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

June 27, 1999

Fellow Researcher Kat just gave me a good idea (I think so, anyway):

What is the percentage of left-handed Researchers?

How does that percentage compare to the number of left-handed people at large?
 
 

100 per cent cack - handed here.

AG

Insha Allah!

EH !

Excuse my iggerance I have only mastered 2 langwidges and that phrase is unknown to me?

AG

"The will of God" or "God willing" (something along those lines, Arabic).

I was stumped by "Cack-handed". No one has ever whispered that in the dark cellar. Then I thought, "Aha! 'Cack' could refer to shit (call it devine inspiration). In Islam one takes care of the less noble bodily functions with the left hand and eats exclusively with the right (or so I think I remember reading somewhere). Which is a bit of a gibe at lefties; but there you have it!

There's a lot to this left-handed business. After exchanging posts with Kat, the other night, I had a look at a couple of web sites on the subject. There's more to it than one might think, even a lefty. I'd forgotten what a miserable time school was, when teachers tried to "convert" me. Stuff like that. Now they're saying that meddling teachers (and parents) can do serious and lasting neurological damage to little people by trying to force them to change.

This could... I think will... lead to a "Left-Handed" article!

Seems like a sinister plot is brewing...

Well spoke, young sir! Are ye a Lefty too?

When I was a young lad a teacher had a theory that I was left-handed because my hand writing was such a mess. She turned out to be wrong, but I could pretend to be left-handed if it'd help.

I'm not prejudiced. Some of my best friends are right-handed.

I am left handed and proud of it. It is time we sinistrals stood up for our lefts (sic)! I have a brilliant book by Simon Langford, called 'The Left-handed Book', sadly out of print, which tells the awful truth about our persecution through the ages. A quick search on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com , has revealed several other books on the sinister side of life, but I think a page on h2g2 is a high priority. Fancy a collaboration ?
I am sure that Bill Clinton, George Bush, Prince Charles, Paul McCartney, Leonardo da Vinci, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Monica Seles and Jack the Ripper would be grateful.

Oh, and the percentage of left-handers at large is generally taken to be 10%, though I have seen 15% quoted. Perhaps there are some closet sinistrals out there?

10% eh.
My parents were both right handed and of their 6 kids 4 are left handed!
50 % in our house.

AG

Cack handed was one of the least obnoxious jibes I had to endure as a kid! Cack being a local nicety for shit. I never twigged any islamic connexion.
I do really need some left handers scissors but why are they so expensive?

AG

Isn't genetics wonderful? Both my parents are right-handed, and so were all my grandparents, yet I am sinister *evil laugh*. I don't think anyone understands why hand preference develops, but if anyone has an idea, PLEASE TELL.
As for left-handed scissors, there used to be a shop near Liberty's in London called 'Anything Left-Handed' which sold all sorts of things for the dextrally challenged. I don't know if it's still there... Personally, I use ambidextrous scissors, cos I can't cope with the ones moulded for the right hand only. The only tool I really can't use is a right-handed potato peeler - drives me mad (but it's a perfect excuse for refusing to peel potatoes!).

"In a right-handed world, the average sinistral has to adapt, so we are probably more 'dextrous' than our dextral cousins."
Discuss.

My wife uses a little Korean hand hoe. She thinks it's marvelous. But it's no good to me at all.

The jury is still out on the lefty percentage: I've read 2 to 30 percent. Interestingly (or alarmingly, if you're a bit unsure of yourself), the figure jumps to something like 50% among homosexuals. Although there is nothing to suggest a relationship of causes.

The figure is also higher among those who are 'spatially aware', in other words need to think in three dimensions, like top tennis players and crystallographers. This is probably because the right hand side of the brain deals with such things (and controls the left hand side of the body). My tennis is terrible, but I used to be good at crystallography.

Tennis serves were a use of the third dimension I could never get my brain comfortable with.

What's crystalography?

I'm right handed... I feel so alone. However, I use my left hand for important things such as:

-holding my drink
-typing
-holding my drink
-helping my right hand tie my shoes
-holding the glass as I pour the drink
-brushing my hair

So...does that make me special? Oh, how I want to be special...

As a lefty I payed squash very well once (compared to my really naff sport skills otherwise) but failed miserably at tennis 'cos of waiting for the ball to rebounce from a non-existant back wall.

AG