Left Handers Club Newsletter – February 2011
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- Left handed expressions (34)
- Left-handed animals? (18)
- Lefty Book (9)
In this issue..
1. The advantages of being left-handed – Follow Up
2. Left-handed animals?
3. Lefty Book – The cartoon adventures of a frustrated left-hander
4. Left handed expressions
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Last month we published a list of the top 10 advantages of being left handed and we had a lot of feedback with more ideas…
Use the link below to see our full article with links to the various bits of research to back these up and a chance to add your own advantages and comments. |
”This is probably the first time we see some kind of mechanism trying to explain how handedness came about in the first place,” Dr Brown said. ”It's clearly linked to brain lateralisation. So the brain lateralisation determines eye lateralisation, which determines hand preferences.” There have been lots of reports over the years about various animals showing hand preference and here is a brief summary:
If you come across any other reports on animals that are left-sided or disagree with any of those above, please |
Lefthanders Reg Fahie and Joe MacDonald have put their lifetime of experiences into an entertaining book called “Lefty” that uses a cartoon character to show the challenges and frustrations facing left-handers in a right-handed world. They have done it in a light-hearted way and while us lefties will recognise all of the situations described in the book they will no doubt, as always, be a revelation to right-handers. We are not sure all the situations they illustrate are relevant in all countries (some are related to driving on the right for example) and some of them are a bit far-fetched and ignore our ability to adapt and make the best of things, but they do point out a lot of little niggles and annoyances that only apply to us a lefthanders. There are 74 pages of cartoons like these and each has an explanation for right-handers upside-down at the bottom. Reg has a supply of the hard-back books in Canada and has agreed to send them out direct to Left Handers Club members. Even better, we have produced an Ebook version with all the pages enlarged to A4 size (210 x 297mm / 8.25 x 11.75 inches) so you can print them out and put your favourites on the wall to amuse fellow lefthanders and educate the righties. This digital version is much cheaper at only £4.95, has no delivery charge and is available now for immediate download. You comment on this book and let us know which are your favourite cartoons by leaving a comment on the article here |
The left side is often associated in language with awkwardness and clumsiness (because right-handers think left-handed people look awkward using the tools that they have specifically designed to make them backwards for us!). the Spanish expression “tener dos pies izquierdos“, In English, the expression “to have two left feet” refers to clumsiness in the domains of football or dancing. A “left-handed compliment” is considered one that is unflattering or dismissive in meaning. The Polish expression “mieć dwie lewe rÄ™ce“, Dutch “twee linkerhanden hebben“, German “zwei linke Hände haben“, the Bulgarian expression “dve levi ratse“, French “avoir deux mains gauches“, Hungarian kétbalkezes and Czech “MÃt obÄ› ruce levé” all mean “to have two left hands” – that one is clumsy or is a very poor handyman. The German idiom “mit dem linken Fuß aufgestanden sein“, the Spanish expression “levantarse con el pie izquierdo“, the French expression “s'être levé du pied gauche“and the Hungarian expression “bal lábbal kel fel” (literally, to have gotten up with the left foot) mean to have a bad day and do everything wrong or unsuccessfully, related to the English expression “to get up on the wrong side of the bed”. The Welsh phrase “tu chwith allan” (left side out) refers to an object being inside-out. In Russian, the use of the term nalyevo means “on the left”, but can also connotate taking bribes or “sneaky” behavior. Balszerencse (lit. “left luck”) is Hungarian for “bad luck”. If you have any more information on any of these sayings or know others from your country, please |
That's all for this month – we will be in touch again soon
Best wishes
Keith & Lauren
and all at the Left Handers Club
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Interesting…. a Left Hander’s watch. Do you realize that if you were to have one with Hebrew lettering/Numbers that that too would be perfect? I have a regular-old “right hand” running watch with the Hebrew markings – × ×‘ ×’ ד ×”… -but (as usual) it runs in the clockwise rotation. Just thought I would mention this.
It is always good to find another source for us Lefties!
I m lefty, i face many problems. In my family all are right handed. i m fustrated .But when i saw this it makes me comfortable. I am happy that many people are like me lefthander.
Knitting is making a come-back; are left-handers going to be left out? Hachette are re-issuing their knitting part work which doesn’t have any information for left-handers, not even the old ‘look at the instructions in the mirror’ line – which doesn’t work anyway. what resources are available for the left-handed knitter? I can knit, having been taught by my mother, who taught herself to knit left-handedly in order to teach me (impressive) but when I knitted a raglan-sleeved jumper, the decreasing on each side was different – one side looked like cabling!
since creativity doesnt depends on ur hand it precizely depends on how u put ur self in doing it
I find your emails funny and informative. Keep up the good work.
Peace,
Kelly
I really want a “Zipped Executive Conference folder, padded leather, A4” with a ring-mechanisme added!
That would increase the usefulness significantly.
kind regards
Eddie Eide