Left-handed quotes

Here are a few quotes to do with left handedness. The first and last ones are my faves:

“The right half of the brain controls the left half of the body. This means that only left handed people are in their right mind.”
Anonymous

“Damned infernal gizmo. My kingdom for a left-handed can opener.”
Mr Burns, The Simpsons

“To be hated cordially, is only a left-handed compliment.”
Herman Melville

Reason is our soul’s left hand, Faith her right.”
John Donne

“The law of the road is a paradox quite
As you’re driving your carriage along;
If you go on the left, you are sure to be right,
If you go to the right you are wrong,”
Anonymous English rhyme, 19^th century

“Let not the right side of your brain know what the left side doeth.”
George Bernard Shaw

“Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light.”
Ursula K Le Guin from The Left Hand of Darkness

“And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword. Among all this people there were 700 chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth and not miss.”
Bible: Judges 20 v 15

“The left hand of a dead man dipped in a milk pail causes cream.”
Irish saying

“Left-handers are wired into the artistic half of the brain, which makes them imaginative, creative, surprising, ambiguous, exasperating, stubborn, emotional, witty, obsessive, infuriating, delightful, original, but never, never, dull.”
James T deKay and Sandy Huffaker from The World’s Greatest Left-Handers: Why Left-Handers are Just Plain Better than Everybody Else

Death by right-handed implement

I read something over the weekend that said 2,500 left handers die each year using products designed for right handers.

That led me to thinking: what were these people doing? Stabbing themselves due to out-of-control scissors? Getting into a life-threatening situation with a tin opener? Suffering a coronary from a right-handed computer keyboard?

As a southpaw, I know how much easier everyday tasks are when you use left-handed implements but I find it hard to believe 2,500 people put their lives at risk each year by using products that were designed for right handers.

Left-handed shop opens in Prague

Good news for Czech southpaws: their first left-handed store has opened in Prague. Called 'Obchod pro levoruké' (ie: the left-hander’s shop), it's in the former industrial region of Karlín.

The left-handed shop we used to have in London is now an old-fashioned sweet shop. Luckily, you can buy all the stuff the shop used to sell here.

Left-handed illustrators

I'm part way through an evening class on how to illustrate children's books. In last night's class I noticed that, out of 10 students, three of us were left handed. Far higher than the national average of 12% but not surprising considering it's an art course and so calls on the creative, right-hand side of the brain.

What was interesting, however, was that one member of the class - who is right handed - decided part way through the lesson that she could draw better with her left hand. So there are now four of us who are southpaws.

This prompted our teacher (right handed) to say how, at art college, the right handers were encouraged to draw with their left hands and the lefties encouraged to practise with their right hands. The theory being that the hand unused to holding a pencil would be more sensitive.

I gave it a go but, erm, it'll be a while before I turn into the next Landseer. He was the artist who could simultaneously draw a stag with one hand and a horse with the other! Try writing different things simultaneously with both hands - nigh on impossible - let alone draw!

Do left handers get more migraines?

I read an article the other day about a study that claimed left handers ran several times the risk of suffering from migraines as their right-handed counterparts. This was because they found there was a higher frequency of left-handedness in patients who suffered from migraines than in their control groups.

Interesting finding, but why should that be?

I then read that another study, done by scientists in Germany, found there was no evidence at all to suggest we southpaws are more prone to migraines.

So how are we supposed to know what to believe when we read such articles? My anecdotal evidence is that the people I know who suffer from migraines are all right handed.

Left-handed Stone Age men

I read something interesting the other day: there is evidence that lefthandedness was fairly common in the Stone Age. University researchers looked at 507 hand prints in 26 caves in France and Spain that were painted between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago.

They found that 23% were prints of right hands, indicating that they were made by left handers - as they would have painted the cave wall using their left hand and done the print with their non painting hand. Today, only about 12% of us are lefties.

But, then I've also read that tools found in Stone Age times were sharpened equally for left and right hand use, suggesting left handedness was far more prevalent than 23%. So who knows what to believe?

What a left hander has to put up with, living in a right-handed world

I'm often asked why we southpaws find it irritating living in a world geared for right handers. So, for those right handed people who have never given it a thought, here are ten examples:

1. London Underground gates: the Oyster swipe pad/ticket hole is on the right and I hold my card in my left hand
2. Milk pans/automatic expresso coffee machine jugs: the lip is on the right so I have to pour it backwards or hold it in my right hand
3. Computer keyboards: the number pad/arrow keys/delete, page up, home, end & page down keys are on the right
4. Front doors: the keyhole in on the right hand side of the door
5. Microwaves: most models have the control panel on the right hand side
6. Lavatories: apart from the new loos with the flush button on the top, the flush handle is generally on the right
7. Cameras: the shutter is on the right so I can't use my left hand to take a photo
8. Cheque books: it's nigh on impossible to write on the stub with a right-handed cheque book unless you write sideways (and therefore vertically)
9. Bread knives: the blade is on the wrong side for us, so slices start off thin and go thick.
10. Door handles: most doors are designed to open with your right hand - and that includes fridge doors

A new online group for left handers

The husband and wife team behind the online store, Anything Left Handed, have just launched a new online community for southpaws, called Left Hand World.

I joined up straight away as I see it as a fun way to meet other left handers around the world. They've also made it easy for everyone to communicate with each other using video and audio postcards, rather than simply with text. How cool is that?

They've even got a blog page facility where left handers who don't yet have their own blog can easily start one.

But all this doesn't mean I've forgotten the discussion forum on my own site! You can drop by whenever you like and add a message or reply to an existing post here.