder.

http://jackie.freeshell.org/woh/superstitions1.htm

The left side is often considered unlucky in many cultures; here are some known superstitions:
Chinese and Europeans believe that if one's left eyelid twitches something bad will happen, and something good will happen when one's right eyelid twitches.
The Irish believe that when you are in a journey and see three magpies (some kind of crow) on your left, you will be in bad luck. Two magpies on your right, however, means good luck. You will even have a whole year of good luck when you hear a cuckoo on your right!
The Irish believe that when you are in a journey and see three magpies (some kind of crow) on your left, you will be in bad luck. Two magpies on your right, however, means good luck. You will even have a whole year of good luck when you hear a cuckoo on your right!
If your right palm itches, you will get some money; if your left palm itches, you will lose some money. This superstition can be found in Europe, America, some parts of Africa, and among the Gypsies.
When entering a house in Scotland, if your left foot steps in first you will bring down evil and bad luck to the house. This is the famous "first-footing" custom.

Simply put, anything that happens on the right translates to good fortune, whereas anything that happens on the left translates to misfortune.

in this case it is even self-perpetuated:

http://www.dpjs.co.uk/lefthandpath.html

"Satanism is not a white light religion; it is a religion of the flesh, the mundane, the carnal - all of which are ruled by Satan, the personification of the Left Hand Path"

The Satanic Bible, Book Of Lucifer 3:paragraph 30

[Mass_Liberal]

10. no

but I wish I was. Wierd isn't it.

[JohnKleeb]

21. why because left dudes get more chicks

:evilgrin:
:hi:
and no I dont know if thats true.

[angee_is_mad]

11. but we are in our RIGHT minds

I have never been discriminated against because I am left handed. I have heard stupid comments like "Oh you are left handed," when someone sees me writing. I am like duhhhhhhhh

[Coventina]

12. Another lefty here.

Never been hassled about it.

I was always forced to use right-handed scissors, since I was the only lefty in the family and the schools never stocked "left" scissors.

As an adult, I was finally given a pair of lefty scissors, and it was like coming home! I can't imagine doing without them now.

I did learn to play guitar right-handed, although I play extremely poorly.

[camero]

13. Lefty here

No I haven't been harrassed. Some even see me as being more intelligent when they notice I write with my left hand.

[SadEagle]

14. Yes, I am...

.. although I use computers like a right-handed person, go figure. The only practical implication for this for me is that: a) Using scissors is painful. b) I need to be very careful with the pens I choose, otherwise I get ink smudged all over my hand... grrr...

[Coventina]

15. oooo yes!

I know what you mean!

My hand was always filthy in school.
Took me years to figure out why!

:dunce:

[camero]

28. That happened to me with pencils especially.

Probably because my teacher taught me to write with the paper set diagonally

[TahitiNut]

16. How gauche!

:silly:

[Cuban_Liberal]

17. Not 'hassled' so much as 'inconvenienced'.

I've never felt that anyone actively discriminated against me for being a lefty, but I have noticed that virtually no one (except other lefties, or family members) ever takes it into consideration, such as when seating me at the table, etc. .

[SadEagle]

22. Ah, desks...

What I particularly dislike is those combination chair-desks that have a really tiny desk surface on the /right/, that only reaches about half-way accross. I have to turn diagonally to be able to write on those.

[Coventina]

24. Argh! Yes yes YES!

Those torture devices are HORRIBLE!

I always have a kink in my back by the end of the period.

I can't believe my university still uses those medieval things!

[JohnKleeb]

18. Lefty here

Hassled I guess so, like I remember the "left handed" scissors. Oh boy you call those scissors. It was weird though, in baseball I hit right handed.

[camero]

20. Did you know this?

That four out of the last six presidents have been left-handed?

The two righties. You got it. Reagan and the shrub.

[JohnKleeb]

25. Reagan was one of us :(

[camero]

27. doh

I was told wrong. I wonder who the other one was? Must be poppy.

[varun]

29. during the 1992 elections

...all three Presidential candidates : Perot, Bush Sr. and Clinton were Lefties.

[camero]

30. Got em

They were Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr, and Clinton

Garfield and Hoover were also lefties.

[soleft]

23. No, but I'm so left I'm practically ambidextrous

Is anyone getting sick of reading that yet?

[buddhamama]

26. *freeper alert*

;-) hi, soleft.

[soleft]

37. LOL!

[varun]

31. Any relationship between handedness and homosexuality?

Me and my BF (we are gay) are both left handed.

Is there some relationship between left handedness and homosexuality?

[annonymous]

32. I am ambidexterous but my children are left handed.

I can write with both hands, but do some tasks exclusively with either my left or right hand. I am right handed with scissors, brushing my teeth and using a fork or spoon. I am left handed using chopsticks, combing my hair and throwing a ball.

I haven't really experienced any problems with left handedness, but did have a first grade teacher who hated that I could use both hands to write and color.

[mcar]

33. Hassled no, inconvenienced yes

As another poster here has said also. In school, it was the desks, my first jobs (in the pre-PC age when I had to write with a pen and paper) it was those steno pads with the rings on top -- I had to use them upside down.

I've never gotten the hang of left-handed scissors and went through my pre-computer life with a permanent ink stain on my left pinkie.

I am seriously left-dominant since I am the left-handed daughter of a left-handed mother. I've read that's about as lefty as you can get. :)

[RebelOne]

34. Leftie here, also

We are handicapped in a right-handed world.

[ewagner]

35. I'm left handed

but I play baseball and golf right-handed.

That's probably because of my right eye being a "lazy" eye and therefore bad depth perception from that side.

[elfin]

36. Mixed - Write lefty, but "non-hook" style

have trouble deciding which hand to use for other stuff - usually ends up the right for ironing, cutting etc. Am terrible at sports and while creative and funny (at least I think so), am very disorganized in daily life.

Husband and son both strongly dominant lefties.

While I was never given trouble for being left handed, my son was until I stormed the school in "right"eous indignation, teaching a Kindergarten teacher a thing or two.

Clinton is a lefty - and so is Jon Stewart.

[Awsi Dooger]

39. I'm the only lefty for generations in my family

On either side. None of my grandparents or cousins could remember another.

What an advantage in sports! Effortlessly blocking a righty shot in basketball when they unknowingly released directly in front of my dominant hand. Whipping a crosscourt backand passing shot in tennis or ping pong when they're expecting nothing but a weak slice. All the angles and expectations are askew, always in my favor.

I play golf righthanded, only because my grandpa had righty clubs. That's supposed to be an edge but now that my game has slipped I wonder what a Mickelson path would have produced.

I've never been hassled, other than strange looks while eating lefthanded and sometimes asked to change seats in that regard.

There is definitely something inherent about lefties and an attraction/ability at sports betting, perhaps gambling in general "The whole town is lefty," my friend said last week. Indeed, it's absolutely remarkable. At the Stardust six of us grouped to decipher the games a few years ago. When everyone started to write, there was only one righty!

[FlyByNight]

40. Naturally right-handed but...

I bat and golf (rarely) lefty. And I prefer driving with my left hand too.

[Darth_Kitten]

41. No.....

I see myself as being very special and unique. So there, right handed world!!!! ;)

[KG]

42. depends on what i'm doing.

:)

[ronnykmarshall]

43. Lefty here!

[ScreamingMeemie]

44. Our son is lefthanded and it is very difficult at times to teach him

things. Like throwing baseballs and such. I never even realized how difficult some things would be for us to teach him. But, I wouldn't have him any other way!!

[Bake]

45. Lefty here! But I do a lot of things "righty"

Some things I'm purely left handed: writing, swinging a baseball bat (back in my younger days), etc.

But I play golf righty, because (a) that's how I learned; and (b) lefty clubs were hard to come by back then. I tried a lefty club once, and it felt really awkward.

I play all my stringed instruments (guitar, banjo, mandolin, bass) righty, because lefty musical instruments are even harder to come by than lefty golf clubs. Plus, I find that having a nimble left hand helps in fretting notes (oddly, I have no trouble with right-hand fingerpicking, either on the guitar or the banjo).

Let's see, there are SOME things that are equally comfortable with either hand ...

Bake

[Bake]

46. Oh, yeah, I can't throw ANYTHING right-handed

When I try, I end up throwing "like a girl." (flame shield up!) Hehehe.

Bake