Would all the lefties please stand up!

Averatu

Just so I know who I'm ragging when I make leftie jokes.
And how about lefties who play right?
My mother and her twin are both left handed, they where forced to learn everything 'correctly' ie right handed at school. My sister is a leftie, hence I have a comment for every occasion, my friend and other guitarist in our band is a leftie. Statistically speaking, I'm not supposed to know this many southpaws.

domhatch

ave averatu ?. as you have most recently been informed, i'm a lefty who plays right. (no, not correctly, just right-handed.) statistics be damned; i'm left, so is my wife, so is my cousin, her husband, and her sister's husband. so when we all get together for dinner, we're five lefties and one righty. which makes for five people in their right minds out of six. none of our kids are lefties. weird.

my grade 1 teacher was a whacko. literally. she used to whack my left hand with a wooden ruler (remember the ones with the metal strip on the one side?) and then resorted to actually tying my hand behind my back. i may not owe my mother much, but she did get that old bat fired...

21Fretter

I'm left-handed and play right-handed. I've often thought about if I would be better if I learned to play left-handed as I can control my left wrist better than my right but the fretting skills on my right are awful but I'm sure my left hand was just as awful when I first started playing right-handed so can't really say. I've always mixed it up though when it comes to doing activities either left or right handed.

shaunf

I'm a lefty who plays righthanded.

IceCreamMan

left sided me .... not just left handed but sinister in all ways ....i even dress left ... ?

some intersting lefty genetics..

if 1 parent is a lefty , kid has a 20% chance of being left handed

if both are left handed only a 45 % chance of being left handed

neither of my folks are left handed, in fact left handedness is not evidenced anywhere in my immidiate family nor my grand parents on both sides...my eldest son is the only other lefty in our family....

lefties live on average 9 years less than right handers , my research seems to indicate this is not due to some genetic defect but due to the mortality rate of lefties using tools designed for right handers and offing themselves in the process thereby skewing the stats somewhat .... go pick up any item these days ,ergonomically they are designed for righties ...from tools to firearms to cars to shampoo bottles

approx 10 % of the 7 billion are left handed , only 7 % of guitars sold in ZA are left handed.... (yip i asked around) indicating that at least some lefties are playing right handed.

at a recent guitar weekend , there were 26 ppl there , only 1 lefty player , that was me.

left handers are over represented in all areas of life by the way , indicating some correlation tween handedness an success however nothing proven. Left handedness is also thought to be as a result of a brain injury at birth ....

i could go on , its an area that fascinates me ...and we are the most disciminated against minority on earth , in some cases we are killed for it...even to this day

Muhammad

Lefty...who play's right handed.

:?

21Fretter

IceCreamMan wrote:
lefties live on average 9 years less than right handers , my research seems to indicate this is not due to some genetic defect but due to the mortality rate of lefties using tools designed for right handers and offing themselves in the process thereby skewing the stats somewhat .... go pick up any item these days ,ergonomically they are designed for righties ...from tools to firearms to cars to shampoo bottles

I've always heard that stat and just been like, "well that sucks". nice to know there is more it than we simply die younger, makes me feel a bit better somehow.

singemonkey

IceCreamMan wrote: i could go on , its an area that fascinates me ...and we are the most disciminated against minority on earth , in some cases we are killed for it...even to this day

Erm... what?

IceCreamMan

21Fretter wrote:
IceCreamMan wrote:
lefties live on average 9 years less than right handers , my research seems to indicate this is not due to some genetic defect but due to the mortality rate of lefties using tools designed for right handers and offing themselves in the process thereby skewing the stats somewhat .... go pick up any item these days ,ergonomically they are designed for righties ...from tools to firearms to cars to shampoo bottles

I've always heard that stat and just been like, "well that sucks". nice to know there is more it than we simply die younger, makes me feel a bit better somehow.

The figure of 9 years has been disputed (hotly) and even the original author of that is questioning it. It certainly seems that lefties do not live as long as righties but the difference is much less than 9 years. the reasons are not completely clear but accidents is one of them , another theory is that lefties are more "prone" to committing suicide apparently....

so if you not suicidal and u dont use power tools u should be ok 8)

IceCreamMan

singemonkey wrote:
IceCreamMan wrote: i could go on , its an area that fascinates me ...and we are the most disciminated against minority on earth , in some cases we are killed for it...even to this day
Erm... what?

without a doubt ,let me list some examples:

1. to this day in some cultures lefty offspring are terminated.
2. Look up the meaning of the word sinister
3. WE pay a premium for left handed guitars
4. ever had to buy left handed scissors, ever tried cutting paper with right handed scissors in yr left had
5. ever seen a left handed fish knife ?
6. buttons on yr shirt/levi's
7. indetations on the colgate shampoo bottles ? yip 9 am anal)
8. God's left hand men are angels of death
9. ever fired an aoutmatic assualt rifle
10.look at your keypad ....designed for righties
11. our basic writing language from left to right
12. tin openers ..i shit u not this is my pet hate ..try it left handed
13. look at yr pedal board and pedals ...i mean really look at them ..to you no problem , to us lefties its a lil more complicated.
14. guache and adroit
15. hey whenever you in an institution that has pens stuck to the counters , guess which side they on

i am just getting started here ?

AlanRatcliffe

IceCreamMan wrote: yip 9 am anal)

What you get up to in your morning routine is your affair. Left hand thread or no...

10.look at your keypad ....designed for righties

You know that the Qwerty keyboard was designed to slow down righties? So the keys on a typewriter wouldn't jam.

singemonkey

IceCreamMan wrote:
singemonkey wrote:
IceCreamMan wrote: i could go on , its an area that fascinates me ...and we are the most disciminated against minority on earth , in some cases we are killed for it...even to this day
Erm... what?
without a doubt ,let me list some examples:

Gay people: do you know any?

BobC

singemonkey wrote:
IceCreamMan wrote:
singemonkey wrote:
IceCreamMan wrote: i could go on , its an area that fascinates me ...and we are the most disciminated against minority on earth , in some cases we are killed for it...even to this day
Erm... what?
without a doubt ,let me list some examples:

Gay people: do you know any?

Fair point singemonkey, but not all discrimination is the malicious, overtly hateful kind, to which gay people are often subjected as you rightfully imply.

Examples listed by IceCreamMan, such as the ergonomic design of tools and other items explicitly favouring right handed people are a form of discrimination, kind of like not installing wheelchair ramps (kind of like, not exactly like).

Mannoroth

I'm a lefty guitarist from the day I did my first air guitar solo.. however, I am not dominantly left handed, but completely ambidextrous. (Kick with left foot, write with right hand, tennis would be left, cricket right, punch with lefty ?)

IceCreamMan is right about the can openers tho, geeees, what a mission, physically and mentally challenging! Luckily I got the scissors sorted!

Averatu

Hi lefties.
On the issue of discrimination its is a bit hard to compare. As I can see lefties these days have it by far easier than my mother had it in school in the 50/60's, as domhatch said, getting punished etc. My mother never stuttered untill she started school.
The lefties I know are driven successfull people, (as are the gay people I know).
I have noticed as Icecream pointed out, when using most power tools, the dead man safety switches on saws, routers, are not accessable from the left.
I've spent a lot of time working in Zambia. Zambians generally seem to HATE albinos. They're considered demons in middle Africa, I had a terrible argument whit a guy about it!

Bob-Dubery

IceCreamMan wrote: without a doubt ,let me list some examples:
3. WE pay a premium for left handed guitars

I haven't followed the market closely, but I do know that a lot of the better acoustic manufacturers do not charge extra for a left-hand guitar - though it's usually a special order.

So if you buy, for example, a Lowden and the store tells you it's going to be extra then refer them to the Lowden web site.

6. buttons on yr shirt/levi's

Welcome to the world of the right-handed woman.

Besides, you guys have it easier with sticking jam jar lids.

Squonk

My wife is left handed and she does not suffer from any discrimination or issues.

She is convinced the left handed people are more gifted and special ?

Who am I to disagree? ?

domhatch

well good lord. a spot of fun and suddenly it's 'can open - worms everywhere'. life isn't overly easy for any minority group. there are those who choose to wallow in self-pity, as well as those who choose to rise above and provide the balance of us with an example of how to do it. on the flip side of the coin, of course, you get those who are prepared stand up, stand together, and fight the fight on behalf of the downtrodden, and those who align themselves with those less well equipped for their own gain or to the betterment of their own self-image.

for pete's sake people, i don't for a second expect this to be a community of like-minded individuals, but i would imagine it to be one of open-minded individuals. no-one's saying being a lefty is akin to being gay, or being gay is akin to being an albino in zambia, or being a seven-year old faced with the choice of a wooden ruler or using the wrong flipping hand is anything like not being able to unscrew a shampoo bottle top. ok, admittedly, that last one was a reach.

cry a river, build a bridge, and get over it.

like i said, i've had a bug for a week. i am not in a good mood.

Averatu

Typyal leftie hey dom?

IceCreamMan

ok , i guess i was making mountains out of molehills and i am certainly no militant lefty but there are subtle froms of discrimination against lefties that if you are aware of them they are everywhere..... its generally subconcious discrimination that goes on ....right handed ppl design products for right handed ppl

and yip squonk , yr wife is spot on ......

an Bob - mass guitar manufacturers generally do put a premium on left handed guitars ,as they make smaller runs i guess the logic is the cost per unit is higher .... go to any guitar shop for proof of this...the fact that some do not charge a premium is not really relevant.

Alan - did not know that but the modern keyboard is designed for right handed ppl with the number pad on the right hand side....impossible to find left handed key boards ....

and aye , we certainly not the most discriminated minority on earth , was being facetious ...