left handed, right handed, or anibitrious

[JohnKleeb]

left handed, right handed, or ambidextrous. I can never spell it. Proud lefty here :hi:

[catzies]

1. Here ya go -- it's AMBIDEXTROUS

:hi:

I'm cross-dominant. :)

[arwalden]

10. I like "Handbedextrous"

Ain't I 'mischevious?'

[qanda]

2. Do you mean ambidextrous?

eom

[alfredo]

3. You know that 13% of the population is left handed. So far DU

looks abnormal.

[SmileyBoy]

4. I've never been more thankful to be right-handed than now.

See my wrist-spraining thread.

[Ladyhawk]

5. I have a weird question?

What do you call foot preference?

I have two parrots: an Amazon and a Senegal. The Amazon holds his food in his left food. The Senegal uses her right foot. Assuming that it takes more dexterity to shift food in a foot, I would call my Amazon left-footed and my Senegal right-footed.

What if a parrot has no preference? Is it ambipoditrous? :D Someone with a biology / zoology degree, tell me. :)

I know they're both zygodactyl.

Zygodactyl: In biology, the term zygodactyl refers to birds which have "yoked" feet, that is with two toes facing forward and two back. This arrangement is most common in arboreal species, particularly those that climb tree trunks or clamber through foliage.

[SmileyBoy]

6. I don't know what anbitrious is...

I know what you mean.:-):-):-)

[Bossy Monkey]

7. Psst, JK! This is DU2 now; you can edit the subject lines, too n/t

[dofus]

8. People are also

right-footed and left-footed, not necessarily corresponding to their handedness.

For you lefties, do you hook or not hook when you write?

The hooking/not hooking is apparently a brain wiring thing. Some years back I read a very good book about handedness, in which the author discussed such things as the fact that most people are not 100% one or the other, but actually do various tasks with their different hands. But the one we write with and use to eat with is our dominant hand. She also discussed the brain wiring thing at great length.

At the end of the book she revealed why she, a normal boring right hander, and come to write the book. When she got married she noticed that her husband was a rightie who hooked when he wrote. It got her started researching handedness and the brain wiring thing.

I had never seen a rightie who hooks when writing, until my oldest son came along. There's other evidence of a strange brain wiring in him, but it's the hooking when writing that looks so odd.

[northzax]

40. yeah, well, I got a whack one for you

I write with my left hand, but do literally everything else, from dialing to mouseing to throwing to eating with my right. I really have no dominant hand. strange. and just to be difficult, my father is the exact opposite of me, writes with his right, does everything else with his left.

[arwalden]

9. Left-Handed Stroke Victims RECOVER FASTER Than Right-Handed Patients...

Strange but true.

The percentage of US Presidents who were left-handed is GREATER than the percentage of Americans who are left-handed.

-- Allen

[juajen]

13. That's because lefties are smarter

Also more adaptable. Where did you get this information on stroke victim recovery?

My husband and I both are left-handed. I am seventh generation leftie directly from my mother, she from her mother, etc.

My husband had a serious stroke and recovered remarkably. I had just never heard of the advantage in recovery. Please elucidate, if possible.

[arwalden]

23. If I recall correctly...

it's because lefties have a stronger right-half of the brain, and it's the right half that controls motor skills (or language? I forget which... maybe it's both.)

Any who... because lefties have had to subconsciously "exercise" their right-brain all through their life to compensate for living in a righties-world... and to ACTUALLY do the motor-work for their left side, it heals/recovers faster.

That's what I remember hearing. I might have over-simplified it and gotten the details wrong. Let me know if anyone knows more accurate info.

-- Allen

[5thGenDemocrat]

17. Left-handed presidents

(@MSchreader's, Detroit).

I believe Harry Truman was the first. Since then, Ford, Bush I and Clinton are all lefties (In fact, Ross Perot is a lefthander as well).
John
And my favorite-ever baseball player, Detroit Tiger lefty pitcher Mickey Lolich (c1963-74), is naturally a righthander except for throwing a ball.

[JVS]

11. I bat left and do everything else right handed.

My dad is left handed and taught me how to swing a baseball bat. He refused to be the one to show my brother and me how to hit a golf ball because he claims that golf is biased against lefties by design and he didn't want to put us at a disadvantage.

[scarlet_owl]

12. I am the only person I know who is ambidextrous.

I eat with my left hand, I can write with both, and I prefer my left leg.

[The Blue Flower]

14. write with left hand

everything else right-handed, except I can paint with either hand

[Spirochete]

15. Take a wild guess...

after looking at my login name. hehe

[JohnKleeb]

18. cool

[5thGenDemocrat]

16. Left-handed

(still @MSchreader's, Detroit).

Except I shoot a rifle right-handed and can play golf with either hand.
John
My mom was ambidextrous.
ON EDIT: I'm right-footed and right-eyed.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

19. "Put your best foot forward"

This saying comes from the colonial days, when people actually wore those leg-exposing tights. You can see it demonstrated in old historical paintings, when they're standing there literally with one leg out in front of the other-- they had a personal preference for the shapeliness of one leg over the other, and put it forward because they thought their best leg made them look better in public.

True story. I kid you not.

[jus_the_facts]

20. write only with my left.....do everything else with my right....

.....always a joke that I'm *Amber*dextrous! :D

[JohnKleeb]

21. I write with my left too, got it from uncles, and both granddaddies

I ironically in baseball hit right handed, most well known player to do that was Rickey Henderson, I throw left handed.

[jus_the_facts]

22. I'm the only person in my whole family who's a southpaw....

.....did you learn to write with your wrist hooked with you paper turned to your right hand....I was fortunate as my teacher taught me to turn my paper to towards my left hand instead...that helped me to have much better penmanship than most other lefties as it's much easier not to have to hook your wrist around to attempt to write like a right handed person. :)

[scarletlib]

24. Lefthanded and married to a leftie

but both our children are right-handed. However, our beautiful and very bright grandson is lefthanded.

As a lefty I would not call myself ambidexterous, however, I can do many things with my right hand. In sports I can use either the right or left hand. I can write (if necessary with my right hand). I think many lefties develop the abilitty to use both hands out of the necessity of growing up in a righthanded world.

Some studies I have read seem to indicate that in our eary pre-history the population was probably 50-50 right and left-handed. The mystery is why so few lefties now.

[newyawker99]

35. Congrats scarletlib!! 300 posts

:toast:

[no_hypocrisy]

25. Ambidextrous but unsure if it is original tendency.

I could write my name with chalk using both hands when I was five. The kindergarten teacher freaked and conspired with my mother to make me into a right handed person.

I never stopped using my left hand entirely (opening doors, eating, etc.) I have recently "reclaimed" my left hand and can print and write letters and numbers rather well although much slower.

Aside from my wish that I had a voice in which hand to use, I think about how my right brain (creative thought and spacial reasoning) might have developed had I been encouraged to use both hands throughout my life.

[Athletic Grrl]

26. From my old t-shirt...

"Lefties of the world unite. Left is right."

I do use scissors and cut meat right handed, but do all other knife work lefty. My hubby is a left-leaning ambidextrous. Or as Charles Shackleford would have said, "amphibious." heehee

[Superfly]

27. Do you mean sinistral, dextral, or ambidextral?

Just wondering

[catpower2000]

28. Proud lefty over here!! nt

[Interrobang]

29. Brain structuralism is for suckers!

If it were *really* true that one half of our brains really did things naturally better than the other, or that certain parts of our brains were specifically set up to do one thing and one thing only, I wouldn't be sitting here typing this, and I absolutely wouldn't have walked over to the computer. I have cerebral palsy, and lots of brain damage. However, I had a lot of intervention, both surgical and manipulative (physiotherapy et al), and now I function almost like an able-bodied person (and there's nothing wrong with my IQ, thanks much). Most of what's still wrong with me is because of the spasticity and because of atrophy/hypertrophy in my lower body, which throws my gait off somewhat. It *is* possible to re-train your brain to be anything you want it to be.

That said, I have no dominant brain hemisphere, no dominant eye, and I'm only biased towards using my left leg because it's the stronger and more agile/flexible of the two, and I'm *mostly* right-handed. I seem to do more things with my left hand than most right-handed people, I play most sports left-handed, and I can write almost as well with my left hand as I can with my right, which is rather startling, considering how little I practice left-handed. (Actually, in the languages I write where one should write right-to-left, I write just as well with my left hand as I do with my right. I notice this particularly with Hebrew, because both hands have had equally little practice. I wonder if it's possible to be better in one script with one hand and better in others with the other...) I also manifest a couple of the traits of people who've been forcibly "switched," although I never was.

(Bitter grumbly aside: Now that I have *lots and lots of time* I should practice writing with my left hand!)

[northzax]

41. true, with the Brain there are few set rules

it is an absurdly adaptive organ. BUT, there is no doubt that there is dominance, in most people, favouring one side of the body. And that simple changes in the brian can cause that favouritism to switch. My Grandfather was right handed. had a massive stroke, and came out left handed. it is not uncommon.

[gate of the sun]

30. i am basically a lefty

but can do alot of things with my right hand better than I can with my left...It might be the society thing. I don't know but writing and eating are definite left handed.

[SmileyBoy]

31. I'm sorry John, but I can't get "anibitrious" out of my head.

It's a word I'll be remembering and laughing about for a looooong time...:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[JohnKleeb]

46. Well thats why I never went to spelling bee man

But Mr. Qualye I can spell Potato.

[Awsi Dooger]

32. Another wacko lefty here

I don't do much righthanded other than play golf. Even there, I switch putt depending on the break: righthanded with a right-to-left break, and lefty when the slope is left-to-right.

Still, it's been evident to me that lefties are more competent with their off hand than righties. I could always shoot hoops, or throw a ball, or play ping-pong, etc. better with my right hand than my righthanded friends or relatives could manage lefty.

[Lost4words]

33. I am a lefty

with right eye dominance.

[demnan]

34. I'm a lefty

The funny thing is that I'm the only one in my family. When I was little my mother practically treated me as disabled because of it. She made a big thing of calling me uncoordinated. Well when you're left-handed your right hand might be relatively less coordinated. However, I'm the only one of my siblings who can play classical piano, has a college degree and a white collar job and types 90 words a minute and I don't think being left-handed made me disabled at all.

I think my grandmother was originally left-handed but was taught to write right-handed - this was back in the days when it was thought to be evil to write left-handed. My grandmother would write with her right but draw cartoons for me with her left.

[bif]

36. Mainly right-handed

Except when I eat and play hockey.

[_NorCal_D_]

37. Left handed.

B-)

[Atman]

38. I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

"anibitrious"

But I think you can get a shot for that.

[Hubert Flottz]

39. Both Handed!

Underhanded!

[BurtWorm]

42. I see you're waving at us with your left hand.

:hi:

Actually I am too. I guess that makes me ambidextrous.

[patdem]

43. No one who is left handed is ONLY left handed...all who are left handed

are ambidextrous by necessity. I write and eat with my left hand, but I learned to bat and knit with as a right handed person. To be taught different skills is to be taught mostly by right handed persons who cannot even teach a left handed person.

[rucky]

44. Yep! Same here

No lefty scissors in my classroom, so...

[comsymp]

54. In 6th grade, my principal gave me a pair- couldn't use 'em

still can't.

Mouse, 10-key, scissors are just about the only things i can use w/my right hand, tho. don't even DARE try using a fork!

[bobthedrummer]

45. Solid southpaw here

n/t

[David__77]

47. Beat this! My entire family is left-handed!

Both parents, my brother and I are all left-handed. Not all grandparents though. If it weren't for my father, we'd be left politically as well!

[JohnKleeb]

48. I would fit in

:)
Actually I think that could be why I am a lefty, both grandfathers and at least one uncle on both sides. Plus most of em are political lefties. BTW I didnt know we had so many left handers here!, the average last I hear in population wise is only like 10% well lefties tend to be more creative, and we are liberals :) mostly you know.

[David__77]

51. I always wonder if the stereotype is true...

my mother is very "pro-left-handed-people" and thinks there is a real qualitative difference. She would talk about all the famous left-handed people and how our brains were different and so on. I don't know about all that, but I wonder if there are legitimate studies on the issue.

[Spirochete]

55. My mother was a lefty

her mother was a lefty, her older brother is a lefty, and I and both my sisters are lefthanded. As I understand it, it has nothing to do with heredity, so it seems like a major fluke, so many people in our families being lefthanded.

[XNASA]

49. I can do most things with either hand, except write.

I write with my right hand, but most things I can do either way.

For example, my computer mouse at work is set up left-handed, my mouse at home - right handed.

I can play a few musical instruments which requires the use of both hands.

I can throw a football or baseball with either hand, although I throw much better right-handed.

Also, I can switch hit. More power from the right, but better contact from the left.

I try and use 'em both. Saves some wear and tear.

[Chovexani]

50. Ambidextrous

Which of course leads to lots of bawdy jokes about switch-hitting, etc. :)

I tend to favor the use of my right hand, if only because it makes life easier, but I can also do most things just as well with my left.

[CanuckAmok]

52. basically ambidexterous, but...

I spent my first few school years in England. I was forced to learn to print right-handed, but being made to sit on my 'sinister' hand. To this day, I'm left-dominant, except for writing, which I can only do right-handed.

[TSIAS]

53. Right (n/t)

[area51]

56. born right-handed,

but due to injury to my right wrist, I've had to try to become ambidextrous.