I am so left handed. I can't even scratch right handed!!
Right handed but can use my left on anything with a numeric keypad. The rest of the time the left hand is like Gus the Fireman, peaceful until the left ear needs scratching or the left nostril needs a search and destroy mission for squatters and any ju-ju b’s leftover from adolescence.
Latin--right-handed = dexter
Root word for dexterity and other positive terms.
Latin--left-handed = sinister
Root word for all sorts of negative terms
See! That year of Latin in high school 53 years ago didn't go totally to waste.
Remember Nixon and the "sinister force" that erased 18.5 minutes of tape? That could truthfully mean the button was pushed with the left hand.
(I think that is historical enough to not be political now.)
Left-handed presidents of the United States
- James A. Garfield (March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881) was ambidextrous; he was the only known left-handed president prior to the 20th century.
- Herbert Hoover (March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933) was known to be left-handed.
- Harry S. Truman (April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953) was left-handed as a child, he wrote with his right hand and used his left for most other activities.
- Gerald Ford (August 9, 1974 – January 20, 1977) was left-handed.
- Ronald Reagan (January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989) was naturally left-handed but wrote with his right hand.
- George H. W. Bush (January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993) was left-handed. All three major candidates for president in 1992 were left-handed: Bill Clinton won.
- Bill Clinton (January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001) is left-handed.
- Barack Obama (January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017) is left-handed.
The fact that Garfield was apparently the first shacknasty President and that he was assassinated after only five and a half months in office suggests how distrusted lefties were in those days.
I've been lefthanded since I first picked up a spoon. My Grandpa forced my little sister to be righthanded.
I can do most things righthanded, if I want to; except write. I have poor penmanship; using my righthand just makes it worse.
Being Lefthanded was thought to be evil because ancient zealot decided to punish people just because they were different...
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
What’s kind of funny is my lefty handwriting is totally different than the right, wouldn’t know it’s the same person. Probably explains some personality disorders.
https://news.yale.edu/2013/10/31/left-handed-people-more-likely-have-mental-disorders-schizophrenia
Looks like there is potential that it isn't the same person! Oh, no. Just kidding you.
I'm not a psychiatrist (although I might need one). But, I always wonder how well they have controlled these type of research articles. Seems like which hand you use would be much less of a matter than how you were treated as a child. Perhaps a left handed child faces more criticism or is ostracized more than a right handed one and develops issues from that.
One of my sisters was a lefty and she was very good with artistic things. Supposed to be a trait of left-handedness.
So Mt. Rushmore may not be representative in this regard.
Appears not to be, but 8 of 45 men who served a president wereshacknasty, bordering upwards of 18% of the POTUS’s (Grover Cleveland served two non consecutive terms, POTUS #22 and #24, hence the 46th prez is the 45th man)
Many years ago I read that the custom of shaking hands began as a means to signify that you were not holding a weapon in your attack hand. Shields were traditionally to be worn on the left arm with the weapon to be used in the right hand. A lefty, reversing the situation, forced the enemy to alter his standard attack.
I'm left handed too, in most everything. This topic has come up a few times on this site.
I agree that we're over-represented in the surveying profession. It's weird, though, because we're usually associated with artistic, non-math related fields.
And those who've mentioned hockey, it's usually opposite. Leftys usually shoot righty, and rightys shoot lefty. But I do shoot lefty, so I'm a righty in hockey
The nuns around here pretty much eradicated left handedness in the population...making a comeback the past couple of years though. I am right handed so the nuns left me alone.
I'm a proud shacknasty! As a matter of fact, I expect reparations from all you high and mighty righties for the pure hell you've made life on us lefties. Things like:
spiral bound notebooks
scissors
rifles
baseball gloves
shaking hands
saluting
etc, etc, etc
Send you reparations to:
Shacknasty Surveyor
123 Left-handed lane
Left Hand, West Virginia (it's a real place!)
️
I'm not so bothered by things that have to be one way or the other, because they're definitely going to cater to the majority.
I mind the things that can be ambidextrous but are made right handed. Like the one handed kitchen faucets that are popular now, with the lever on the right side. I like the one handled faucets in the middle. The napkin dispensers at Burger King the last time I went there were slotted so you'd take them from the right, instead of the top.
Steel tapes have a small post/guide for the plumb bob string just on one side, when there could easily be one on both sides.
I am right handed so the nuns left me alone.
I'm right handed and they use to beat the Hell out of me just for fun. circa 1957-1965
I'm a lefty as is my sister and as was my father. He was forced to write right handed as a kid. His handwriting was barely legible and he started stuttering at the same time. Sometimes he stuttered so bad he could barely talk at all. But he still had a great career in book publishing and magazine editing. He stopped stuttering when he retired.
@jph I'm not really bothered by it either. I've adapted after 50 years of dealing with the dang righties.
I just like to sling some poo now and again.
Another lefty here. I recall early in first grade, the teacher said "your right hand is the hand that you write with." I held up my pencil and said, I can remember that. It stuck. Finally got left and right sorted out, and started running the gun for staking sewers, curb and storm drain, telling the chief to go to his left .....
After a while, that was mastered, and I was brought inside to draft at times. Leroy was the standard, and is impossible (I think) with your left hand. I stuck to it and got to be good at Leroying with my right hand. I think that helped me with a mouse when computers came around.
The timing of this thread is odd, as I just spent a weekend with my wife's family and her mom, brother, sister and niece are all lefties. Which got me thinking about a meeting of our survey regional a few years ago. We only had about 12, but 7 of us were left handed. So much for that 10% nonsense!
Ken
telling the chief to go to his left
I eat and write Shacknasty, all other activities Non-Shacknasty.
I was always considered left handed because I write left handed. Not that simple. I throw a ball right handed. Swing a hammer/machete with either equally well. Swinging a bush axe is left only. Shoot pool left handed. Shoot rifles best left handed but used to shoot fair right handed until my right eye went bad. I can shoot a handgun with either (a little better left handed). I had my method using a Leroy set left handed. I can write right handed but its not pretty, but even my left handed writing isn't pretty either. My Dad was left handed as well as two of my three brothers. I never knew of anyone else with such a mix until I spent some time this spring with a first cousin. He is almost as mixed up with his hands as I am.