Left handed - affliction or no big deal?

my brother is left handed and he can do things just fine.

I am left-handed and adept at a number of things. In fact, I've never heard anything like this before. Are you sure you're not making it up for some fun?

Ambidextrous should be an option, no?

I thought I had ambidextrous on there. Made a mistake, but it's on there now.


I am perfectly serious. And the tale I told is true.

They live all around me.

Look I am right-handed and still can turn a pile of boards into a pile of rubble. In fact I am determined to name my first child Rubble. The second child, a girl, will be Debris. Sounds so French.

I am ambidextrous, but my brother is left handed and he's never had any problems. In fact he use to be a carpenter and now is a computer technician. This is the first time I ever heard this. I know in the old schools here in Canada at least, being left handed was unacceptable. I have an uncle that use to get yelled at by his teacher whenever he was caught writing with his left hand. Maybe this guy had a similar experience and it stuck with him.

LOL Dag!

I am left handed, and have never had any problem. I don't write twisted over, like a lot of lefties do. The funny thing is, I cannot cut lefty with a scissors. I find it impossible, but can cut just fine with my right hand.

I used to think that I couldn't do anything like putting things together, but I think that was a gender, not a lefty thing. As a kid, I was socialized to believe that women just didn't do those things.

My father was the kind of man who could not hang a picture. His attitude was that if something broke, you threw it out and bought a new one.

I remember the first time I put up a triple traverse rod myself, with toggle bolts. I was in my 20s, and had never attempted anything like it.
I was so proud of myself, and I understood that I could master almost anything, if I put my mind to it. In the last ten years, I have put together enough furniture to fill a small house!

I have seen left handed scissors some place in the past, Phoenix.

Au contraire, mes amis!

Being left handed is not only a "badge" of "specialness", but also a "handicap" leading to exceptional ability.
Not only can I do everything with my left hand, but I can do most (but not all) things with my right, as well. Writing, mind you is a severe challenge (since the advent of the "need for keyboard") no matter which hand I use, but is marginally more decipherable done with the left.
Society, you see, is strongly biased to favour of the use of the right hand (democracy - catering to the majority; ain't it grand); scissors, cutlery, dispensing machines, etc., etc. Therefore, anyone who is left handed, is forced frequently to switch to right for specific purposes, and gains practice in ambidexterity which comes in handy in many cases.
For instance I do a lot of construction work, and when using a hammer or screwdriver, can switch hands, and do equally well "acdc", so to speak.

Also, being lefthanded is usually generated by being right "brained", and the right hemisphere is by far the most important intellectually (in the opinion of a "lefty" - is that so strange?)!

That's nice to hear you say, BoGoWo. It is true that I have found a few problems... some soup & drink ladles are a real trial to me... but I can barely use left-handed scissors. Someone bought me a pair once and they were so annoying that I gave them away. People have said that playing golf with right-handed clubs gives an advantage... can't remember why and I don't like golf (well, I enjoy golf carts!). I can hit a baseball standing on either side of the plate, though I usually hit left. I am left-eyed, left-handed, and left-footed, but I try to work towards bilateral symmetry.

I have used a hammer all my life. I have found that in a tight situation I can also use my left hand. But I have never sought to train myself in other ways. It seems there is a natural function to each hand that usually works quite well. This makes me satisfied to not carry it any further.

I'll add another little anecdote; piffka's baseball allusion reminded me.

There is also a "strength" factor in handedness.
When playing baseball, being next to useless I often end up in the outfield.
I have always used a "standard" left hand glove, leaving the right hand free to throw; even though right hand gloves are available for lefties. In the infield I throw fairly accurately with my right, and catch with my left.
In the field, however, when a ball is hit my way, I will catch it in my left hand, but, if a throw to home is required, I drop the glove like it had grown spines inside, and throw with my left hand; a much stronger throw, but strangely far less accurate!

Both my sister and other members of the family are left-handed, and one of my grandsons is ambidextrous. Long ago teachers used to try to get pupils to use their right hands, because using the left signified some sort of devil had taken over.

Sinister (from the 15th century) from the Latin sinister - on the left-hand side, considered by the Romans to be the unlucky side, threatening or suggesting evil. So many teachers, particularly those teaching from a religious standpoint, would try to beat a students hands into submission. I am right-handed, but find I can do many things with my left.

And there's another cool reason to be left-handed... people are just a little bit unsure... it keeps 'em on their toes. What is that scary left-handed person going to do????

I'm left handed, and like Pheonix I use scissors with my right hand. I believe lefthanders adapt to using scissors with their right hand early on because left handed scissors were not provided.

My grandmother told me when she was growing up teachers would force left handed children to learn to write with their right hand.

I'm not familiar with the Latin word for left, but in Italian the word is "sinistra". Sinister.

Lefthanded - affliction or no big deal?
My sister drove her art teachers wild because she drew with one hand and painted with the other. The next class she would reverse.

I know a man who was never told that being righthanded he couldn't use nail scissors in his left hand, so he's been doing it happily all his life.

Me - I'm a righty and only a righty.

I'm mostly right-handed, but for some sports I'm ambidextrous. Most notably in racquet sports. I've startled more than one squash opponent when I've switched from one hand to the other, stroke to stroke.