# Listing different things that are right (or left) handed
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 4, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702 "2007-01-04T17:07:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/1 "2007-01-04T17:07:05Z")
I’m right handed, but one of my children (right handed) taught herself to be ambidextrous for most things.
But she discovered, as lefties must, that some things just won’t work with either hand.
Besides the obvious, like scissors, there are things that are unexpectedly right handed.
Like my Mr. Coffee coffee maker. The little drip-trap is aimed so that it just clears the pot lid when you put the coffee pot back from the right side. If you try to put it back from the left side, the drip trap snags on the lid and coffee spills on the hot plate.
What are more of these -handed things?
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### Author:  [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/2 "2007-01-04T17:22:03Z")
Can openers, the hand-turning ones. My roommate is a lefty, and I never noticed this until I had to watch her open a can with her hands contorted and twisted around.
She later received a left-handed can opener for her birthday from her SO. You cannot imagine how excited she was.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/3 "2007-01-04T17:25:39Z")
Most cameras, handguns and rifles.
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### Author:  [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/4 "2007-01-04T17:29:50Z")
Bows, and those desks that are attached to chairs.
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### Author:  [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/5 "2007-01-04T17:30:24Z")
Some multi-button and ergonomic computer mice, and computer keyboards with numeric keypads and other special keys on the righthand side.
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### Author:  [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/6 "2007-01-04T17:31:50Z")
Most doors favor right-handed people. I also find it difficult to use some types of pens (especially gel pens) and basically have found one type of pen that works well for me.
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### Author:  [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/7 "2007-01-04T17:35:28Z")
Cars. Gear shifts and whatnot.
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/8 "2007-01-04T17:35:43Z")
**The Left Hand of Dorkness**.
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Elk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Elk)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/9 "2007-01-04T17:41:48Z")
Boomerangs, when thrown by lefties, do not return!
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### Author:  [@feppytweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/feppytweed)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/10 "2007-01-04T17:47:36Z")
They make different guitars and bass guitars (and possible ukes) for lefties. Can’t offhand think of any other musical instruments that are either/or.
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### Author:  [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/11 "2007-01-04T17:54:23Z")
Believe it or not, [knives](http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/acatalog/chef_knives.html).
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/12 "2007-01-04T17:56:12Z")
The kind of butter knives with the bend in the middle. Also some kinds of paring knives that only have an edge on one side.
Spiral notebooks are also a pain to write in when you are left-handed. When I was in high school I found some left-handed spiral notebooks and used those for a while.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/13 "2007-01-04T18:05:41Z")
[QUOTE=cher3]
Spiral notebooks are also a pain to write in when you are left-handed. When I was in high school I found some left-handed spiral notebooks and used those for a while.
[/QUOTE]
Tell me you’re kidding. Tell me you’re smart enough to be a Doper and it never occurred to you to flip a standard spiral notebook over and start writing from the back? Or is there something else I’m missing here?
I’ll throw computer mouses out there. Not only is the clicking “backwards” (the most clicked key uses the weaker middle finger), but my husband and I had issues over where to put the mouse because he’s a lefty and I’m not. He’s just learned to use his right hand for mousing, because every computer and computer desk in the world puts the mouse to the right by default.
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### Author:  [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/14 "2007-01-04T18:13:56Z")
Lots of ladles only have a spout on one side, to be used right handed.
Most chained or corded pens. Banks and those boxes where you sign for a credit card purchase are almost always set up so you have the chain in the way if you sign left handed.
Office telephones - the handset is usually on the left side, designed to be picked up in the left hand, leaving your right free to dial or take notes.
Chainsaws
My leaf blower
My lawnmower and snowblowers are both set up to be started by a right handed person.
Trailer hitches that have a stand on them. They are set up to raise/lower the stand with your right hand.
As far as computer mice? I LOVE right handed mice. It leaves my left hand free to write or type.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/15 "2007-01-04T18:24:39Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen]
Cars. Gear shifts and whatnot.
[/QUOTE]
A majority of Brits and Japanese are right-handed, and they don’t seem to mind the gear shift and whatnot located on the left side of the driver’s seat.
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### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/16 "2007-01-04T18:39:44Z")
[QUOTE=Ethilrist]
Most cameras, handguns and rifles.
[/QUOTE]
One of my instructors from basic training had the great experience of sharing a trench with a lefty.
All was fine until steaming hot brass was ejected down his shirt collar.
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/17 "2007-01-04T18:40:07Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
Tell me you’re kidding. Tell me you’re smart enough to be a Doper and it never occurred to you to flip a standard spiral notebook over and start writing from the back? Or is there something else I’m missing here?
[/QUOTE]
Sure, that’s what I did when I was just using it for notes, but there were a couple of classes that required the book to be turned in periodically and it looked a little better if the assignments started from the front and the holes were on the right side and all. A very minor annoyance–the left-handed notebooks were more of a novelty than a necessity.
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### Author:  [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/18 "2007-01-04T19:25:44Z")
Arcade games. I know some of them put the joystick in the center and provided identical (perhaps mirrored) panels of buttons at each side to accommodate southpaws and northpaws alike. For a lot of games, however, they were right-hand oriented with the joystick/trackball on the right and the buttons on the left.
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### Author:  [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/19 "2007-01-04T19:33:52Z")
[QUOTE=cher3]
Sure, that’s what I did when I was just using it for notes, but there were a couple of classes that required the book to be turned in periodically and it looked a little better if the assignments started from the front and the holes were on the right side and all. A very minor annoyance–the left-handed notebooks were more of a novelty than a necessity.
[/QUOTE]
I found the best solution is to use the notebooks with the spiral on the top.
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### Author:  [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2007, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listing-different-things-that-are-right-or-left-handed/386702/20 "2007-01-04T19:42:39Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
Tell me you’re kidding. Tell me you’re smart enough to be a Doper and it never occurred to you to flip a standard spiral notebook over and start writing from the back? Or is there something else I’m missing here?
[/QUOTE]
You think left handed people haven’t tried it all? 😃
That doesn’t work that well. It’s awkward to write from back to front. If you use both sides of the paper your still going to have the same problem when you flip the page. You could do the same thing by starting on the back of the first page and skipping every other page. I’m left handed and tried lots of notebooks and didn’t find that very effective at least for me. I used loose leaf paper and when I was done put it in a three ring binder.
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