FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

FOR

THE LEFT-HANDED POPULATION

AND

FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS

There exists in the world a very special group of individuals who are left

handed. This group has had to spend its life conforming to a world that

was not designed for its benefit. In addition, this group has had to put

up with insults and derogatory comments aimed in its direction. The intent

of this document is to provide a source of information for the left-

handed population and to serve as a consciousness raising tool about

issues of special concern for lefties for the population in general. It

is sincerely hoped that it serves its goal.

IV Credits

This FAQ is maintained by Barry D. Benowitz (b.benowitz@telesciences.com)

All corrections, additions (including new questions) and suggestions

are welcome.

===== Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997 by Barry D. Benowitz. Use and

copying of this information are permitted as long as (1) no fees or

compensation are charged for use, copies or access to this

information, and (2) this copyright notice is included intact. ====

=====================================================================

[NOTE: this is information collected from many sources and while I

strive to be accurate and complete, I cannot guarantee that I

have succeeded. ]

=====================================================================

V Frequently Asked Questions

Q01. What does being left-handed mean?

Q02. What does being ambidextrous mean?

Q03. What percentage of the population is left handed?

Q04. Is lefthandedness inherited?

Q05. Are lefthanders naturally clumsy?

Q06. Is there a quick test to determine eye dominance?

Q07. Is there a quick test to determine handedness?

Q08. What makes a cup right or left handed?

Q09. What makes scissors right or left handed?

Q10. What makes a bowling ball left or right-handed?

Q11. What makes bowling shoes left or right-handed?

Q12. Do Lefties have an advantage in Bowling?

Q13. Do Lefties die younger than right-handers?

Q14. Are Lefties brain damaged?

Q15. Do Lefties make better athletes?

Q16. Do Lefties make inferior athletes?

Q17. In baseball, what makes left-handed hitters so successful?

Q18. In baseball, what makes left-handed pitchers so successful?

Q19. In cricket, what makes left-armed Batsmen so successful?

Q20. In cricket, what makes left-handed Bowlers so successful?

Q21. Is there a store catering to left-handers in my area?

Q22. Where can I acquire left-handed guitars?

Q23. Are there any publications for left handers?

Q24. Are there any recommended books for left handers?

Q25. What is brain dominance anyway?

Q26. Why does women's clothing button the opposite way of mens (left vs. right)

?

Q27. Are there any left-hander advocacy organizations?

Q28. Why is left handedness considered something sinister?

Q29. Will you name some left-handed celebrities?

Q30. When is International Left-handers Day?

Q31. I'm rightie, my child's lefty. How can I teach him/her to tie shoe-laces?

Q32. Where can I get a left-handed fountain pen?

Q33. Where can I learn left-handed Calligraphy?

Q34. Why do we wear our wedding bands on the third finger of the left hand?

Q35. Where can I get a lefthanded joystick?

Q36. Where can I get a Left Handed Computer Keyboard.

Q37. Where can I get a left-handed mouse?

Q38. Why are there more Lefthanded Males than Females?

Q39. Do Lefthanders tend to have a specific blood type?

Q40. What percentages of Lefthanders exist in different societies?

Q41. Why do some lefthanders use Mirror script?

Q42. Why do Lefthanders hold the paper differently when writing?

Q43. Why are Lefthanders sometimes called Southpaws?

Q44. Are there any organizations concerning golf and left-handers?

Q45. Which sports banned left-handers?

VI. Questions and answers.

Q01. What does being left-handed mean?

A very good question. For the purposes of this document, being

left-handed means having a preference for using your left hand for

a variety of tasks, including reaching, throwing, pointing,

catching. It also implies a preference for using your left foot

for tasks such as kicking, as well as the preferred foot with

which to begin walking, running and bicycling. However, there are

no hard and fast rules for determining which hand or foot the

Lefthander prefers to use for a particular task. Most will prefer to

use the left hand or foot for delicate work.

One may also have a dominant left eye, preferring to use the left

eye for telescopes, camera sights, and microscopes.

In general, being left-handed means having a dominant right side

of the brain.

M.K. Holder <mholder@indiana.edu> clarifies that this dominance

does not apply in the area of brain hemisphere specialization for

langauge abilities: According to a neurological study published by

Branch, Miller & Rasmussen in 1964 (Journal of Neurosurgery

21:399-405) indicates that perhaps half of all left-handers

have the same left-hemisphere specialization for language

abilities as do right-handers. See:

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/refs1.html for more information.

Q02. What does being ambidextrous mean?

To be ambidextrous means to be equally dextrous with either hand.

That is, the ability to use both hands with equal skill and coor-

dination.

Q03. What percentage of the population is left handed?

There have been many different numbers put forth, with the most

common numbers we have seen being in the area of 13 percent. However,

we have seen numbers as high as 30 percent, when you allow a

very loose definition of left-handedness.

Q04. Is lefthandedness inherited?

While lefthanders undoubtably runs in some families, scientists

are unsure that the issue is completely resolved. Part of the

problem has to do whether a person's hand preference is the result

of genetic determination or some other reason ie forced to switch

because of convention, accident, what ever.

Mark Plonsky tells me that the book "Behavior Genetics" by J. L.

Fuller (1978) contains a 14 page section on laterality and

handedness. It concludes ". . . it is clear that the problem of

lateralization and its etiology is far from being solved. Since

it is probably one of fundamental importance, further work on it

would be very desirable." (p. 288).

There is a very interesting Web site on the issue of handedness

located at:

http://www3.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/htbin-post/Omim/dispmim?139900

Thanks: Mark Plonsky,Ph.D. < mplonsky@worf.uwsp.edu>

Q05. Are lefthanders naturally clumsy?

An emphatic NO to this. The problem most lefthanders have is that

the world is configured for right handed people. Lefties, in the

act of accommodating to this opposite world, may appear awkward

using tools that have right hand preference designed into them.

However, right-handers display even more awkwardness using left

handed tools than lefthanders do using right handed tools. This

is probably because righthanders are less used to adapting.

Q06. Is there a quick test to determine eye dominance?

Try the following to determine eye dominance. With both eyes

open, line up the tip of your finger, at arm's length, with a

distant object. Close each eye separately. The eye that results

in the object and you finger remaining aligned is your dominant eye.

Q07. Is there a quick test to determine handedness?

No, there is not. In fact, the only sure way to determine brain

dominance is to anesthetize one half of the brain and then see

what functions are still handled by the still functioning hemisphere.

There have been interesting results obtained, such as people able

to respond to visual cues but not verbal cues. I don't know about

you, dear reader, but I am not willing to submit to this test just

to definitively answer the question.

However, you can try this: Sitting comfortably, fold your hands

together and notice which thumb is on top. Lefties will have the

right thumb on top.

Readers should note that this test is not completely accurate. We

have heard about a significant number of lefties on alt.lefthanders

who fail this test. Readers should also note that hand preference

is usually not evident until children are age 4-6. Some children have

been known to exhibit a preference as early as age 2.

Q08. What makes a cup right or left handed?

First, you must realize that (drinking) cups come in two varieties:

symmetric and not symmetric. Cups that are not symmetric may have

a lip to ease pouring the contents. If this kind of cup is right

handed, the lip will be on the side of the cup which is away from

the body, which allows for a easy neat motion. If this cup is

picked up with the left hand, the lip is toward the body, which

makes it awkward and messy to pour.

For symmetric cups, the problem is that when the decoration is only

on one side. When the right handed individual picks up a right

handed cup, he is able to see and enjoy the decoration. A leftie

using that cup presents the decoration to the world; he is unable

to see it.

Lefties would benefit with symmetric cups with designs on both sides;

cups with lips would have to be made in both right and left handed

varieties.

Q09. What makes scissors right or left handed?

You can see the difference easily, by placing the scissors on

the table like this:

\ /

\/

/\

O O

For right-hand scissors, the part of the scissors lying `on top' at

the intersection of the two parts, will be the one from top-left

to bottom-right, whereas for left-hand scissors, the uppermost will

be the part from bottom-left to top-right. Turning the scissors around

or up-side down won't change this relationship.

Secondly the reason for this difference lies in the way the

scissors are opened and closed by your left or right hand. When you

close the scissors, the cutting edges close and the cutting edges

are pressed together because your fingers holding the scissors bend

and your thumb stretches. If the cutting edges are pushed away from

each other, the material being cut slides in between, and is definitely

not cut. This is what happens when you use a right-hand scissors

with your left hand.

Since your left hand is a mirrored version of your right hand,

your scissors should be `mirrored' as well. This is why the cutting

edges are made on the opposite side of each part, and the parts

are assembled just the opposite way, giving you perfect left-handed

scissors.

Thanks to: Jurgen van Engelen <jurgene@eeb.ele.tue.nl>

Q10. What makes a bowling ball left or right-handed?

Left-handed bowling balls are different in two respects.

The first, and most obvious, is the placing of the finger holes

in relation to the thumb hole. What follows is the first (and

last) square bowling ball you'll ever see <G>:

0 0

0 0

+ +

0 0

The view is from the top and the spacing is highly exaggerated.

Mark Hideo Fujimoto <fuj@uclink.berkeley.edu> points out that

while this configuration is true for a vast majority of people,

one cannot say it is true in the general case.

The ring finger is held behind the middle finger, as it is then

the last thing to leave the ball - imparting spin. Using a right-

-handed ball, the middle finger, or the thumb, would be last.

Neither of these digits will impart any spin at all to the ball.

Spin is important to make the ball curve, or hook, into the pins

and the rotation of the ball stabilizes it as it drives through.

The second consideration, which I cannot draw (do I hear cheers?)

is the location of the center weight with relationship to the spot

where the holes are drilled. The ball is drilled so that the weight

is slightly ahead of the thumb hole and to one side - left, for

left-handers. This balancing weight provides extra momentum and

spin to the ball.

Mark Hideo Fujimoto <fuj@uclink.berkeley.edu> disagrees:

I have to disagree here, too. The "center weight", or more correctly,

the center of gravity of the weight block, is usually placed to the

*left* of the (+) in my diagram for a left-handed ball. This is known

as "positive weight", which combined with lift and spin imparted by the

bowler, gives the ball a more pronounced hook than a ball without this

type of weighting. Once again, this isn't the only way to drill

a bowling ball, but it is one that tends to be conducive to getting the

ball reaction that produces more strikes.There will be times when other

types of weighting will prove to be more beneficial than "positive"

weights.

Throwing the ball fairly normally for a beginner, one should

ideally see some clockwise rotation as the ball tends to drift

toward the center (a strike!). Throwing a right-handed ball with

your left hand places the weighting on the left side - meaning the

ball will go straight, or even back up (a reverse curve). This

kind of delivery makes it almost impossible to get the ball to the

center with force and momentum, unless you are a 300-pound gorilla.

Mark Hideo Fujimoto <fuj@uclink.berkeley.edu> clarifies:

you don't have to be a "300# gorilla" in order to overcome the effects

of various ball weightings. If a left-hander imparts a clockwise ro-

tation to the ball, regardless of whether it's a right-handed or left-

handed ball, the ball will hook from left to right. The weights may

alter the way the ball hooks (i.e., earlier, later, stronger, weaker.),

but not the direction in which it hooks. Many bowlers use "negative

weight" (placing the weight block's CG closer to where the ball rolls)

in order to reduce the amount of hook on lanes that promote hook (i.e.

"dry" lanes, lanes with little oil on them).

Most bowling establishments have a couple of left-handed balls

for use. These are usually in poor shape, but a lot better than

trying a right-handed ball, for the reasons stated above.

The good news is - a left-handed ball, drilled by a professional,

costs EXACTLY the same as the right-handed one. And, to spur your

confidence, don't forget that the first man to earn a million dollars

in bowling, Earl Anthony, is left-handed.

Thanks to: Bob Snyder <snyderr@buffnet.net>

Mark Hideo Fujimoto <fuj@uclink.berkeley.edu>

Q11. What makes bowling shoes left or right-handed?

Bowling shoes are "handed" by the type of sole that is on the sliding

shoe. Since (most) left-handed bowlers slide with their right foot, the

right shoe is soled with some type of leather or buckskin to aid in

sliding. The left shoe will usually be rubber-soled with a leather or

a textured rubber toe piece. This toe piece is added for extra traction

when "pushing off" on the next-to-last step. Right-handed shoes are

basically mirror images of the left-handed shoes. Most bowling shoes

come in this configuration; however, some manufacturers produce their

low-end bowling shoes in ambidextrous versions -- both shoes have some

type of sliding sole, so they can be used by either left or

right-handers. House shoes are typically this way.

Thanks to: Mark Hideo Fujimoto <fuj@uclink.berkeley.edu>

Q12. Do Lefties have an advantage in Bowling?

While there is no consensus that such an advantage exists,

here's the debate in a BIG nutshell:

The surface of a bowling lane is oiled for various reasons, one

of which is to provide a "condition" on which to bowl. Second

only to a bowler's skill level, the manner in which lanes are

oiled (called the "lane condition" or "oil pattern" or "shot")

greatly determines what type of bowler and his corresponding

style most often will prevail.

Most of the time, the "shot" will be symmetric with respect to

the middle of the lane lengthwise, i.e., the oil pattern from

the 20th (middle) board out to each respective gutter will be

similar in a mirror-image fashion. Thus it appears that being

left-handed is of no advantage over being right-handed, and vice

versa. However, there are two things that create an eventual

disparity -- one, there are more right-handed bowlers (RHB) than

left-handed bowlers (LHB) in most situations. Two, the lane oil

isn't static. It migrates as bowling balls roll through it and

gets deposited in new places on the lane before eventually get-

ting carried off the lane. These two factors are the basis for

argument between RHB's and LHB's.

RHB's argue that LHB's have an unfair advantage because:

*Bowling is a sport of repetition and consistency, and when the

playing conditions remain stable, it is easier to maintain the

muscle memory in order to repeat motions. Since there are fewer

LHB's in general, the condition for them doesn't change as much

or as dramatically as it does for the RHB. Thus a RHB must con-

stantly adjust to the changing conditions, thereby destroying

any consistency he has tried to develop in earlier frames or

games.

LHB's counter with:

*WHEN (more correctly is IF) the "shot" is tough (an oil pattern

that tend to make it difficult to get the ball to the pocket),

LHB's get stuck with dealing with it for the duration of bowling;

whereas RHB's on a tough shot have the greater numbers in which

a shot can be "broken down" into something more scoreable.

Ultimately, it comes down to a matter of respect. Many RHB's don't

respect LHB's because they feel that the accomplishments of a LHB

are tainted because of the unfair advantage of easier, more consis-

tent bowling conditions than what RHB's (often) get. IMHO, it's a

valid point, although I don't feel that this is the case 100% of

the time.

OTOH, LHB's can't argue the flip side because there is no equivalent.

LHB's generally resort to defending themselves by asking things like

"why do RHB's assume that when a LHB bowls well, it's because they

have an easier "shot", and not because the LHB is talented or made good

shots?", or "I can't help it that I'm left-handed, I don't oil the

lanes". As you can probably figure out, this is a sore subject with

many LHB's, as RHB's outnumber them and dare I say most RHB's have

some sort of animosity or envy towards LHB's and their conditions.

Thanks to: Mark Hideo Fujimoto <fuj@uclink.berkeley.edu>

Q13. Do Lefties die younger than right-handers?

Stanley Coren, who is the author of "The Lefthander Syndrome" found

statistical evidence of this, and didn't believe it for the longest

time. However, he remains unable to disprove it. He was able to

demonstrate a possible reason for this might be that a left hand

startle reflex would be much more dangerous when driving a car

on US or Canadian road since the car would end up pointing

against traffic while a right hand startle reflex would simply

cause the car to drive of the road.

As a double check, Coren did find a statistical difference in

left handed traffic fatalities in countries where they drive on

the left, such as Great Britain or Australia.

Q14. Are Lefties brain damaged?

Q15. Do Lefties make better athletes?

Q16. Do Lefties make inferior athletes?

Q17. In baseball, what makes left-handed hitters so successful?

This may not be a true statement, but here is a possible ex-

planation:

A left-handed hitter faces the home plate from a different side.

For a pitcher who is not yet used to pitching to lefties, His

standard arsenal of pitches do not have the same affect. A normal

outside fast-ball to a right-hander becomes an inside fast-ball

to a leftie and the same is true for an inside fast-ball. Also,

a curve ball curves out for a rightie would curve in for a lefty.

The resulting confusion is what makes left-handers better at

hitting.

Edward Brekelbaum (eb3z@andrew.cmu.edu) adds:

Also, batters in the right side of the plate (lefties), are about

one step closer to first base (a righty must step over the plate to be

where a lefty started). This may not seem like a huge advantage, but

how many times has a runner been out "By one step".

John Mianowski <jmianows@ix.netcom.com> points out that

LH hitters are generally more successful against RH

pitchers. As noted, a RH pitcher's breaking balls (i.e. curves,

sliders, cutters) will break in toward the hitter. It's

always easier to hit a ball that's breaking in on you than

breaking away. LH hitters are therefore perceived as being more

successful than RH hitters because the great majority of

pitchers are right-handed.

Q18. In baseball, what makes left-handed pitchers so successful?

There are three factors here. First, left-handed pitchers

stand on the mound facing first base, making it much easier to

spot base-stealing attempts, and to throw out the runner. Secondly,

the throwing arm of a lefty pitcher is more hidden from view of a

righty batter, making it difficult for the batter to gauge the pitch

as it's being thrown. Finally, lefties naturally tend to throw the

ball towards the left side of the plate (from the batter's

perspective), placing the pitch inside for a righty batter (which is

more difficult to hit).

Ironically, the perceived success of LH pitchers is primarily

due to their inherent advantages over the LH hitters that the

other teams put in their lineups to hit off the RH pitchers!

Often, managers will bring in a pitcher to face just one

hitter (LH-on-LH or RH-on-RH matchup), because of which

hitters are coming up soon, or even to try to force the

opposing manager to pinch hit to get HIS favorable matchup (the

hitting team gets to make the last change), but taking a good

hitter out of the game to do it.

Thanks to: George Feil <george@schwing.hip.berkeley.edu>

John Mianowski <jmianows@ix.netcom.com>

Q19. In cricket, what makes left-armed Batsmen so successful?

Left-armed Batsmen enjoy the same advantages as left-handed

hitters do in baseball. See the answer regarding baseball

hitters above. Note that many left-armed batsmen prefer

to hit from the left side, for an unknown reason.

Roy Lakin <cgerbil@vossnet.co.uk> provides some additional

information:

The rough patch formed by the right-arm pace bowlers is

further away from the off side of a right-hand batsman than a

left-hander; a (right-arm) bowler bowling over the wicket is

closer to the stumps than one bowling round the wicket, and will

therefore tend to run on to the pitch in the follow-through.

Thanks to: Roy Lakin <cgerbil@vossnet.co.uk>

Q20. In cricket, what makes left-handed Bowlers so successful?

The success of the bowlers and batters is obvious and closely

related to the similar success of the baseball players. When bowling

against a left-handed batsman, especially if there is a right-handed

batsman at the other end of the cricket pitch, it places the fielding

side at a disadvantage when ever runs are made. The whole fielding

side has to swap around to accommodate the left-hander. Similarly the

left handed bowler, especially a spin bowler can cause havoc against

the right-handed batsman because the ball will break opposite to a

right-handed spinner. Also the left-handed spinner can pitch the ball

into the rough patches on the pitch formed by the right handed pace

bowlers on the opposite side of the wicket. This ensures an uneven or

unpredictable bounce or movement of the ball.

Roy Lakin <cgerbil@vossnet.co.uk> adds that Bowlers generally

bowl to a batsman's off side in order to provoke a catch in

the slips, so the left-hander will suffer from pitches in the

rough more than would a right-hander, who would ofter leave

wides or near-wides alone.

Thanks: David Wiles <hamfast@palantir.klinies.sun.ac.za>

Roy Lakin <cgerbil@vossnet.co.uk>

Q21. Is there a store catering to left-handers in my area?

We have heard of the following places, but since we have not been

able to try them, the following list does not constitute a recom-

mendation. They are listed in no particular order:

The Left Hand Supply Company

P.O. BOX 20188

OAKLAND, CA 94620

510-658-LEFT

Comfort Etc.

1200 Mckinney #417

Houston,Tx.77010

PH.713-473-5433(To send fax dial *33)

Dr. Brad R. Lustick(retired)

comfort@sam.neosoft.com

http://www.icw.com/comfort/catalog.html

Anything Left Handed Ltd.

57 Brewer Street

London

W1R 3FB.

Tel: 0171 437 3910.

ZURDOlandia

Cl Bolonia, 10 (Esq. Cte. Sta. Pau)

50008 - Zaragoza

Spain

Tel : 976 22 63 80

Fax : 976 22 63 80

E-mail : zurdolan@encomix.es

Contact : Jesus Capapey, Ana Lombo

De Dreta a Esquerra

Copernico 85 (Tienda 2)

08006 Barcelona

Spain

Tel: +34-3-201.93.92

Q22. Where can I acquire left-handed guitars?

We have heard of the following places, but since we have not been

able to try them, the following list does not constitute a recom-

mendation. They are listed in no particular order:

Route 66 Guitars

3579 E. Foothill Blvd., #321

Pasadena, California 91107

USA

tel: (213) GUI TARS

Vintage, Used & New Left and Right Handed Instruments

Vintage Amps & Accessories

Lists available via US Mail, FAX & eMail

(Route66@southpaw.com)

(http://www.southpaw.com/route66/)

Q23. Are there any publications for left handers?

There is one. It is published by six times a year by Lefthanders

International and is called Lefthander Magazine. It is written in

English so that the words appear left to right, but the columns

are presented right to left and the pages are numbered right to left.

Its a little disconcerting at first, but Lefties will soon get used

to it.

It contains articles about lefties of note, plus many helpful hints

for leftie adaption problems. It contains advertising for some

catalog items plus other products of interest to lefthanders.

It is available only to members of Lefthanders International, but

there is no additional charge to receive the magazine.

Q24. Are there any recommended books for left handers?

Unicorns Are Real

The Lefthander Syndrome, by Stanley Coren PhD

The Natural Superiority of the Left-Hander, by James T. deKay

The Left-Handed Book, by James T. deKay

Left-Handed in a Right-Handed World, by Jeff Goldsmith

The Left Handers Guide to Life, by Leigh Rutledge and Richard Donley

ISBN: 0-452-26845-1

Germar Saule tells us of the following German language books, he is

not aware of any translations into other languages:

Linkshaendig? Ein Ratgeber (Lefthanded? An adviser)

HRSG: Rolf W. Meyer, Fachliche Beratung,

Dr. Johanna Barbara Sattler,ONRS;

1991;Humboldt-Taschenbuchverlag Jacobi KG, Muenchen;

ISBN 3-581-66669-3;

Das linkshaendige Kind in der Grundschule

(The lefthanded child in the primary school)

HRSG: Dr.Johanna Barbara Sattler/ Staatsinstitut fuer Schulpaedagogik

und Bildungsforschung, Muenchen;

1993; L. Auer-Verlag; Donauwoerth;

ISBN: 3-403-02532-2; 4.Aufl. 1994;

Der umgeschulte Linkshaender oder Der Knoten im Gehirn

(The "translearned"(learned from left to right) lefthander

or The knot in the brain)

HRSG: Dr. Johanna Barbara Sattler

1995; L. Auer-Verlag; Donauwoerth;

ISBN:3-403-02645-0;

Linkshaender sind bessere Menschen

(lefthanders are better humans)

HRSG: Nora Babel;

1992; Eichborn Verlag; Frankfurt am Main;

ISBN 3-8218-2283-X;

Das Linkshaenderbuch

(The lefthander-book)

HRSG: Diane Paul

1990; Bloomsbury, London;

Uebersetzung: 1994 Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf.,

Muenchen;

ISBN 3-426-84037-5;

Alles mit der linken Hand (Geschick und Geschichte einer Begabung)

All with the left hand (skill and history of a talent)

HRSG: Rik Smits

1994; Rowohlt

ISBN 3-87134-096-0

Selim oder Die Gabe der Rede

(Selim or The gift of the speech)

HRSG: Sten Nadolny

1990, R. Piper GmbH&Co.KG, Muenchen;

ISBN: 3-492-02978-7;

Thanks: <Germar Saule> saule@hrz.uni-kassel.de

Q25. What is brain dominance anyway?

The term "brain dominance" was historically used by neurologists to

describe which side of the brain (which cerebral hemisphere)

played the greatest role in human speech & language. Neurologists

currently prefer the term hemispheric "specialization" to describe

how one side of the brain's neural function is specialized for a

particular function, usually language ability. But even language

tasks occur in both hemispheres, so this description is

simplistic.

Thanks: <M.K.Holder> mholder@indiana.edu

See: "What does Handedness have to do with Brain Lateralization?"

at: http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/brain.html

Q26. Why does women's clothing button the opposite way of mens (left vs. right)

?

This goes back to the Victorian age. It seems that a proper gentleman

would dress himself while a proper lady would require the services

of a dresser. In order for the motion of securing a button to be the

same, and to account for the fact that the clothing of a man would

be fastened from behind while the clothing of a woman would be

fastened while facing the clothing, the buttons on men's clothing

would have to be opposite of women's.

Q27. Are there any left-hander advocacy organizations?

The one we have heard about (and of which we are a member) is

Lefthanders International. They are located in Topeka, Kansas

and can be reached at the following address:

Lefthanders, International

P.O Box 8249

Topeka, Kansas 66608

USA

The local telephone number is: 1-913-234-2177.

Annual dues run about US$15.

There is an organization available in Germany. They can be reached

at the following address:

ONRS e.V.

Sendlinger Str 18

80331 Munich

Germany

Q28. Why is left handedness considered something sinister?

First, let me say that the Latin word for left is sinister. The

connection between the the English word and the Latin word are

obvious, but this reasoning breaks down when other languages are

examined. Raymond <vges@smtp.belspo.be> tells the following

story: Roman priests/fortune-tellers used to point a square wooden

frame towards the sky and thus watch birds fly by. If the birds came

from the left (sinister),it meant trouble (sinister).If they came from

the right (latin dexter if I remember well),everything was OK.

Raymond <vges@smtp.belspo.be> also tells me that the French word

"sinistre" means sinister with the obvious Latin root. Also, someone

who is considered not skillful is called "gauche" (left) in French.

Rob Jordan <rjordan@u.washington.edu> offers this explanation. It

also has to do with shaking hands. It seems that one explanation

for the origin of shaking hands (according to a Latin teacher at the

high school I went to) is that people would shake hands on meeting

to show that they didn't have a dagger (or similar weapon) in their

(right) hand so they couldn't stab you right off as they met you.

However if you were left handed, you could shake someone's hand

(with your right hand) and still be able to effectively use your

left hand to stab someone. Therefore left-handed people were considered

potentially more dangerous and "sinister".

Erica <erica@netvision.net.il> tells me that in Hebrew, "Yemin" is

right and "Smoll" is left. A right-handed person is

referred to as "yemani," which means "right-handed;" a left-handed

person, on the other hand (no pun intended. Well, ok, maybe it

intentional), is referred to as "Eetair yad Yemino" or "Eetair" for

short, which means, in essence, a person who is not right-handed.

(Connotation: a shortcoming).

Balthasar <bi@inside.net> tells me that in german you call

someone 'linkisch' (meaning 'leftish') if he/she is either weird,

strange or even mean in an antisocial sense.

Wei-Hwa Huang <whuang@cco.caltech.edu> responds that a bit of

research on Chinese etymology has turned up some interesting

facts. The Chinese word for "left," when traced back to

ancient pictograms, is a drawing of a hand with a drawing that

means "work." The idea apparently was that the left hand did

work by helping the right hand. Bruce Balden

<balden@homegate.net> points out that the symbol "gong1" means

work because it looks like a carpenter's set square, which

would be held in the left hand (of a right handed person) while

the other hand draws or saws.

Wei-Hwa resumes: On the other hand (pun intended), the character for

"right" was a picture of a hand next to a mouth, indicating that the

ancient Chinese probably used the right hand to eat.

Now an interesting fact emerges. Although there are many more words

derived from a hand on the right side than there are words on the left

(i.e., whenever a new word was formed and it needed a hand, it was

invariably on the right side), at some point all the "right-handed"

words were flipped to their mirror image! This happened sometime in

the last 2000 years, and now all words that are "hand"-derived have

the hand on the left side. (For etymology buffs, these characters are

not to be confused with the ones with the actual "hand" radical, which

went a different route.) It is an interesting fact to note that since

Chinese writing proceeds top to bottom, then right to left, that

left-handed writing may actually be easier. (Virtually all Chinese

writers are taught to write with the right hand only, though...

traditional Chinese calligraphy is done without the hand touching the

paper.)

Paul Batey <pbatey@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au> tells us that an ancient

Romany Gypsy word for left is bongo, which means evil.

Feico Nater <effect@worldaccess.nl> provide these insights:

In Dutch, Recht means right, straight, privilege (as in human rights),

Link means left, stupid, awkward, but also keen, skilled. Een linke

jongen means a skilled criminal, a bad criminal, or a keen man.

Edward A. Spaans <spaans@orion-sys.com> offers the following idiom:

De linker, de flinker

De rechter, de slechter

In Dutch, the 'er' as in linker, flinker, rechter, slechter' is the

superlative. The meaning of 'slecht' is bad, criminal. The words

'link' and 'recht' are assigned a quantitative content here, which

makes strict translation a bit difficult. The idiom could be roughly

translated as:

The more (to the, or possessing of) left, the better,

The more (to the, or possessing of) right, the worse

Please respond to the FAQ maintainer a similar analysis

of the same words in your favorite language (pro or con) for

inclusion in this section.

Second, we are able to trace this link back to the Middle Ages and

the Renaissance. In the great religious art of the period, it was

common for the "good" guys to be portrayed as being right-handed while

satanic characters to be portrayed left-handed as sort of an

antithesis to the good. It is interesting to note that Leonardo

Da Vinci painted "good" images like Jesus and Mary to appear left

handed, but Da Vinci is a fabled Lefthander.

There are examples of people appearing to

be left-handed in earlier art, but these are not considered to be

symbolic of anything. Later on, handedness was considered an important

test to determine if a person was a witch or warlock theoretically

because of the link to Satanism.

You would think that in the twentieth century, this sort of thinking

would be non-existent, but even today some people have a hard time

with left-handers.

Q29. Will you name some left-handed celebrities?

A list of more than 500 well-known left-handed people from

around the world is maintained by Mauri Haikola

<mjh@stekt.oulu.fi> and it can be found at

http://stekt.oulu.fi/~mjh/lefties.html

Some familiar names from the list are Bill Clinton, George Bush,

Ronald Reagan, Pablo Picasso, Fred Astaire, Charles Chaplin,

Greta Garbo, and Marilyn Monroe . Check it out.

In addition, MK Holder <mholder@indiana.edu> maintains a similar

list called FAMOUS LEFT-HANDERS at

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/left.html

This one is translated into French an Spanish as well.

Q30. When is International Left-handers Day?

According to Left-handers International, August 13th has been

designated as International Left-handers Day.

Q31. I'm rightie, my child's lefty. How can I teach him/her to tie shoe-laces?

Try this. In order to have the child see the hand movements in the

proper direction, sit opposite the child rather than next to him or

behind him. This will probably work for tying a necktie as well. I

am also told that it applies to teaching knitting as well.

Q32. Where can I get a left-handed fountain pen?

Parker still offers this service by mail order. You can opt for

needle point which is so sharp that it has no bias.

Platinum Fountain Pen sets are available for left-handed people. Sets

include nibs, barrel, cartridges and converter. John Neal, Bookseller

(a mail order company specializing in calligraphy books and supplies)

stocks these sets. They also provide left-handed grinding which

converts right-handed nibs into ones suitable for left-handed use

and can special order other left-handed materials.

In addition to the fountain pens they carry left-handed nibs(dip pens).

John Neal, Bookseller can be reached at: QSQK50A@prodigy.com or

JNealBooks@AOL.com. Toll-free at 1-800-369-9598.

Note: Appearance here does not constitute a recommendation.

Thanks: Gerald McMullon <gerald.mcmullon@ukonline.co.uk>

Q33. Where can I learn left-handed Calligraphy?

We have heard of the following books:

"Insights into Left-Handed Calligraphy" by Betsy Rivers-Kennedy 1984.

"Pen Lettering" by Ann Camp

the Speedball manual that comes with their pens

AND "Left Handed Calligraphy"...

Bella <ivcf@astral.magic.ca> reccomends the following book:

"Mastering Calligraphy" by Timothy Noad, published by Simon &

Schuster 1995. It contains chapters on the origins and development of

calligraphy, materials and techniques, A-Z step by step and

projects. For the first time this calligraphy a book also provides

special notes and diagrams for left-handed calligraphers for every

stage alongside information for right-handers, by the famous

left-handed calligrapher Gaynor Goffe.

K <kamaley@hevanet.com> makes the following suggestion:

If you would like to take a class ask the teacher whether he/she has

taught leftys before. They will either tell you it can't be done, be

willing to work with you or have already taught "one of us."

Thanks: Isabella V. Chang Fong <ivcf@astral.magic.ca>

K <kamaley@hevanet.com>

Q34. Why do we wear our wedding bands on the third finger of the left hand?

The custom dates back to the early Egyptian belief that the vena amoris

(vein of love) ran directly from the heart to the third finger of

the left hand.

Thanks to Erica Hamel <erica@netvision.net.il>

Q35. Where can I get a lefthanded joystick?

While you should note that real commercial and military pilots

fly according to where they sit in the cockpit and thus must be

able to fly equally well with either hand, this question

is asked very frequently.

According to a Usenet Survey, It is downright impossible to have

a true lefthanded joystick. There are several ambidextrous ones

that people use, with the consensus being that the products by

a company called CH were the best. The complete list follows in

no particular order:

CH Flightstick Pro

CH Flightstick

Suncom 2000

TM Action Controller XL

Kraft Thunderstick

Gravis GamePad (has a switch)

Note that this does not represent a reccomendation.

Q36. Where can I get a Left Handed Computer Keyboard.

Peter Wood <paw@interserv.com> tells us that he has

had good success using inexpensive peripheral equipment, since

its not designed in a way that would make it uncomfortable for

left-handers to use (or for right-handers) but avoids the

re-learning process. He thinks that left-handed adaption

skills are sufficient as long as the device doesn't exhibit a

a strong bias.

Q37. Where can I get a left-handed mouse?

Logitech used to supply left handed versions, but have

discontinued this. Symmetrical versions are getting rarer. Not all

left handers use the mouse left handed. Many like typing or writing

left handed using the right hand to always hold the mouse.

Look for alternatives such as the Glidepoint or tracker balls. But

where ever possible try before buying and make sure that the drivers

for the operating system(s) that you use are available or the

'standard' MS software (Win3, Win95, NT) etc will work.

Swap the buttons to use the left index finger with the right

button. This confuses the hell out of right handers so much that I

have seen fared tempers at not being able to use it even when

explaining to them that the reason that the mouse was on the left

was because you are left handed.

Thanks: Gerald McMullon <gerald.mcmullon@ukonline.co.uk>

We have recently heard of the following source for a left-handed mouse:

The Contour Mouse for left-handed users can be ordered directly

from:

Contour Design

254B North Broadway, Suite 204

Salem, NH 03079 USA

phone 1-800-462-6678

phone: (603) 893-4556

fax: (603) 893-4558

email: info@contourdes.com

World Wide Web site (http://www.contourdes.com).

Listing here does not constitute a recommendation.

Q38. Why are there more Lefthanded Males than Females?

Recent research (as from a BBC TV program) looked at the amount of

testosterone (male hormone) present during pregnancy. All adults

produce both male and female hormones. The amount of testosterone in a

woman is small and there is none in a the fetus female. The fetus

male produces small amounts of testosterone and this has been given as

a possible reason why there are more LH males than LH females.

Thanks: Gerald McMullon <gerald.mcmullon@ukonline.co.uk>

Q39. Do Lefthanders tend to have a specific blood type?

Some one in Cambridge questioned all blood donors about their

background. Looking at the couple of hundred forms the distribution

for the A, AB and O groups looked the same in the LH group as in

the RH group.

Thanks: Gerald McMullon <gerald.mcmullon@ukonline.co.uk>

Q40. What percentages of Lefthanders exist in different societies?

Middle class western (white) society is more tolerant of LH than

some cultures. In many cultures eating with the left hand is an

insult to the host. This is so strong that even those educated

and living in the west does not adjust this view point. [

possibly related to hygiene - which hand is used for toiletry etc].

Thanks: Gerald McMullon <gerald.mcmullon@ukonline.co.uk>

Q41. Why do some lefthanders use Mirror script?

Da Vinci and others often write right to left and in mirror

script. They feel that the writing is more fluid this way.

Q42. Why do Lefthanders hold the paper differently when writing?

Lefthanders turn the paper in order to more completely mimic

the right hand style. Included in this method is using the twisted

hand over the top of the line of writing method adopted by some

left handers.

With the advent of the biro some left handers push the nib in front

of the hand movement. Others hold their arm at right angles to the

line of writing and so don't cover up the writing or twist the arm

over the top. Various forms of positioning the writing pad at right

angles to the line of the desk or inclined at 60% are also used.

Young left-handers should be encouraged to try all these styles to

find the best fit for themselves.

Q43. Why are Lefthanders sometimes called Southpaws?

This is a baseball term. It seems that on many (most) baseball diamonds

the left hand side of the pitchers mound would face south.At one

time, most ball-parks were constructed so that the setting sun was

behind the batter so as not to be in his eyes. The LH pitcher's

throwing arm would then be toward the South as he faced the plate.

With larger grandstands in modern stadia (not to mention indoor

baseball) this is less of a concern than it once was.

Thanks: Jeff Snyder <jps@tyrell.net>

Q44. Are there any organizations concerning golf and left-handers?

We have heard of the National Association of Left-Handed

Golfers (NALG). It is " a nonprofit organization that

promotes and enhances left-handed golf." Dues are US$20 per

year. Phone number is: 1-800-844-NALG

in Canada: 1-880-844-NALG

and the URL: http://www.dca.net/golf

Q45. Which sports banned left-handers?

I don't know the answer to this one, precisely, but I believe it

to be Polo. My reasoning is that the horses are trained to expect

the mallot to always to be swung from the right side. To do it on

the left would spook the horses and cause safety problems.

Albert Prete <71212.1644@CompuServe.COM> thinks that the sport is jai

alai. In jai alai a ball is thrown at walls at a very high rate of

speed. A gourd (cesta) is used to throw the ball. I guess they're

concerned about someone getting hit with the cesta.

Scoop <scoop@pygmy.demon.co.uk> tell me that when he was in school in

the UK he was not permitted to play Field Hockey lefthanded and that

there is no such thing as a lefthanded Hockey Stick. He also told me

that the Grand National Archerry Association, which is the only

such organization in England, requires lefthanders to be segragated

to one side during competitions. Similarly, The National Smallbore

Rifle Association in the UK and The National Rifle Association in the

UK segregates the lefthanders to one side during competitions as well.

--

Barry D. Benowitz - FAQ maintainer for alt.lefthanders

Email:b.benowitz@telesciences.com

Phone:+1 609 866 1000 x354

Snail:Securicor Telesciences Inc, 351 New Albany Rd, Moorestown, NJ, 08057-1177

LEFTHANDEDNESS

Being left-handed is like being in a secret club. We have our own

bizarre initialization rituals, such as learning how to write "the

wrong way." We pay our dues every day, in terms of the extra effort

that we must make to live in a right-handed world. When we encounter

another lefty, we immediately have something in common. The club is

shrouded in secrecy, because we rarely mention the topic to our

right-handed friends.

For fun, here is a list of the aspects of everyday life that

are geared towards right-handed people. Lefties will probably

recognize most things on this list; righties might find some of these

things surprising. Anyways, hope you enjoy reading it! :-)

* We have to use special "lefty" scissors.

* We write from left to right, so that our hand smears the fresh ink

across the page. (Righties' hands do not touch the ink until they

get to the next line, so the ink has a few seconds to dry.)

* If you grab a coffee mug with your left hand, the picture will be

facing away from you. (Righties get to look at the picture while

they drink.)

* Lefties have little choice where they get to sit at large dinners,

lest they bump elbows with a righty.

* Lefties have little choice where they get to sit in lecture halls.

Often the only left-handed desks are on the end of the row.

Lefties can't sit in the middle, unless they want to have a hard

time writing.

* When writing in a 3-ring binder (or spiral notebook), the rings

get in the way of our hands when we write on the front side of the

paper. (Righties have this problem when writing on the back of the

paper, but this is easier to avoid.)

* Many "commonly" used keys are on the right side of the keyboard.

For example: backspace, enter, arrows, and numeric keypad.

* Computer mice are generally set up so that the "main" button is

the index finger for righties. If you want to use the mouse in

your left hand, the "main" button is under your less-adept ring

finger.

* Bike gears are on the right side of the bike. This means that if

you carry the bike on your right shoulder, the gears face outward.

If you put the bike on your left shoulder, you'll get grease

stains all over your clothes.

* Bike helmet chin-strap buckles are easier to release with your

right hand.

* Hand-held jigsaws blow sawdust off to the right side. If you hold

it in your right hand, it blows the sawdust away from you. If you

hold it in your left hand, it blows sawdust in your face.

* Drill presses have the handle (to lower the drill) on the right

side. It's impossible (and dangerous!) to try to hold the wood

with your right hand while controlling the drill with your left

hand.

* Lefties have to get their own "left-handed" boomerangs, golf

clubs, and baseball mitts. This means we usually can't borrow our

friends' equipment.

* Car stick-shifts are on the right side of the driver. Less

frequently used controls, such as headlight switches, are on the

left side.

* High-end headphones (with only one cord) have the cord on the left

side. The cord gets in the way more for left-handed writers.

* BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) entrance/exit gates take the ticket

on your right side.

* When pants only have one back pocket, it's always on the right

side. (Lefties have to fumble around for their wallet with their

"bad" hand.)

* Mini propane camping stoves are designed so that you can hold it

with your left hand and pump up air pressure with your right, even

if the stove is still hot. It's hard to hold it with your right

hand and pump with your left hand without burning your right hand.

Thursday, April 11, 1996

VIEWPOINT/H.A. Loudermilk

LEFT-HANDERS DO IT RIGHT

Face it, righty, we're better than you

People that are left-handed are more intelligent, more balanced and more

creative than those unfortunate right-handed people (I can get away with this

because my significant other is also a lefty).

I grew up in a culture fortunate enough to allow left-handedness. In

fact, I really didn't pay any attention to how others wrote -- nor

did they seem to pay any attention to me -- until high school.

Before high school, most of my desks had no left or right

preference. They were the old flip top kind with a separate, plastic

chair. You know, the type that held your pencil box, box of crayons

(I still love their smell) and scratch-n-sniff stickers.

The right side bar for right-hander's arms on the "new" desks left

me a little baffled. I honestly couldn't figure out what they were

there for. For me, the damn thing just impeded my writing process

and exacerbated the amount of ink that rubbed off onto my left

pinkie.

Sometime around my junior year, I actually found a desk that was

designed for southpaws. It was pretty nice writing with that little

arm there. The only tricky part was walking down the desk aisles and

then realizing that I had to walk around -- or climb over -- the

desk in order to sit in it.

Because of all these little idiosyncrasies in our society, I decided

to delve deeper into "handedness" -- or questions regarding why

there are left-handed people and the cultural history of these few.

For a long time, science developed a theory known as the "mirror

effect." This theory states that a right-hander thinks with the

left-side of their brain while the opposite is true for the

left-handed person. However, in the past few years, scientists have

discovered that while right-handed people are indeed dominated by

the left hemisphere of their brain, left-handed people use both

sides of their brain more evenly. Some attribute this to language

and speech being controlled in the left-side of the brain and that

just about everyone, no matter what hand they write with, must use

the right side of the brain to perform these communication

functions. Left-handers, on the other hand (I've been waiting to use

that pun), have increased use of the right-side of their brain. What

a bonus!

This leads me to the inevitable conclusion: People who are

left-handed are more intelligent, more balanced and more creative

than those unfortunate right-handed people (I can get away with this

because my significant other is also a lefty).

It has been estimated -- and this is very rough -- that about 13

percent of the world population is left-handed. This 13 percent has

put up with way too much crap from the right handed world.

There is a historical record of the world's disdain for lefties. The

ancient tradition of shaking hands with the right owes it origins to

offers of peace. Presumably, when both parties shake their hands

with the right, they could not be holding daggers behind their back

because it would be too hard to for them to stab with the left.

Someone should have told this to Julius Caesar (a lefty). Daggers

weren't kind to him.

Besides this anti-lefty custom from the ancients, we get the Latin

word "sinister." In modern English, sinister means: "Suggesting an

evil force or motive; promising trouble; ominous." In Latin,

sinister means, "On the left." In contrast, "dexter" is the Latin

word for "right." Today, we say someone well skilled in the hands is

"dexterous." It's pretty obvious the Greco-Roman masses didn't like

southpaws. This dislike was passed onto the French, who describe

someone that's clumsy as being "gauche" (which means "left"). As

with Latin, the opposite of "gauche" is "adroit" -- which basically

means the same thing as dexterous.

Left-handers have a host of other problems. Some studies have shown

that southpaws have a shorter life span than righties (66 vs. 75

years) in this country. Also, disease and immune system disorders

are more common in lefties.

I think this goes back to the clich, "The candle that burns twice

as bright burns half as long."

Yes, the world is populated with right-handers, but it is run by

lefties. Despite being only 13 percent of the population, one out of

every three presidents have been lefties. And in 1992, the

right-handed public couldn't even chose a right-handed candidate --

Clinton, Bush, and Perot were all lefties.

Maybe it was a left-handed ruler in ancient Egypt that was

responsible for making subjects wear the wedding band on the

left-hand. You see, the ancient Egyptians believed that the vena

amoris , or "vain of love," ran directly from the heart to the third

finger on the left. (Of course, some divorced people might argue

that's why left is 'sinister.")

Wherever I go, I am always conscience of what hand it is that people

write with. I learned a long time ago from a wise debate teacher

that, if you want to get recognized in debate committees, sit on the

side of the room that corresponds to the hand the chairman writes

with. It paid off. I learned that lefties adapt faster than any

other group of people. Right-handed people who try and use something

designed for a lefty have a much harder time than left-handed people

do using something new that's designed for a righty. I learned that

lefties are more open minded and are quicker on their feet.

So go ahead, right-handed world, try and make us conform to your

mass produced goods, your table etiquette, your stick shifts. We

lefties will survive and continue to hold positions of power. All

lefties have thought about converting righties to the honorable

lefty status, but figured it would just be a waste of time. You

can't change, even if you tried.

H.A. Loudermilk, opinion editor of The Daily Aztec, believes there

might also be a link between left-handedness and smart-assed-ness.

ARTICLES ON LEFT-HANDEDNESS

These have been provided as a reference to a number of questions

posted periodically in the newsgroup alt.lefthanded.

If is also worth looking out for "Frequently Asked Questions for the

Left-Handed Population" posted periodically to alt.lefthanded and the

general newsgroups alt.answers and news.answers. It is also available

via anonymous ftp from:

ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/NEWS.ANSWERS/lefty-faq

/ftp@mirrors.aol.com:/pub/rtfm/usenet/alt.lefthanders/

Also, you can find a URL version on the World Wide Web at:

http://www.cs.ruu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/lefty-faq.html

FOUR MILLION BRITAINS CAN'T BE RIGHT BY ALEX VALENTINE

PUBLISHED ABOUT 1978, OBSERVER ?

Four million people in Britain have something in common with Jack the

Ripper. He was one of an unfortunate minority-the left-handed.

Unfortunate, because not only are they regarded as "odd" and

"different" but the words that mean "left" all have unpleasant

connotations.

The French word gauche also means clumsy, and the Latin sinister even

has tones of evil.

Think too of the nicknames which are always given to the left-handers.

They vary in different parts of the country but "cock-handed,"

"bang-handed," "cam-handed," "dolly-pawed," "cuddie-wifted" or just

plain "squippy" all come to the same thing -that somehow or other all

is not right with the left.

If it were just mild abuse it might not be so bad - the fact is that

it's dammed difficult being a left-hander.

IF YOU are left-handed you will thought about the problem often

enough. If not, you've probably given it a passing thought, and

lightheartedly dismissed the difficulties.' But the three questions

that should be asked are:

1. Why are people left-handed ?

2. Just how difficult is it to be left-handed ?

3. Can anything be done to make the left-handedness easier ?

The obvious and logical answer of the left-hander to the first

question is "why not-why should it be a right-hander's world?"

And there is no real answer to that. It is certain that the majority

of the world is right-handed, but beyond that there is only

conjecture, theory, pseudo-science and folklore.

Some so-called experts say that it's because the brain is divided into

two parts which control the opposite sides of the body-the left-hand

part of the brain controls the right side of the body and the other

way round.

Normally, this argument goes, the dominant part of the brain is on the

left, therefore it controls the right-and that is supposed to explain

why most people are right-handed.

Unfortunately for these theorists, studies of left-handed people do

not show their brains have developed in any different way.

Another school of thought argues that it's all to do with the way in

which the body is built. If you divide the human body in two from head

to toe you will find that the right-hand side weights more than the

left (there being more weight of liver and lungs on the right). So,

says this theory, human beings tend to counter-balance their weight on

the left foot, leaving the right foot and the right hand free for

action.

Again that might be fine if there were any evidence that the bodies of

left-handed people are any different from the rest. And there isn't.

The next guess is whether or not it's hereditary. This is now largely

discredited, and since my right-handed wife and my right-handed self

have three left-handed children, I'm not really surprised.

This in turn raises the question of whether or not left-handed

children tend to copy each other, if not their parents. Again, it's

inconclusive - for instance, of the Dionne Quintuplets, only one of

the five was a left-handed.

By now it's getting into the realm of old wives' tales. It depends on

which breast the baby was mainly fed on …which arm it was carried

about. . . whether it was bathed in a bath where the water ran out

from left to right or right to left. . . .

Most left-handers have long since given up trying to find out. What

they are more concerned with is the fact that they live in a

right-handed world.

True, schools have now stopped forcing left-handed children to write

with their other hand. Educational authorities have realised that this

is likely to introduce nervous tensions into children (for instance,

it is now, believed that the late King George VI suffered from a

stammer because a tough governess at Buckingham Palace forced him to

change his writing hand).

THE DIFFICULTY of writing with the left hand is obvious- the writing

hand coves up what the person has written, and, before the days of the

ball-point pen, smudged all the work.

But there are other less obvious handicaps that the left-hander has to

fight against-the fact that potato peelers usually only have their

cutting blades placed for right-handers, that irons and ironing boards

are designed in such a way that when used by a left-hander the flex

from the iron hangs over the work.

Knitting patterns are basically designed for right-handers, so are

cork-screws and clockwork mechanisms- remember, for a left-handed

person the natural motion is to turn the hand anti-clockwise.

BUT THE left-handers are beginning to unite. in Britain they now have

their own association run by Michael Barsley, a television producer

and broadcaster, who has recently bad his "Left Handed Book" published

as a paperback by Pan.

The Left Handers' Association is agitating for legislation to

recognise their difficulties, and for designers to think about them.

They point out that even that most modern of all inventions-the

computer-was designed for right-handed people.

They are also trying to get people to think of them as people, with

certain handicaps which should be recognised without either ridicule

or contempt.

It is, they point out, just a matter of some thought and

consideration. There is no point in shouting at a left-handed child

because it cannot copy the actions of a right-handed person who is

demonstrating how to knit or tie a bow. The thing is to remember that

the left-handed child uses opposite hands, so why not face the child

and act as a "mirror" so that the child copies what it sees?

And, if you have a left-handed guest, why not put him or her (quietly

and without making a big thing of it) at a left-handed corner of the

table so that their elbow won't be jogged whilst they are holding a

cup or glass ?

Already, just off London's Carnaby Street, there's a special shop for

left-'handers which has items like sauce-pans with lips that pour on

either side, potato peelers with blades on both sides, left-handed

scissors, left-handed ironing boards, and even left-handed playing

cards.

It might be some consolation to left-handers to know that as well as

Jack the Ripper they include such people as Leonardo da Vincl, Charlie

Chaplin, Paul McCartney, Danny Kaye, Terence Stamp, Kim Novak, Denis

Compton, Gary Sobers, Ann Haydon Jones and Rod Laver.

Indeed, the left-handers of the world ara turning up as one in every

tenth person, and if you think in terms of any single race, colour or

creed, who else makes up such a group ?

Maybe "Cack-handers oft he World, Unite !" is not exactly the sort of

slogan to set the world on fire, but to anyone who left-handed in a

right-handed world it's heady propaganda.

Some famous left-handers past and present.

Ann Haydon Jones, Ronald Searle, William Rushton, Sir Compton

Mackenzie, Charlie Chaplin, Peter Scott, Paul McCartney, Kim Novak,

Harpo Marx, Mandy Rice-Davies, Benjamin Fraklin, Garfield Sobers, Babe

Ruth, Jessie Matthews, Danny Kaye.

Left-handers shopping guide

* Scythe

* Secateurs

* Address book with left-handed index

* Greeting cards for a left-handed recipent

* Ladle

* Bricklayer's trowel

* Farrier's knife

* Steam Iron

* Tin opener with scissor action

* General purpose scissors

* Potato peeler

* Kitchen knife

* Pepper Mill

* Spoon

* Osmiroid 65 cartridge filled pen

* Parker cartridge filler pen

* Playing cards can be fanned in either left or right hand as there

is an index mark in all four corners Sailmaker's palm for heavy

sewing jobs

* Ruler is calibrated left to right on one edge and right to left on

the other

from Anything Left Handed Ltd., 57 Brewer St London W1 (0171 437 3910)

{last contacted 27th May 1997}

ON HAND-WRITING STYLES

The direction of flow of a left-hander writing is different to that of

a right-hander, although each group shows different behaviour.

Traditional Chinese writing is in columns, right to left column with

the bind of a closed book on the right showing it's cover (back to

front according to English). Modern Chinese is written left to right

horizontally. The left-handed taboo is still strong in China, and

comments about using chop sticks left handed and how awkward it looks

etc.!

Arabic, Urdu and Persian are all written right to left (same script).

It has been argued that this is the correct way for right handers to

write.

"From the Left Handers newsletter No6 March 1970 organised by Mr Michael

Barsley"

Mr Sami Harmarneh, a famous Arabic scholar and Head of the Division of

Medical Sciences at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC sent

the following notes to Mr Heinz Nrodon, of New Doctor, who recently

published one of my articles on left-handedness.

"Left-handedness is less encountered in the Middle East than in

England or the US. Although there are no official statistics available

it seems to me that the percentage is less than 1%. It is also greatly

discouraged... I think writing from right to left as is the case in

Arabic and Hebrew makes it easier to use the right hand. (This I would

question, since the movement of the hand and arm is towards the body,

a constriction we left-handers feel). A friend in Beirut writes Arabic

in the right hand whilst using his left hand for writing English and

French. Very interesting case!" Dr. Hamarneh adds: "I do not have any

examples to give relative to dyslexia; however, I know of one case

wherein a six-year-old child was taught English and Arabic, and in one

instance, in writing his name, he wrote it backwards. He mixed the

Arabic approach with the English." On the other hand, as it were,

three years ago I meet the left-handed Libyan Director of Culture and

Tourism, who insisted that all Arabs should write left-handed! I am

dealing with handwriting in detail in my next book, but would

meanwhile welcome any further opinions on this subject."

A RIGHT SINISTER LOT ARE WE LEFT-HANDERS WHO, ONE DAY, MAY BE A MAJORITY

BY JOHN AUSTIN, RADIO TIMES ? DATE UNKNOWN

IF YOU'RE CACK-HANDED, COOCHY-PAWED, KEFTY, KEGGY, WACKY OR LLAW BWT AND LOOK

LIKE A PRAYING MANTIS WHEN YOU WRITE, THEN YOU ARE LEFT-HANDED - AN UNSHIFTED

SINISTRAL. AND YOU PROBABLY HAVE MUCH IN COMMON WITH KENNETH HAIGH, STAR OF MAN

AT THE TOP...

KENNETH HAIGH'S performance when slicing a loaf of bread should be

granted an "X" certificate. Everybody agrees.

It seems impossible that Haigh, star of Man at the Top, is ever going

to cut his round of toast without first severing the finger-tips of

his right hand, and those in the kitchen cringe in anticipation as the

blade cuts swiftly deeper.

"Frightens the life out of them," says Haigh cheerfully. "You should

see their faces."

I know how he feels. Every time I make out a cheque to the landlord of

my local pub, with the book sloped at an acute angle and my hand sort

of upside-down, like a praying mantis, those nearby, watch, mouths

agape, and mutter: "His mother must have been frightened by a

Chinaman," or something similar.

It is something all we left-handers learn to accept with amused

tolerance. But we arc also much maligned.

Sinistrals, the scientist call us. So, from the start, we are

bracketed with all things unpleasant, nasty and evil. In contrast the

other lot are dextrals, all neat, clever, mentally adroit and dextrous

right-handers.

They are the goodies and we the baddies, and it seems that things are

the same wherever poor southpaws go. In France, for instance, we are

gauche (awkward or clumsy); in Italy mancini (crooked or maimed); in

Portugal canhoto (weak and mischievous); in Spain zurdo (the wrong

way), and even aboard a gipsy caravan there is no escape. In Romany it

is bongo, meaning crooked or evil, and our own home-bred word "left"

comes from Middle-English and means "weak".

A bleak prospect, and Haigh, pouring wine with his left hand and

smoking a cigar with his right, was wondering why a left-handed

compliment should be regarded as an insult.

"Our compliments are as good as their."

Then there are all those funny names they call us - coochy-pawed,

click-handed, key-nieved, dolly-pawed, gallock-handed, cack-handed,

gawky-handed, keggy, wacky, scrammy, kefty, keeky-fisted, flug-handed,

kitty-wesy, Mollie-dooker.

There are 88 ways of saying "left-handed" according to the Dialect and

Folk Studies Institute of Leeds University, who are to produce a

dialect atlas of Britain in three years' time. One that they have

missed out originates, I believe, from the Rhondda Valley where I, and

my ilk, were known as llaw bwt, which is a kindly way of saying a man

is funny-handed.

The doctors, too, are at us. The Royal College of General

Practitioners' journal announced, earlier this year, that doctors are

to conduct a survey to discover whether the traditionally left-handed

Kerr and Carr families are still southpaw. Apparently, "Carr-handed,"

"Kerr-handed" and "Carry-handed" are still in the vernacular to

describe you know what, and the name is said to derive from the Gaelic

caerr, meaning "awkward."

The Kerrs, very sensibly, built Scottish castles in which the spiral

staircases gave great advantage to left-handed swordsmen.

Other busy doctors, as Wisconsin University in American, interviewed

numerous university woman of the district, and found out that seven

out of 10 preferred as left-handed squeeze, cuddle, or whatever. This,

say the doctors, is due to the caveman instinct, as primitive man kept

his club in his right hand while courting, to ward off wild beasts and

rival suitors, and was therefore forced to tickle his fancy with his

left.

However, the theory does not seem to fit in with expert finds that the

majority of Stone Age tools found were for the left-handed, or the

fact somebody else found out that more than half the population was

southpaw in the Bronze Age.

Haigh, is like me, an unshifted sinistral, someone who has either not

been forced to change hands, or has resisted any attempts to make him

change. He dimly remembers the nuns who taught him trying to switch

his pen from an inky left hand to a reluctant right, but they probably

wilted under the stubborn glare which he keeps to this day.

The 40-year-old son of a Yorkshire miner, he is also politically Left.

"I had to be," he explains. "Otherwise, my father would have given me

a right-hander.

"One thing I remember clearly as a small boy, is laying the table for

my mother. It didn't save her any time, because I always laid for

left-handed people and she had to follow on behind me switching the

knives and forks around."

It is true, he says, that left-handed cricketers are very good, and he

had often heard that cack-handed babies abandoned near the Yorkshire

cricket grounds of Headingly and Bramall Lane were immediately taken

to the nets.

He wondered whether primates were predominantly right-handed. The man

I rang at the zoo said he didn't have time to look it up, but as far

as he knew they grabbed their food with whichever hand they weren't

scratching with.

I could tell him, though, that lobsters are left-clawed, and that

badgers, parrots, wolves and bears are also sinistrals. Also favouring

the left: Prince Charles, Charlie Chaplin, Danny Kaye, Rod Laver, Tony

Roche, Ann Haydon-Jones, Nye Bevan, Julius Caesar, Leonardo da Vinci,

Picasso, Rex Harrison, Edward III, George VI, Kim Novak and,

unfortunately, Jack the Ripper.

Japanese wartime chief, General Tojo, got his doctor to put an "X" on

his chest, over his heart, when he decided to shoot himself, then

missed. This, said his wife, was because he was left-handed. The

general was not a credit to us.

Lewis Carroll, however, rose to brilliance, though while normally

left-handed he was forced to write with his right. The resulting

frustration probably produced the stammer which, it is claimed, is

often typical of shifted sinistals.

Haigh and I mused over the facts: men are more likely to be

left-handed than women ("probably because they do more courting," says

Haigh). Left-handedness is more prevalent among twins. If you are

cooky-pawed you are likely to be cooky-footed as well, and you will

probably see better with your scammy eye and hear better with your

gallock ear.

Babies, we leaned, are born ambidextrous, and 34 out of every 100

would become naturally llaw bwt if allowed to develop without

interfernece. However, many are coerced by treacherous parents and

teachers, who push things into their tiny right hands though they may

plead for rusks with their left.

Anything to fit the poor little blighters into a right-handed world

where hockey sticks, tin openers, scissors, rifles and cheque books

with stubs on the left will be no problem to them.

Despite this, statisticians have worked out that there are at least

200 million left-handers in the world out of a population of over

3,750 million, and more than five million of us (which seems a lot)

live in Britain.

Miltitant southpaw leaders have, from time to time, arisen, forming

associations and attempted to pressure people who make turnstiles into

providing coin slots on the left, as well as the right. As a result of

their efforts it is possible, if you look far enough, to buy

left-handed golf clubs, saxophones, pencil sharpeners, and men's

shirts which button the other way around. Or, so I'm told.

Kenneth Haigh is at present campaigning for a left-handed

grapefruit-slicer, because the one he has got now is driving him

potty. Like most sinistrals, he is more ambidextrous than most

dextrals.

There may be great gnashing of teeth in years to come as the

proportion of left-handers being born is steadily increasing, and the

scientists don't know why. One day, when I'm long gone, we will again

be a majority.

Come the revolution, and all right-handers will be known, as

grotty-fingered, or bungy-mitted; humorous foremen will send green

apprentices to fetch right-handed spanners, and so on.

ON THE OTHER HAND...

Horizon - Mystery of the Left Hand Monday 9:30 BBC2 (from Radio times

2-8 February 1985)

Is there any advantage in being left-handed? Ambidextrous Alan Bestic

looks at a scientific theory.

IN YEARS to come students of architecture gazing at the dramatic

Lloyd's headquarters now nearing completion in London may tell each of

that it was designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership. They will be

unlikely to add that two of the three partners were left-handed.

Professor Norman Geschwind, head of Harvard University's neurology

department until his death recently, would have seized on the point.

One of his conclusions from a deep study of left-handed people,

examined in Horizon, was that many had the qualities which made good

architects.

He based much of his work on the fact that people are left-handed

because the right hemisheres of their brains arc dominant.

Right-handers - roughly nine out of ten of us - have more highly

developed left hemisheres.The balance, he claimed, is determined in

the womb by the level at the male sex hormone, testosterone, the

foetus's sensitivity to it or both.

Left-handers were likely to be good architects, he maintained, because

the right hemisphere of the brain controls spatia skills, the ability

to think in three-dimensional terms. For reasons less clear, but

probably related to the dominance of the right side of the brain, they

also may be good at computer-programming and tennis.

Almost half the world's leading tennis players are left-handed.

Disadvantages, however, out-weigh those plus factors. The left

hemisphere governs the ability to learn languages. So left-handers are

inclined to be less able linguists. And they may find more basic

skills difficult to acquire. According to Professsor Geschwind, those

who stammer, have difficulty learning to read or write or who are

dyslexic outnumber by ten to one right-handers with these problems.

His studies have shown, too, that twice as many left-handers suffer

from migraine, alleries and other ailments caused by immune system

disorders, though here the reasons are more complex. Testosterone

influences the thymus gland which teaches white blood cells to fight

external enemies when they attack the body, causing disease. A high

level of testosterone can interfere with this education, so white

cells may allow enemies through as well as attacking friends in the

body.

Boys, he maintained, are more likely than girls to be left-handed

because they manufacture large quantities of testosterone while in the

womb - much more than in childhood and almost as much as in

adolescence. Girls in the womb do not produce it and, left to

them-selves, would never be left-handed. Their mothers, however,

produce it as a by-product of female hormones, but the level is low.

So there are fewer left-handed girls.

John Young, one of the left-handed partners in the Richard Rogers

Partnership, respects Professor Geschwind's impeccable academic

qualifications. He does not believe, however, that being left-handed

has influenced his life.

He holds a tennis racket in his left hand, it is true, but plays

badly. He does not suffer from allergies, migraine or any other

ailment related to immune system disorders. He had no difficulty

learning to read or write. And certainly he is not a poor linguist.

When he went to work in Paris some years ago he found that his almost

forgotten A-level French flowered into fluency with remarkable speed.

Canny Professor Geschwind, of course, would have asked what he was

doing in Paris and would not have been surprised to learn that John

Young was deeply involved with the construction of the world-renowned

Pompidou Centre.

Could it be totally coincidental, he would have asked, that the same

left-handed architect was even more deeply involved in the design of

the Lloyd's headquarters? And here John Young edges a little closer to

the professor's belief that left-handed people have an enhanced

ability to think in three dimensions.

The Lloyd's design, he says, certainly posed three-dimensional

puzzles. The partnership solved them by turning the building inside

out, putting the services - lifts, stairs, toilets and heating,

telephone and electricity systems - outside, thus increasing the

actual space for working. Because they wanted as much natural light as

possible, they folded their structure round a central space, creating

a building with a glass-capped hole in the middle, so to speak, so

that light came from two sources. Professor Geschwind would have

claimed with justification that it would be difficult to imagine an

architectural concept more tri-dimensional than that.