Fact-ette
I read somewhere this weekend that 2500 left-handed people are killed each year as a result of using things designed for right-handed people. Amazing.
My middle sister is left handed and once got a catalogue of things designed especially for left handers. Obviously it included things like scissors and potato peelers, but also odd stuff like rulers where the numbers start at the right hand side and go backwards, and upside down guitars.
You can even get left-handed scythes; very handy if your career aspirations include taking over from Death when he retires. Judging by the yearly death toll, it would seem that Death is indeed concerned about being usurped by scythe wielding lefties, and it taking them out as fast as he can.
My Gran was left handed but it wasn't the done thing when she was growing up. At school she was forced to write with her right hand, and as a result had really bad handwriting which ever hand she tried to use in later life. I can't imagine how awful it must feel to be forced to use your 'wrong' hand. I don't know what the reasoning behind it was - was it superstition or religious? Did the devil lurk in my left-handed Grandma? If anyone knows the reasons for this bizarre prejudice, leave me a comment.
My middle sister is left handed and once got a catalogue of things designed especially for left handers. Obviously it included things like scissors and potato peelers, but also odd stuff like rulers where the numbers start at the right hand side and go backwards, and upside down guitars.
You can even get left-handed scythes; very handy if your career aspirations include taking over from Death when he retires. Judging by the yearly death toll, it would seem that Death is indeed concerned about being usurped by scythe wielding lefties, and it taking them out as fast as he can.
My Gran was left handed but it wasn't the done thing when she was growing up. At school she was forced to write with her right hand, and as a result had really bad handwriting which ever hand she tried to use in later life. I can't imagine how awful it must feel to be forced to use your 'wrong' hand. I don't know what the reasoning behind it was - was it superstition or religious? Did the devil lurk in my left-handed Grandma? If anyone knows the reasons for this bizarre prejudice, leave me a comment.
posted by Rach at 12:38
2 Comments:
Hi Rachel
Being left-handed is still discouraged and discriminated against in many parts of Asia. May be because often the right hand only is used for eating (no cutlery) whereas the left is for going to the loo (no toilet paper)- actually, left handed folk used to be referred to as “cack-handed” in the UK…nice eh?.
Brilliant quilt by the way!
-Ant
You know that our English word sinister derives from the Latin, which meant left (or left-hand side maybe). Look what meaning it took on in English when we borrowed it (not sure if we borrowed it directly from Latin, but whatever means it got into our language, it no longer has the connotation of left-hand side!). Also, the French for left, gauche, also means clumsy/awkward.
I don't know what that tells you about being left-handed, but it is certainly interesting!
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