$ff1                            Lefthanded Peeps
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                              by Andy Bolt
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Recently  it  was "National Left Handed Day" or something.  Why was that
then?  I dunno, but here is an article about it...

10% of people are lefthanded.  Some studies say we don't live as long as
right handers.  Others say we are more inteligent :)

Lefthandedness  runs  in my family.  My gran, who was raised in the 14th
century,  tells  us  how she had her left hand tied behind her back, and
was  caned  if  she  tried  to  do  anything with it.  But then teachers
thought that left handers were the spawn of Satan, so I suppose I should
be thankfull that she wasn't burnt at the stake.

As a child my mum forced me to do certain things right handedly, which I
am  now  gratefull  for.   Being  able  to use scissors properly is very
helpfull.   If you try and cut with your left hand the blades are pushed
apart instead of together and all you achieve is crumpled paper.

I  eat  with the knife and fork the correct way round, but I use a spoon
in  my  left  hand.  Surely it makes more sense to use the same hand you
use for your fork with a spoon as well.  It's like your "shovel" hand.

Obviously I write with my left hand, as this is the usual way people are
classified  left  or right handed.  Right handed people tend to screw up
their  faces  when they see you write "funny".  Because your hand covers
what  you  have  written, which can also result in smudging, lefthanders
hold their pens and paper at funny angles.

The only real problem I had at school is elbow nudging, when you are sat
on the right of a right hander, writing becomes a contact sport.

Suprisingly,  I  am  right handed with a mouse.  Probably because when I
first  started using mice at school (on those horrible Acorn things) the
mouse  was always on the right of the keyboard, so I guess I just picked
it  up  that  way.  It comes in handy, because the Microsoft Mouse looks
set to take over the world, yet it is right handed only.  Also I have my
best typing hand free to work the keyboard shortcuts.

I'm  left  handed  with a joystick (yes, both my joysticks :) Which is a
bummer, as all the decent sticks are right handed only.  I don't see the
point  of  reversible joypads though.  I don't think it matters too much
which  hand  steers  and  which  fires.  Afterall, most Doom clones have
their keyboard controls laid out the opposite way round to a joypad.

In   some  ways  all  this  "left  handed  day"  business  seems  a  bit
patronising.   You  get shops selling crap like left handed rulers, mugs
and corkscrews.  Its all completely unecessary.

But  then  again  I think we do get a bum deal sometimes.  My University
probably  has  about  500  right  handed  Microsoft mice, discriminating
against  probably  1000  students  or more, or at least making life very
difficult  for  them.  Imagine the outcry if they had mice that couldn't
be used comfortably by coloured or fat people.

So  I  think  trying  to  raise  a bit more awareness is probably a good
thing.   It  can  be pretty annoying when left handers are not given any
consideration at all.


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