# Fellow Lefties, how would you feel about this? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 19, 2001, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523 "2001-09-19T03:10:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![stofsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@stofsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stofsky)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/21 "2001-09-20T23:27:23Z")
My wife and my daughter are both lefties. I’m not. First, that means that we can’t sit in a restaurant booth where either is on my right or we’ll bruise elbows. Second, it means that I can torture them about being lefties…writing styles, scissors, etc. The most fun I ever had with my wife (lefty fun, that is) was when I bought a very nice fountain pen, bragged on it, told how much nicer it was to write with than a ball point, and got her to try it. Mind you, we’re both in our early thirties, and grew up with ball points. It took her three days to scrub all the ink off her palm. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/22 "2001-09-20T23:46:09Z")
it means, due to my teacher saying your right hand is the hand you write with, i have trouble with right and left. if someone tells me to turn left, 90% of the time i will turn incorrectly, (like neo in matrix) because i turn to MY left. ---
**Author:** ![Another\_Primate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Another\_Primate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Another_Primate)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/23 "2001-09-23T18:44:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nineiron \* > \*\*OK, maybe I have some sort of high-tech, new-fangled ambidextrous scissors or something, but mine work equally well with either hand. I’m rightie, and just to test out what Another Primate said, I switched them over to my left hand (with which I am not graceful at all), and they cut perfectly. There was no gap on the horizontal axis (as was described), and the blades did seem to press against each other with no conscious effort on my part (trust me–I couldn’t purposely press with my off hand with any sort of intent). Are there such things as ambidextrous scissors? \*\* **NineIron** , Good point. I should have specified the quality of scissors. You have good scissors. A decent pair of scissors have blades that fit together tightly and will cut with either hand. Hmm, try this: Loosen the screw, and try again. Still cuts OK left-handed? Loosen it some more. The scissors commonly used in elementary schools are pretty junky; they don’t need to be unscrewed to work badly. They have a lot of “play” in them. (No pun intended. Honest.) **Fiver** , I’m headed off on a mission to find you a left-handed can opener… -Sue ---
**Author:** ![Another\_Primate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Another\_Primate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Another_Primate)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/24 "2001-09-23T18:59:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > \*\*These days, man, I’d kill for a left-handed can opener. \*\* **Fiver** , Here you go: Looks like a pretty decent one, for $9.99 (I didn’t bother looking up the shipping) [http://www.thelefthand.com/canopener.html](http://www.thelefthand.com/canopener.html) And, **nineiron** , I’m sorry I miscaptalized your name in my last post. I hope this link, about left-handed scissors, makes up for that (it explains much better than I): [http://www.left-handed.com/store/faq.htm#09](http://www.left-handed.com/store/faq.htm#09) -Sue ---
**Author:** ![Yumanite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b487fb/32.png) [@Yumanite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumanite)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/25 "2001-09-23T19:08:56Z")
I definitely think you should bring up your concerns. If the woman in question is going to introduce them to the left hand next month, then I doubt she’ll mind if you bring it up. If not, she may never have considered it and would be well advised to do so. I know it would make me uncomfortable as a leftie to have my side excluded from the learning process. I have a hard time imagining that if you politely addressed the issue she would get upset (or refuse to take it into consideration) in any way. On the other hand (he he), I may have lucked out growing up and so have a skewed perspective of the attitudes in school. ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/26 "2001-09-24T00:43:46Z")
More random linguistic trivia: The Latin adjective _sinister, sinistra, -um_ means “left”, and the Latin noun _sinstra, -ae (feminine)_ means “the left hand” ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/27 "2001-09-24T13:11:59Z")
Thanks for the 411, **Another Primate**! Now who would you like me to kill? ---
**Author:** ![Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/53a042/32.png) [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/28 "2001-09-24T13:20:42Z")
As a lefty, I’ve never felt any prejudice from anyone, maybe a comment once in a while “ah a LEFTY! THAT explains it! Hhohohohohohoho!” :rolleyes: or something else moronic and unoriginal along those lines, a comment easily brushed off. In fact, your kid might be better off learning to do a few things righty, a few things lefty. He should write with his left hand; bat lefty etc if it comes natural. But while being a lefty, I can’t use a left handed pencil sharpener or a left handed scissors. I’m grateful for my preschool/kindergarten teachers for forcing me to use right handed implements- right handed pencil sharpeners and scissors are not always available, but righties are. I also eat righty and kick with my right foot, go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Kiki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kiki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiki)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/29 "2001-09-24T17:44:19Z")
I must be a strange lefty. 😕 I use my right and left hand equally, almost to the point of being strange. I throw a ball with my right hand but I bat left. I use right handed scissors but I write with my left. I also don’t mind right handed can openers and have a potato peeler that goes both ways. I just think it’s kind of strange that I can bat left and throw right when I play softball… kinda throws people off. Anyway… I would talk to this PT just to make sure she’s not trying to get the kids to go one way or the other. My son is only 2 but it looks like he may be like me… a lefty with righty capabilities. I would hate to see a teacher try to change what is comfortable for him and I’d hate to see him be made to feel like something was wrong with him just because he’s a lefty. I still catch a lot of shit for being left handed but it’s mostly from my family because I’m the only lefty in my family… it doesn’t bother me anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/30 "2001-09-24T18:00:22Z")
I’m 25, so I started school around 1980, by which time people had realised that left-handedness wasn’t something to be “corrected”, but just an alternate way of being. My teacher was “older”, and apparently didn’t subscribe to those new-fangled ideas, and I remember being told off for holding my crayon in the wrong hand. Now, I don’t remember if I had been using the other hand before and swapped or not, but this is one of the dim recollections I have from when I was 5. I think it happened more than once. I know that I’ve always used both hands for most things, and think I have favoured the left on things that I hadn’t learnt to use the right on, but as I get older, I find the left hand getting harder to use in place of the right. My handwriting is and always has been shocking, and I was sent to a specialist when I was 7 because they suspected there was something wrong with my co-ordination (I passed the tests, just barely). I feel that I probably would have been left handed if left alone, but my (otherwise lovely) teacher took it upon herself to make me use my right hand. If the problems I’ve experienced have anything to do with that, I urge you to make sure the kids know that they can use their left hand and not just their right hand! Left is the one that makes an L. If you put your fingers together, but spread your thumb out, it makes an L. The right hand makes a backwards L. This is the only reason I can tell my left from my right some days 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Another\_Primate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Another\_Primate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Another_Primate)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/31 "2001-09-25T03:53:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > \*\*Thanks for the 411, **Another Primate**! Now who would you like me to kill? \*\* Yike-er-oonies. No one! But, what’s a 411? -Sue ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/32 "2001-09-25T04:16:44Z")
As the sister of a leftie lady, I thought I’d ask a question. Were any other of you lefties out there taught to write with the paper turned in the same direction as we righties would use? Sis thinks that this is the major reason that lefties tend to write with a backward slant. That’s the way they taught her in grade school and she hated the awkwardness of trying to write with the bottom edge of the paper slanted toward the right. She began to slant her paper toward the left and found it MUCH easier. Now you can’t tell she is left-handed just frim her writing. Now before I get flamed to a crisp, let me say that there’s nothing wrong with the back slant that I’ve seen a lot of lefties use. I’m just saying I think that its main cause is teachers trying to teach southpaws to write as if they were right handed–and I could never figure out the reason for that. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/33 "2001-09-25T04:41:38Z")
**Another Primate** : > [@](#): > > Yike-er-oonies. No one! But, what’s a 411? Originally, the number you dial for directory information. These days, any sort of information. I ordered the can opener and a deck of left-handed playing cards. I’ll let you know how/if they improve my life. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/34 "2001-09-25T10:11:30Z")
I think this is a good idea, I get the feeling a lot of places don’t teach right vs. left at an early age any more. I’ve found that a LOT of people under 30 in the Dallas area have problems telling right from left, and have to think about it - one common trick I’ve seen people do is hold out both hands with the index finger pointing up and the thumb pointing in, the one that looks like an L is the left hand. I never saw this in Oklahoma where I come from with any age group, and older people around here all seem to know their right from their left instinctively. My parents say I wrote left-handed until I went to school. My kindergarden teacher forced me to write with my right. I have somewhat sloppy penmanship but it hasn’t really hurt me other than that. ---
**Author:** ![nineiron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e56c9b/32.png) [@nineiron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nineiron)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/35 "2001-09-25T11:39:56Z")
OK, I always assumed that the old “hold out your hand and see which one forms an L to tell which one is your left” was either done by very small children or adults looking for a laugh. Are you folks telling me that there are actually full-grown adults who can’t tell their left from their right without some conscious thought? It’s only two things to remember! For people to say that their teachers taught them “you write with your right,” OK, I can see that it would have been confusing when you were five, but come on–you couldn’t eventually make the association that this [\<] is simply called “left” and this [\>] is called “right” and that’s all there is to it? Are “up” and “down” a problem too? (This is not intended to sound insulting, by any means. I just am surprised that there may be adults who don’t know left from right.) ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/36 "2001-09-25T11:54:22Z")
Nineiron - I can tell my left from my right, but sometimes I draw a mental blank, and have to do the L trick to sort myself out. I think it’s the same mental defect that causes me to give out my parents number as my number, despite the fact that I haven’t lived with them in three years. 🙂 Perhaps it’s just me… ---
**Author:** ![Another\_Primate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Another\_Primate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Another_Primate)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/37 "2001-09-25T13:40:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > \*\*I ordered the can opener and a deck of left-handed playing cards. I’ll let you know how/if they improve my life. \*\* Left-handed playing cards? At first I thought you were spoofing me, until I got out a deck. Yup, makes sense now. You know what I thought was strange, though – they also sell left-handed knives. I could understand why knives with serrations on only one side would cause problems, or maybe knives with thumb dents on them (hey! just turn 'em upside down!), but butcher knives? I don’t get it. -Sue p.s. Just kidding about turning the knife upside down. Don’t try this at home. p.p.s. Hey! I wonder if lefties “heel” their dogs on their right? Hey! I wonder if British righties “heel” THEIR dogs on their right? (OK, the Brit question is a feeble attempt at a joke, but I really do wonder about the first Hey.) ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/38 "2001-09-25T14:08:23Z")
I am mostly righty but with some serious lefty tendencies. I am also left-footed, interestingly enough. _That_ caused me no end of problems until I realized what was up. Count me among those that regularly confuse left and right. Since I write Right, and I’ve never heard of the ‘L’ thing, I generally do some furtive, mid-air scribbling to figure out which way is what. Doesn’t really cause me problems, and I’m sure not the only one - “no, your other left” has been a popular saying here for as long as I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/39 "2001-09-25T19:17:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mayflower \* > \*\*As the sister of a leftie lady, I thought I’d ask a question. Were any other of you lefties out there taught to write with the paper turned in the same direction as we righties would use? I’m just saying I think that its main cause is teachers trying to teach southpaws to write as if they were right handed–and I could never figure out the reason for that. \*\* But there’s only ONE way to tilt the paper, isn’t there? _looks innocent_ My mother, a total leftie, was finally taught to switch the angle of her paper when she was in seventh grade. Her handwriting improved dramatically. Her mother was a natural leftie but her first grade teacher actually tied her left hand behind her desk to keep her from using it. This was in 1926, so it’s understandable, but I still think that was cruel. She’s virtually ambidextrous these days; I don’t remember offhand (no pun intended) which hand she uses for what. ---
**Author:** ![sickntired](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@sickntired](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sickntired)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523/40 "2001-09-26T02:27:19Z")
I don’t know where I picked this up, but I remember when I was quite young, an adult told me that shaking hands was done with the left hand. The reason for this, according to this person, was that the left hand is closer to the heart and, therefore, more sincere as a handshake. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-lefties-how-would-you-feel-about-this/82523.md?page=3)