The Tow Files: The Winter of YOUR Discontent!

[EricKei]

Thread locked - some posts (now hidden) veered right into Fratching territory, immediately following a couple of posts that brought up politics.

[VComps]

Fun fact: the word "ambidextrous" technically means "right-handed with both hands."

Well, sort of. "ambi" can mean "right" or "favorable," so "ambidextrous" can mean "both right" or "both favorable."

Fun fact: originally, "ambidexter" referred to a juror who took bribes from both sides for their verdict.

[prjkt]

After breaking my right wrist there are certain things I can't do with my right hand anymore, like brushing my teeth - can only use my left hand.

Other things like using a knife or operating a computer mouse I can use either hand, but writing is still right handed.

[otakuneko]

At least you have an excuse for your handwriting.

Me, not so much.

[protege]

I quit writing in cursive by my 20's, including my legal signature.

I quit writing in cursive when I started high school. Years of being told my handwriting was "sloppy" or "messy" in grade school will do that. Not my fault--I had two fingers crushed in a door when I was in second grade.

How, you ask? Simple. We were leaving for dinner one night, and I was trying to reach the garage door opener. Thinking my hand was on the door frame, I hit the button, my dad came through the door, pulled it shut, and I saw stars! Turns out my hand was in the hinge When the door was pulled shut, it crushed my ring and pinkie. Lots of blood and colorful language...plus a free ride in a police car.

Even now, it's easier to print things. Still a bit on the messy side, but usually those things are for my own reference. Otherwise, I type everything up later.

[Shalom]

Fun fact: the word "ambidextrous" technically means "right-handed with both hands."

My sister is lefthanded, but can do things with her right hand almost as well. She refers to herself as ambisinistrous.

I'm a righty, but have been trying to increase the dexterity in my left hand to some degree over the years. Since I'm a one-man band who plays keyboards, it generally falls on my left hand to play bass lines and accompaniment as my right hand plays the melody. It can be a bit of a pain sometimes to 'train' the fingers to work a different way from what they're used to, but I've managed.

Q: How many bassists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None, the keyboard player does it with his left hand.



ETA: I have no handwriting, as such, because I steadfastly refused to learn cursive writing when I was in school. I can barely sign my name, and that's the limit of the cursive I know how to write. Or course I can print quickly enough that I don't really need to write in cursive. (Although lately the nerve damage in my right arm due to radial neuropathy/carpal tunnel is making it a bit painful to write fast.)

Reading cursive, naturally, I am great at. Have to be, in order to be a pharmacist. (Insert rant about doctor's handwriting here.)

ETA again: My mother told me once, when I was a kid, that she hated the Babar The Elephant books when she was a kid, because they were all written in cursive, and it was hard for her to read.

My grandmother grew up in Hungary until age 8. She was naturally lefthanded, but the teachers there would smack you with a ruler if you picked up the pen with your left hand. As a result she confused her right with her left for all of her 85 years. When she went to her citizenship hearing to be sworn in, the judge said "Raise your right hand!" and she raised her left.

[MrsEclipse]

He the dramatically wheeled to face us and demanded "Unhand her! Dan Backslide!!!" No, wait, that's not what he said, he said: "What's the big idea of breakin' into my car and hiding that there?!"

He's got a lotta nerve, considering that HE'S the one who said, "I'll park here. NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!!!!"

Sorry. Is it too late in the thread to make that reference?

[siskaren]

For some reason, I've almost always worn my wristwatch on my right hand as well (not quite sure where the whole "wear your watch on the wrist opposite of one you write with" thing came from).

I wear my watch on my right wrist because I don't want to feel it rubbing against the desk (table, whatever) as I write and also because putting on a watch is a one-handed task and I'm just too strongly left-handed (except for the scissors thing) to do it right-handed (which I would have to do to wear it on my left wrist).

[AdamAnt316]

Fun fact: the word "ambidextrous" technically means "right-handed with both hands."

I'm a righty, but have been trying to increase the dexterity in my left hand to some degree over the years. Since I'm a one-man band who plays keyboards, it generally falls on my left hand to play bass lines and accompaniment as my right hand plays the melody. It can be a bit of a pain sometimes to 'train' the fingers to work a different way from what they're used to, but I've managed.

For some reason, I've almost always worn my wristwatch on my right hand as well (not quite sure where the whole "wear your watch on the wrist opposite of one you write with" thing came from). The crown being on the 'wrong' side can be annoying sometimes, but then again, I generally just take the watch off of my wrist to set it, anyway.

As for cursive, I learned it in third grade waaaaaay back in the '90s. I rarely use it for anything besides my signature, but it's a nice thing to know anyway.
-Adam

[sstabeler]

I write with my right hand, and use the computer right handed, but pretty much anything else I can do equally well with both hands.(as for my handwriting, it's illegible. no, seriously, don't even ask me to read it for you- i can't. My school got me assessed to see if I qualified for a scribe for exams ( basically, you dictate your answers to someone who writes it down for you. For obviosu reasons, you don't sit in the exam hall with everybody else) I got a reply back saying I was approved for both extra time and a scribe in about the length of time the post takes to arrive.)

[Jester]

I am right-handed. Always have been. No ones has ever attempted to correct this. My entire family is right-handed. Heck, I don't even know of any distant cousins of mine who are lefties, though of course that is a possibility. Everything I do, I do right-handed.

And yet, for some inexplicable reason, I shoot pool lefty. And it's not a situation of I can shoot lefty as well as righty. I can only shoot pool lefty. Trying to shoot righty is as awkward and unnatural to me as attempting to throw a ball or swing a bat lefty. And this is the only thing in my life that I am, for some reason, naturally lefty.

Yeah, I don't understand it either.

[mathnerd]

Wow small world. I too started life left handed. Teacher thought all lefties and red haired children were spawns of Satan..just glad I didn't have red hair. Now my signature looks like a chicken having a seizure after dipping its legs in ink signed it.

You know that Catholic school I linked to earlier in the thread?

Count me in as a forced righty. I still do a lot of stuff left handed, though I'm mostly right handed, even with horrible handwriting and fine motor skills. And while I never outright heard from a teacher that redheads were evil, I wouldn't be surprised to hear if one or more of the nuns that were teaching while I was there held that view.

[notalwaysright]

There are a couple left handed people at my work, and they use right handed scissors. Lefty scissors existed, of course, they just weren't readily available in schools, or parents didn't know/bother to buy them. Seems like it's hit or miss. One is in her 30s, the other 50s.

[siskaren]

When was this? I was in elementary school back in the early '70s, and a number of my classmates were left-handed. Lefty scissors were a VERY common item.

I started kindergarten in '68. According to my mom, my second grade teacher surprised me with a pair of lefty scissors, but by that time I was used to cutting righty.

[wolfie]

According to my mom, my kindergarten teacher was left-handed, however, there was apparently no such thing as lefty scissors at that time,

When was this? I was in elementary school back in the early '70s, and a number of my classmates were left-handed. Lefty scissors were a VERY common item.