h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: "Honey I've Crashed the Car" - A study of Left-ear Phone Conversations - A4054132
Author: Paff-just-Paff - U1522321

Written a while back after a discussion with a couple of work colleagues about ear-swapping while on the phone.

I've given it a quick freshen-up, and thought it might find a place in the guide.

I'm not sure of the value of repeating all this stuff about brain dominance, since it hasn't been proved. The left/right difference is far less demonstrated in scientific experiments than people seem to believe. While it has been shown that the left side of the brain holds the linguistic centre, and that the right side is better at drawing, all the stuff about analytic and emotional sides is just speculation.

If you do decide to go ahead with it, you haven't said whether the left ear connects to the left side of the brain or to the right side of the brain. I've heard both stated as fact - when I tried to investigate this myself, I found that each ear appears to connect to both sides of the brain.

Thanks for that.

I did consider mentioning the ear-brain connection, and the Brocas area etc, but thought it was getting a bit long anyway. Also, I was trying to stay away from the terminology and keep it basic.

As for whether any of this is actually factual, I'd totally agree that in science a lot of assumptions are made which then get called facts and other assumptions are based on those 'facts'. That's another article on its own surely?

I'm only counting this stuff as factual because people are out there calling it factual - my wife did a 4 years degree on these kinds of subjects, and has applied much of it in real-life care of head-injured patients.

I think it is rather funny.

And, hey, people do swap hands when there is some kind of shocking news (right handers anyway) so if it is true or not, it's the best explanation I've ever heard!

I have always put the phone to my left ear, although I am right handed. I can't understand anything in my right ear.

Surely the terms male and female would be better than boys and girls?

I dunno?

Boys/Girls, Males/Females ... yes I already had that dilemma:
- This was first written with Blokes/Girls for the benefit of the original audience - my office work colleagues!
- I did try using Male/Female on my freshen-up edit, but I thought it was getting too clinical. Maybe I should go back to that?
- I'm getting less happy with Boys/Girls now too. Anyone have other suggestions?

Back to the issue of it being factual:
- To my knowledge, the "rules" are as factual as medical science can be.
- However, the explanation of the whole ear-swapping thing is my own hypothesis, based on those rules. Am I allowed to do that within the writing guidelines?

Thanks for the comments folks. And thanks in advance for any answers to the questions above.

maybe try men/women to make it sound less like kids on the playground while avoiding the overt clinicalness

The Professor

I like the style of this, but have recently heard a lot of noise about the left hand/right hand side of the brain business maybe being too strictly appplied. I'd therefore like to see the words 'One suggestion is.... ' or similar in it somewhere.

But nice entry, and well worked round.

As a matter of curiosity, what's the age range of your co-workers, Piff-not-Paff?

I'm a right-handed woman, and I always hold the receiver in my left hand. I can hear perfectly with my right ear, but holding the receiver in my right hand feels so weird that I never do it. I've never ever swapped hands during a phone call that I'm aware of.

I grew up using an elderly rotary phone, and it certainly felt easier to dial with my right hand rather than my left. This set a lifetime habit--receiver in left hand, dial with right. I wonder if this applies to other right-handers of my generation? (Gnomon earlier in the thread is definitely one example )

Azara

Interesting thought.

Unfortunately I use my right hand to hold the phone, and only tranfer to my left if I want to write something down. (RH - 51)

Again, thanks for the comments folks.

- I'll try men/women. Thanks Proffessor.
- Yes, I'm also happy to put in "a suggestion is..." (or something to that effect). Thanks McKay.
- I'm thirtysomething (OK, OK, 37). My co-workers are/were about the same. Yes, I also grew up with rotary phones. I'm left-handed, and always held the phone with left hand to left ear, and dialled with right hand. Maybe it could be argued that it's easier to dial with your right hand, not because of actual handed-ness, but because the the left-hemisphere is better at doing the numbers/logic bit via the right hand? Thanks Azara. (and its Paff-just-Paff, not Piff-not-Paff )

I have three questions:
1) I asked this previously... This is piece just a theory (based originally on a "little knowledge" and a "little Friday lunchtime beer"). I went off, researched it, knocked-up a page of A4 for the benefit of myself and co-workers and that was it. Does this mean it's not a valid entry because of the factual issue?
2) I'm also getting the impression that we're discussing the theory, not the piece. Does this mean that if I can be proved wrong (or not right enough) then my guide entry isn't valid?
3) I'm new in here (new to h2g2 and Peer Review)... If I make some changes, what do I do next? Remove it from PR? Just change it? Does some official come and throw me out of the forum and tell me to come back next week? Other than staying here talking about it for weeks (which I'm more than happy to do) I don't understand where we go from here. Can someone explain?

Thankyou all.

1 maybe yes maybe no
2 see answer 1 (my suggestion of 'a suggestion is..' makes it a more likely yes, because it is plausible and entertaining.
3 Just change it and say here you've done it. It must stay here at least 7 days, then it can be 'picked' by a scout, after which its edited and joins the queue for the front page. After it makes the front page - you're in

OK, thanks McKay.

I'll make some tweaks. Back soon...

Made some small tweaks, as suggested above:

- Made it clearer that the conclusion and the rules aren't 'fact' (by way of the two footnotes in the opening section).
- Used women/men instead of girls/boys (except in one of the subheadings, where I think it reads better as it is).

Thanks again to everyone in the thread above for your comments.

I am a right-handed man and always use the left ear naturally, I do make a concious effort to use the right just for balance and also long conversations make my ear ache anyway and that ear seems to be quieter at first but it soon "normalises". Is this common? I also grew up using my right hand to twirl the dial on those pre-digital pulse dialing telephones.

A fantastic article. Hillarious, but also informative. Well done.
Malcstonbru

Can you remove the first header? It'd be removed anyway during editing as the title forms a kind of first header, and another header just looks weird

<>
Now you've said that, I know what you mean. Problem is, I'm using the headers (there are 3 of them) as subheaders, and the subheaders as sub-subheaders. I'm going to try moving it down rather than removing it.

Goes off and does that in another browser window

I've just moved it down 2 paras. Looked rubbish. Trying again now.

Tries again

I've now put it between the 1st and 2nd para. Maybe that'll do it?

Comments please.

I think you should get rid of the first heading all together. The actual title and first paragraph does the job well, so just go straight into the sub-headings after the first two paragraphs, without the heading.

Although I'm not sure, maybe you are not allowed to do that. But I feel there is no need for the first heading.