What are you?

[Cadalot]

I suspect I may have been left handed but got it knocked out of me at school but who knows? It's that long ago I can't remember but I do remember my first teacher was an old shrew who used to throw the wooden duster at us and give us a smack either across the back of the hand or the shoulders with her pointer as she was passing if our work displeased her.

I think I had her sister down here in Sutton Surrey, Mrs Batchelor was her name (she obviously made an impression as I have never forgotten her name) She chucked the wooden blackboard duster at me and it hit the little girl siting behind me, she would not let me write with my left which confused me no end. I hold my fork in my right hand, I now write with the right, but I'm happy doing most things with either which was fortunate when I ended up getting a repetitive strain injury in my right elbow due to too much CAD work with the mouse. Those early ball mice were a bu99er to use.

[Jay-ell]

Spiral staircases were originally a defensive feature in castles and were designed so that a defender up the stairs could swing their swords in the space on the outside of the steps yet the attacker trying to get up the steps had their sword arms confined next to the central stone column and couldn't get a good swing.

In the 16th century Ford Castle in Northumberland was owned by the Carr family. As the male members of the Carrs were all left handed they made their spiral staircase twist the other way so that they could swing their swords. This, unfortunately, would also allow attackers to swing their swords although the defenders would still have the advantage of height.

Carry Handed is a Northumbrian term for left handedness.

Coincidentally Cary Grant was left handed.

[DannyK]

I write left handed.
I use knife and fork "normally" but can't use spoon or chop sticks with right hand.
Mouse left handed.

[Jay-ell]

Dexter and Sinister are derived from latin for right and left respectively and are used in heraldry to denote the right hand and left hand sides or a shield or coat of arms.

However these are from the perspective of the person carrying the shield so when you are looking at a coat of arms face on the left is on the right and the right is on the left.

A shield divided into two by a diagonal line running from the top left to the bottom right (remember that that's if you are carrying the shield, if you are looking at the shield it's the other way round) is described as a "Party per bend sinister" - those medieval knights knew how to have a good time.

Dexter has come to be used in handedness as in dexterous and ambidextrous. Left handedness (those with a sinister hand) would be less common so sinister would have been odder, weird, perverse and eventually EVIL

[Florence Fennel]

Thank the gods for Himself, I was starting to feel lonely.

We have 8 grandchildren SP. One (grandson) is left handed

[Jay-ell]

Other names for left handedness are:
Southpaw - both boxing and baseball seem to claim to be the origin of this usage
Cack Handed - I'll let your imagination work this out.

Any other names for left handedness?

[Nicos]

Did you know that medieval spiral stone staircases always went upwards in a clockwise direction....to stop the right handed enemy advancing from below from having room to swing their swords!

Not a lot of people know that

[DannyK]

Noun cack = dung
Old English (as cac- in cachūs ‘privy’); the verb dates from late Middle English and is related to Middle Dutch cacken; based on Latin cacare defecate.
Another thing the Romans gave us!
Does this mean us lefties are out of ordure?

[Jay-ell]

Noun cack = dung
Old English (as cac- in cachūs ‘privy’); the verb dates from late Middle English and is related to Middle Dutch cacken; based on Latin cacare defecate.
Another thing the Romans gave us!
Does this mean us lefties are out of ordure?

That's the etymology - I think the phrase predates the invention of the toilet roll and tabloid press.

Some cultures today still use the left hand to clean up afterwards so the phrase may indicate this was a custom previously used in Europe too - if you were right handed ok, but if you were left handed, well everything was cack handed then.

I thought the Romans used sponges on a stick - I seem to remember visiting somewhere with the ruins of the toilet having a channel of water running down the centre to wash the sponges in.

[Guest]

I am glad to see there are a few RH peeps that do things LH I always thought I was just odd. (I play pool LH and it was made worse - peeps taking the mickey, when I took RH shots as back shots)

My Dad was LH but another who was corrected at school. My oldest is also a lefty.

[Small pumpkin]

I write left handed.
I use knife and fork "normally" but can't use spoon or chop sticks with right hand.
Mouse left handed.

That's me I do all that as well.


My Grandad was left handed, another one that had it beaten out of him at school.

[Bigmallly]

Myths about being left-handed | Anything Left-Handed

[Sheneval]

I hate to upset all RH people but as a youngster I remember being told Left Handed people were more intelligent - mind you my eldest brother is LH so the informant may have been biased but the reality is that he is the cleverest of the 4 despite leaving school at 15 to work. We were on a coach trip in England and having one of these quiz nights with teams of 4 and we had 5 so he went on his own and won against the other 7 teams - luckily for him there were very few questions on sport, soaps, reality TV and Pop.

[Small pumpkin]

That's brilliant BM . There are the odd one or two think I'm evil

[gardening_gal]

I'm right handed but eat the 'wrong' way so I'm told. (Knife in left hand fork in right.)

Seems the right way to me since it's the fork that is the main implement and goes to your mouth moving more often than the knife does so it should be in the more dominant hand imo.