One for all you bloody lefties out there (it's ok, not political!) 🐌

15 pages, two bans, three flounces.

It's always good to find new trails,as long as you don't need to shell out .

fasthaggis
Full Member
It’s always good to find new trails,as long as you don’t need to shell out .

That's it, get out of my thread!

You should be ashamed. 😁

😆

I learnt recently while climbing bristly ridge, that sinister is latin for left and dexter is latin for right.

and sinister gully wasn't as bad as it sounded.

I learned recently that laterailsation (left/right preference) is also a thing that occurs in chimpanzees at about the same rate as it does in humans, which is both pretty profound and pointless all at the same time. 

and sinister gully wasn’t as bad as it sounded.

Yes, but left-handers ARE evil, that's how the word got its meaning.

Yes, but left-handers ARE evil, that’s how the word got its meaning.

An Irish friend of mine (in his early 40s) is left handed but writes with his right hand.  When I asked why, apparently it was common in Ireland for the teachers to force you to be right handed because being left handed was a curse from the Devil.

I've heard stories like this from even relatively secular bits of the UK.

I learnt recently while climbing bristly ridge, that sinister is latin for left and dexter is latin for right.

One of the Carry On films features a load of Roman soldiers marching along while the sergeant shouts:
Sinister! Sinister! Sinister Dexter Sinister!

I'm in my 50's and persuading kids to write with their right hand was a thing I experienced in primary school. (not me, but a kid in the class), I remember this kid who was turning the paper this way and that to try to write comfortably, he wasn't forced at all, but was encouraged to try writing right handed, I don't remember the outcome though. 

It's because we are in the nothern hemishpere. Snails born aross the equator spiral the other way.

apparently it was common in Ireland for the teachers to force you to be right handed because being left handed was a curse from the Devil.

It wasn't necessarily forced at my school but they wouldn't give me left handed scissors, and while everyone else was writing in fancy Beryl pens I had to keep on using a pencil because of the risk of smudging as I wrote. This was the late 80s and one of my teachers was a priest.

It’s always good to find new trails,as long as you don’t need to shell out .

*groans*

It is not just snails - squirrels are too...
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/left-or-right-handed-squirrels.htm

Ooh look, they're asking the public to vote on his name.

https://nottingham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/namethesnail

Go! 😁

Sinister Sam?

Ooh look, they’re asking the public to vote on his name.

https://nottingham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/namethesnail

Go! 😁

Sinister Sam?

Is left leaning, and normaly found in allotments... gotta be Jezza, sureley?

I'm liking the sound of Sinister Sid

Snaily McTrail.

An Irish friend of mine (in his early 40s) is left handed but writes with his right hand.  When I asked why, apparently it was common in Ireland for the teachers to force you to be right handed because being left handed was a curse from the Devil.

Not sure if it was to avoid Satanic influence but it was definitely a thing when I grew up in Australia in the early 80's.  I write right handed but hold the pen like I'm left handed.

My primary school (mid-80s Catholic school) was far too accommodating to lefties.  We had three pairs of blue handled right handed scissors and three pairs of green handled left handed scissors.

There were only two left handed kids in the class!

It’s because we are in the nothern hemishpere. Snails born aross the equator spiral the other way.

The Gastropodis Effect?

It wasn’t necessarily forced at my school but they wouldn’t give me left handed scissors

I'm fully left-dominant. This particular issue though I think is an outlier.

When I was at school, left-handed scissors didn't exist. Long story short, I realised that RH scissors were useless in the left hand (though didn't understand why in primary school) so forced myself to learn to use them wrong-handed.

Today, I'm glad I did because the prevalence of LH scissors in the real world is still vanishingly rare. It would have caused more ongoing problems than solved by giving me access to LH scissors at an early age.

My dad (who's in his 80s) has said he might have been left handed but it just wasn't something conceived of during his schooling (in Yorkshire). Pupils were taught to write with their pens/pencils in their right hands. Not so much coercion as there being no conception there was an alternative.

Both my brother and I are left handed so it does seem fairly likely that my dad would have been too if given the opportunity.

I write right handed but hold the pen like I’m left handed.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. It's a bit "throw like a girl."

Writing left-handed in the Western world presents a number of issues. As we write left-to-right the hand follows the pen so "smudging" is a common complaint. But really, we haven't written with wet ink since before I was at school. At high school cartridge pens were a thing, but they were a trendy fad rather than mandated / provided by the school. I'm filing this under non-issue.

Smudging was more of a problem with pencils. We learned with pencils before graduating to pens. This made no sense to me as pens were easier; I assume with hindsight that it was a legacy, we upgraded from inkwells but took longer to change policy. Pencils do smudge, and the "like I'm left-handed" could be one of various techniques adapted by lefties to combat this (and wet ink). A sort of 'claw' grip where you hook your wrist is one, so the 'heel' of your hand is above your writing. Others turn the paper at a dramatic angle. One kid held it in a fist like he was about to stab someone. I simply hold a pen "normally" and I suspect that the majority of lefties do likewise.

That presents a new issue though. Throughout my school life I was berated by teachers for having poor handwriting, in particular "pressing on too hard." I realised decades later why this was/is. Right-handers drag the pen across the page, it flows. Left-handers push it, it drives into the paper and stitters about. Imagine getting a stick, holding it at one end and going for a walk with the other end dragging along the floor behind you; now the same only pushing it along in front of you.

Mostly today I've fixed all of these issues with a combination of "bugger it, I can (usually) read it" and a keyboard.

I had to take a WO to the medic because he tried to fire an SA80 on his left shoulder "to see what happened". He dribbled blood for a good few hours.

And having just seen this,

(image source)

I was Today Years Old when I realised that I do use an adapted grip. I'll take photos to demonstrate if anyone cares sufficiently.

I had to take a WO to the medic because he tried to fire an SA80 on his left shoulder “to see what happened”. He dribbled blood for a good few hours.

I don't know what half of that means, but I'm assuming side-eject cartridge?

Not only that but the cocking handle will likely have make a mess of that WO's left cheek.

At high school cartridge pens were a thing, but they were a trendy fad rather than mandated / provided by the school. I’m filing this under non-issue.

I agree, wasn't a big issue but in my school in RE we *had* to use ink cartridge pens. This is in the 1980s, I remember constantly getting berated for the mess I left on the page as I am left handed so there were smudges everywhere. The only way around that was to hover my hand over the page or write excessively slowly... Then I would get into trouble for working too slow. Lol

I'm pretty sure I've heard of RE teachers in other schools at the time also having this rather odd affection for fountain pens.

Man, the mess they used to make when they leaked too. I ruined a fair few shirts and stuff over leaking fountain pens/cartridges. 😁

I don’t know what half of that means, but I’m assuming side-eject cartridge?

I'm guessing yes, a hot bullet casing launched into your cheek from point blank range at high velocity will sting a bit!

I learned recently that laterailsation (left/right preference) is also a thing that occurs in chimpanzees at about the same rate as it does in humans,

Think the same is true for lobsters. 

My old man is left handed, but plays golf (quite well) with right handed clubs because that was all he had to learn with. 

My old man is left handed, but plays golf (quite well) with right handed clubs because that was all he had to learn with.

Same here with archery. And exactly why I could never learn golf, I just couldn't do it.

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of RE teachers in other schools at the time also having this rather odd affection for fountain pens.

Yup. Same at my school. Obviously answer is the Leonardo da Vinci method, but I suspect that would have been frowned on.

I've never heard of that.

Our high school issue pens were these shitty blue plastic torpedo-shaped things which (for a sweaty-handed child) were a swine to keep hold of.

Oh how I laughed on my wedding day when I was given a fountain pen to autograph the wedding registry. I can't remember if I used my right hand to get it over with or managed it in my left without ripping a hole in the document. Certainly looked nothing like my signature and I doubt I could ever do it again to match!

I had that when registering my mum's death, I suspect for the same reason. It's special ink which won't fade over time like a biro. At my protests (and because I was shaking like a shitting Jack Russell) I was given some scrap paper to practice on first.

I’m not sure what you mean by that. It’s a bit “throw like a girl.”

Most lefties write with the end of the pen pointing away from them, most righties have the end of the pen pointing towards them.

I write with my right hand but with the end of the pen pointing away. This is apparently a result of those draconian backward Aussies making me swap my dominant hand

Most lefties write with the end of the pen pointing away from them, most righties have the end of the pen pointing towards them.

Well, that's interesting. Because

I was Today Years Old when I realised that I do use an adapted grip.

With reference to the (broken but linked) image above,

The pen is broadly aligned with the finger. With me it's more alongside my thumb, with my finger higher up. So the nib extends above my hand.

How weird.

I had that when registering my mum’s death, I suspect for the same reason. It’s special ink which won’t fade over time like a biro. At my protests (and because I was shaking like a shitting Jack Russell) I was given some scrap paper to practice on first.

Maybe, but I signed some death certificates recently (not my first death in the family but my first time signing for one) and the registrar had a fountain pen.

I said something like.. ooh, a fountain pen.. I've not used one of theses since I was at school!

I'm more of a 'Rotring isograph' pen person myself...but using a fountain pen after so many years... I was... ooh, this is acually a really nice pen to use!

Maybe the ink doesnt fade, but it's all scanned and computerised anyway, it was nice to use one though, I almost thought about buying one.

And then I thought that they are quite high maintenence pens.

I'm a nib facing me left hander, used a fountain pen regularly since I was 9 or 10 - especially for exams as the ink flowed so well. I was encouraged to write right handed at primary school but they gave up on me eventually. My father wasn't so lucky and like King George VI had a debilitating stutter as a result - this was cured by German mortars in Normandy.

There is a good reason for a left hander to be right handed at cricket or golf because it isn't a bad idea to have a strong top hand.

Ambidextrous. In primary they tried to force/encourage me to write with my right. In the end I finished up writing left handed.

Writing left handed is actually very difficult, and you have to twist your hand to be able to see what you are writing. Righties have it easy.

Just as well i can write backwards from right to left 🙂

There is a good reason for a left hander to be right handed at cricket or golf because it isn’t a bad idea to have a strong top hand.

Rounders at school was always a giggle, as a batter all the fielders were in the wrong place. Sometimes someone would notice, yell "left-hander!" and they'd all scatter. It almost made up for me being utterly hopeless.

Cocking handle smacked him in the mouth. Split lip right open and broke at least 1 tooth. Ironically on a range conducting officers course at barry buddon. A cold a desolate place if ever there was one.

In the spirit of every profession being present on STW I did was supervised by Prof Davison during my Masters thesis in evolutionary biology  a year or so before the first media storm around Jeremy the snail. There's a good book by Chris McManus called Right Hand, Left Hand which discusses handedness primarily in humans but also apes and other species too.

My grandad's party trick was to write the alphabet with both hands starting with Z going right to left with his right hand and the opposite starting with A with his left hand going left to right, and meet in the middle, all in finest joined up Edwardian copper-plate. I don't know whether he was actually ambidextrous, or the whether it was muscle memory (more likely) I just remember being impressed as a wee kid. 

There’s a good book by Chris McManus called Right Hand, Left Hand which discusses handedness primarily in humans but also apes and other species too.

He won an Ignoble prize about 20 years ago for a paper on testicular asymmetry in Italian Renaissance statuory. I think the thesis was that as most guy's right hangs lower, but statues' lefts do, sculptors we're working from life. Or I may have that as with so many things the wrong way round. 

(I write with my left, do most other things right handed, and mix up left and right. )

There's a tree snake in Asia that evolved to have more teeth on the right side of its jaw, to better kill and eat snails - asymmetric dentition.

From the way it attacks the snail, the right jaw and right handed snail spiral is a match, right jaw and left handed snail would be a mismatch. As right handed spirals are far more common with the snail, as for the UK example, the toothier jaw has evolved on the right.

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1133

There's videos in the paper that show the snake/snail chirality interface.

Examples of evolution are everywhere I guess, but this is an unusual example where it is clearly driven by macroscopic three dimensional shape.

I'm left handed but play golf and cricket right handed - I can't say it was anything to do with the clubs that were available, it's just what felt right.

I believe the most famous left handed golfer Phil Mickelson is actually right handed.

mrb123

I’m left handed but play golf and cricket right handed – I can’t say it was anything to do with the clubs that were available, it’s just what felt right.

I'm the same, I think. Left-handed for writing, but everything else is just done by whether it feels 'correct' or not.

Most tools; Scissors, nail clippers, pliers, screwdrivers etc. - right hand, even those where the ergonomics of the device mean they are ambidextrous. My daughter is left-handed & uses left-handed scissors - I struggle to use them, but perhaps more to do with 40+ years of using right handed ones?
Racket sports - left handed
Golf - right handed
Football - right footed

Weird, innit? So why is it more natural for me to write with my left-hand and do other precision things with my left-hand, such as painting an Airfix model - but do most other things right handed?!

I can relatively easily right with both hands at the same time forming the mirror image of the same sentence - so left-hand goes from right to left, writing backwards from the centre of an open book, while right hand goes left to right, writing normally from the centre of an open book. Obviously the right hand writing is pretty messy. Not sure if this is something everyone can do, or some weird leftie brain-fart.

Weird, innit? 

I don't think it is necessarily, I think most folks aren't totally right or left dominant, most people can use their left hands for things if they're "right-handed" and vice versa. I think of myself as right-handed, I hold and cut food using a knife in my left hand and wear my watch on my right wrist. I think most folks have the occasional oddity, that they're probably not even really aware of until they think about it. 

I can relatively easily right with both hands at the same time forming the mirror image of the same sentence

Can you do it equally well independently rather than simultaneously?

hold and cut food using a knife in my left hand

I've always held that place settings are arse-backwards. In isolation you'd use a spoon/fork with your right hand, but if you need to use a table knife then you'd switch hands and eat with your left? That's Bizarro World. If I tried to eat using my right hand I'd have my eye out.

I’ve always held that place settings are arse-backwards.

Yes! I'm right-handed but eat with my fork in my right hand and knife in left.

Makes perfect sense to me. Fork does all the twisty complicated stuff, and has to aim into my mouthhole. Knife just goes back and forth cutting, or pushing stuff onto the fork.

My wife thinks I'm weird. I mean, she has a point, but not for this reason 😁

Weird, innit?

Not really, perfectly normal for a left hander, right handed for two handed grip where the top hand (LH) is important, left handed where only using one hand.

South-paw here as well. Although like others I've got used to right handed scissors and can't even use left handed ones. Back in the day when I was a landscape gardener I was always complaining to the boss he got right handed tools - then one day he presented me with some left handed secateurs, which I promptly handed back saying 'I use my right hand for cutting, these are no good'

We're definately weirdos (or I am anyway) 

Yes! I’m right-handed but eat with my fork in my right hand and knife in left.

Think about what you are doing though. The fork is in your control hand. The hand you find best to manipulate say a pen when writing. With cutlery the sawing action isnt control really it's almost an automatic, it's the hand holding the piece of food still.

I'm totally left handed except I can only use a mouse and an iron in my right hand. Go figure!

TheGingerOne
Full Member
I’m totally left handed except I can only use a mouse and an iron in my right hand. Go figure!

Ditto. Do you throw with your right hand like I do?

Snails born aross the equator spiral the other way.

Some of them don’t…

My old man is left handed, but plays golf (quite well) with right handed clubs because that was all he had to learn with.
Same here with archery. And exactly why I could never learn golf, I just couldn’t do it.

I’m right-handed, but I’m left-eye dominant so when my dad took me to the TA rifle range to shoot .22 rifles, I struggled because the action was on the wrong side making it almost impossible to hold it properly and shoot.

Similar to archery, although there I had access to left-handed bows when I started a beginner’s course. Oddly enough, certain components, like sights, can’t be obtained in left-hand versions. I wanted a particular carbon-fibre sight, but the Korean company doesn’t make left-handed versions, because apparently in Korea, or South Korea at any rate, teachers will only teach students to shoot right-handed, so deal with it!
I just bought a similar priced alloy one… 🤷🏼