# A gauche, sinister thread for us southpaws **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 30, 2021, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639 "2021-07-30T13:40:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/41 "2021-07-31T17:55:25Z")
My mom, my sister and I are all left handed. My great-grandmother was also a leftie, and she was beaten with a ruler in school every time she’d use her left hand (1907-1917 in New Hampshire). She never conformed, though, because my Gram was a badass. I’m very ambidextrous, but I can’t write anything legible with my right hand. Pencil and pen smearing was the bane of my existence until computers came along. If I have to write something these days, I use a Papermate Flair; bless them for not smearing. I also have always twisted my paper almost sideways and I write with the “lefthander’s hook”, which people love to exclaim over. ---
**Author:** ![Cwturner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Cwturner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cwturner)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/42 "2021-07-31T17:59:31Z")
Had a friend in school who kicked with his left foot. Now _that_ was unusual to me. Hey, this is a left HAND thread. Stick to the topic at hand. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/43 "2021-08-01T02:51:48Z")
> [@Cwturner](#): > > Hey, this is a left HAND thread. Stick to the topic at hand. I am so tempted to post a politically-incorrect joke about a woman named Nell. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/44 "2021-08-01T04:21:44Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > My son bats left-handed but is a righty in all other ways. Lefty here. When I first played Little League baseball, the coach had me try catching and throwing with both hands, and I was equally lousy with both, so he said “You might as well be normal” and had my dad get me a glove for the left hand. 10+ years later, I tried it the other way, and was only moderately lousy that way (still very lousy right-handed). I’m left-handed with most things–used a lefty hockey stick–but have never had trouble with right-handed scissors for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![wjChia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wjChia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wjChia)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/45 "2021-08-01T12:57:49Z")
> [@Tabco](#): > > My left-handed mouse just stopped working yesterday and it seems the model is long out of production. I might settle for a decent ambidextrous mouse or switch to mousing with my right hand. Gaming mice for lefties are so hard to find, but if you don’t need the extra buttons, most basic mice are ambidextrous shaped. I’ve been using the Logitech M100 for years. It’s super cheap, so even if it conks out after just a year or so, just get a new one! ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/46 "2021-08-01T13:16:37Z")
Left handed. I have a 1974 catalog from a specialty “The Left Hand” store. I am still amazed at all of the items. They reported that their most requested was a left-handed manual can-opener. But they also had scissors, spiral notebooks (opened from the other side), rulers, a camera (shutter button on the other side), wristwatches (to be worn on the right wrist, with the winding/setting crown on the other side), pocketknives (the groove in the blade was on the opposite side), a micrometer!, etc , etc, etc. I always wrote with my hand dragging after the letters - so that side of the hand picked up graphite and ink blobs. I understand that some left-handed people write by arcing their hand OVER the letters and writing something like an upside-down right hand. (And the pundits claimed that this had special significance.) The catalog even had “Speedball” pens designed for that type of writing. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/47 "2021-08-01T13:18:44Z")
One thing - Bowling Shoes for left-handed bowlers. Until I got a pair, I could never understand why bowling felt so awkward. Afterwards, I found out that the shoe on my left side was supposed to slide as I released the ball. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/48 "2021-08-01T14:38:11Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > I write with the “lefthander’s hook”, which people love to exclaim over. We’re in good company: [![](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/wGMwpZx1xmMNjeVEyQru20QhNvg=/259x0:3244x2239/1200x900/media/img/mt/2016/07/RTR4F3J0/original.jpg) ](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/wGMwpZx1xmMNjeVEyQru20QhNvg=/259x0:3244x2239/1200x900/media/img/mt/2016/07/RTR4F3J0/original.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/49 "2021-08-01T15:34:51Z")
Our son basically uses his right hand for things done sitting down (writing, eating) and his left for things done standing up (throwing, hitting). He plays bass right handed. When he was ready to start playing I took him to the music store and had him try to hold one right handed first. He was sitting, so right handed felt fine. Since he learned that way, he was comfortable once he started playing standing up. My Mom is lefty, but I remember that she either threw or batted right handed. My brother, as far as I know, does everything left handed. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/50 "2021-08-01T16:32:11Z")
> [@Tabco](#): > > My left-handed mouse just stopped working yesterday and it seems the model is long out of production. I might settle for a decent ambidextrous mouse or switch to mousing with my right hand. I’ve always moused with my right hand (one of those automatic adjustments, since they’re the most common kind). I actually like it, though, because it allows me to write/take notes while I’m mousing around. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/51 "2021-08-01T16:53:43Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > I’ve always moused with my right hand (one of those automatic adjustments, since they’re the most common kind). I actually like it, though, because it allows me to write/take notes while I’m mousing around This is me, too. By the time I could have adjusted the mouse (switching the buttons), I was already used to doing it right-handed, and I preferred it that way, so my left was free for writing. But, when I have a laptop touchpad, I tend to switch back and forth some. I use my right more, but sometimes use my left. Same with my phone. I type and swipe, etc. with my right more, but sometimes use both, and sometimes use just my left. I am irritated by sites and apps increasingly forcing me to hold my phone in portrait orientation, because it takes away my ability to use two hands to type. ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/52 "2021-08-01T18:05:44Z")
> [@wjChia](#): > > Gaming mice for lefties are so hard to find, but if you don’t need the extra buttons, most basic mice are ambidextrous shaped. > > I’ve been using the Logitech M100 for years. It’s super cheap, so even if it conks out after just a year or so, just get a new one! Yeah, that was the first thing I noticed when trying to find a replacement. I happened to see this one for sale at a PC parts store and was a bit shocked to see a left-hand-only mouse. It worked wonderfully but it couldn’t quite hit the 10-year mark. I don’t game nearly as much as I used to but I still use the thumb buttons for navigating online instead of clicking the forward or back buttons on the browser. I have since bought an ambidextrous mouse which feels good in my hand and also has those thumb buttons. > [@MoonMoon](#): > > I’ve always moused with my right hand (one of those automatic adjustments, since they’re the most common kind). I actually like it, though, because it allows me to write/take notes while I’m mousing around. I moused right-handed through the end of high school, but switched to my left hand 'cause I was having difficulty with tasks that required movements similar to drawing. I can still do normal PC functions just fine. At work I still mouse right-handed mostly as a courtesy to my coworkers who may need to occasionally look at something on my computer; they’d be stymied trying to operate the mouse with their left hand. About the only productivity advantage I can think of when mousing left-handed is in Excel, where one could quickly move between non-adjacent cells by selecting them with the mouse and entering data via the number pad. This would be a niche case though. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/53 "2021-08-01T18:23:40Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > One thing - Bowling Shoes for left-handed bowlers. [Curling shoes](https://www.goldlinecurling.com/curling-footwear/curling-shoes), too. But now we’re _really_ talking about a niche market. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/54 "2021-08-01T23:26:15Z")
Righty here. About the time they started discovering it was good to let southpaws be southpaws, my brother Tim went to kindergarten. With the pencil in his right hand, he would print his name as “miT”. If they put the pencil in his left hand, he would print “Tim”. The teacher sent a note home saying that Tim was a lefty and would require left-handed scissors when he reached first grade and so the training for Tim became all left-handed. Tee ball, then Little League (where he was prized as a lefty pitcher), etc. But in hockey, the coach noticed that a lot of Tim’s moves on ice were right-handed, even though he played left handed. So, he had Tim switch the way he held his stick and Tim’s playing immediately improved. The coach, also a gym teacher, started watching Tim closely and sent a note back to the parents that he thinks Tim is right-handed. Yep, his baseball improved too. Tim’s only problem was his dislike of writing and math. And lo, it was discovered that Tim was indeed right handed but also this “new” thing called dyslexia. Crazy world, but how wonderful that his teachers were paying attention and trying to help. And eventual success happened. ---
**Author:** ![wjChia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wjChia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wjChia)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/55 "2021-08-02T02:06:23Z")
As a lefty that works in the game industry, I must say there’s a funny thing that happens when I use my colleagues’ computers. As most of the other artists are right handed, if I have to show them something/fix something on their computers, I usually end up using their mouse and keyboard cross-armed (left hand on their mouse which is on the right side, and right hand operating the keyboard on their left side). They always comment on this, but I just do this because I can’t be bothered to switch their peripherals to the other side, as this just means I’ll have to switch it back when I’m done. eta: Also, I’m mystified when people ask me how I use a mouse left handed; they’ll ask me how I handle the mouse buttons. ??? Um, it’s called left/right mouse buttons, you just click them with the finger on the left/right buttons? Somehow, some people associate their index finger with left click and the middle finger with right click, which is something I cannot fathom. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/56 "2021-08-02T02:41:38Z")
I’m left-handed, one of my three children is left-handed. My father was left-handed, but he was “turned around” as a kid, and it screwed him up so badly (stuttering, complete lack of coordination) that when I started school in the late 50s, my mother threatened to pull me out if any teacher tried to suggest turning me around. Incidentally, I bat right-handed because that’s how I was taught. Reversing my hands to bat left-handed just doesn’t feel right. However, some righties learn to bat left-handed because they gain a step toward first base out of the batter’s box. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/57 "2021-08-02T02:53:54Z")
> [@wjChia](#): > > Also, I’m mystified when people ask me how I use a mouse left handed; they’ll ask me how I handle the mouse buttons. ??? Um, it’s called left/right mouse buttons, you just click them with the finger on the left/right buttons? Yeah, maybe you have to switch back and forth to learn to think of it that way? I’m a lefty, and mouse with my right. I’ve tried to temporarily mouse with my left without switching the buttons, and I can’t really do it. Clicking with my index finger is the automatic movement associated with the “left click” action. I don’t think “left click,” I just do it. So, it’s not that I’m dumb, it’s just the way that automatic task is wired for me. ---
**Author:** ![wjChia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wjChia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wjChia)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/58 "2021-08-02T04:05:46Z")
Okay, that’s something that didn’t occur to me. I guess because I’ve been using mice left-handed my whole life without switching the buttons, I didn’t form that index/middle finger connection with the buttons. Also, working in big groups (as you have to when working in games) disincentivizes me from making any custom changes to any key/button layouts. After all, it’ll just end up confusing everyone when I have to use their computers/they have to use my computer. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/59 "2021-08-02T12:39:59Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I used right-handed scissors, I think because there was only one pair of left-handed scissors in the whole classroom that could never be found, so I adapted. I write with my left hand, but I use scissors with my right hand. In grade school, my teachers who saw me write with my left hand would often give me the classic “lefty” scissors. They would always work like shit because I used them in my right hand. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2021, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639/60 "2021-08-02T13:03:09Z")
I finally got around to creating a “lefty, righty or ambidextrous” poll: [https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-you-rght-handed-or-left-handed-or-ambidextrous/](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-are-you-rght-handed-or-left-handed-or-ambidextrous/) Thanks for the suggestion, @BigT [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-gauche-sinister-thread-for-us-southpaws/947639.md?page=4)