March 29, 2007

• Seems like a good idea, but they might want to work on their ad copy. This had me rolling my eyes: For left-handed girls, this may lead to poor body posture that may not look too feminine.
• I'm a lefty who'se so old... ...How old are you? I'm so old, I learned to write with a nib pen and inkwells (Quink if I remember) Blotters and all! We were only allowed to use cartridge pens in the 3rd Grade. I still have a couple. Talk about your smudging. Kids today have no idea. Having said that I don't think I would have been caught dead with a Smudgeguard. Graduate of the MacMillian handwriting program class of '64
• I am right handed. I write with incredibly horrible form. I hold the pen the way a left handed person often does, but with my right hand. I, too, have smudge problems. What I have found to be exceptionally peculiar about all of this is that I have actually have had many people throughout the years watch me writing with my right hand and say, "I didn't know you were left-handed."
• I am left-handed, as are both of my parents, and both of my sisters. My mom had the catholic school nuns-a whackin' yr hand with a ruler type experience, as a fountain pen smudging lefty. I always had great handwriting, even as a child. studied calligraphy and all that. even tho I am branded as a sinister low class south-paw. sometimes I hold my hand "like a left-handed person" and sometimes like a right-handed person (but with my left hand)...I guess I consider it a sign of pride to wear the smudge on my left pinkie/hand side....I won't bow to the rightocracy!!
• I'm right handed and always manage to smudge when writing with ink. Usually the line above.... But really how much scrawling do we do nowadays? I type mostly and that uses both hands...
• I grew up pre-computer and I wore that smudge on my hand like a badge of honor. Fuck righties with your smug non-smudged hands. What is worse is the indentation you get on the spiral notebook. And bernockle, not all lefties hold the pen/pencil that way. I hold it like a righty does, just with my left hand. Things have improved for us lefties. My grandfather said the nuns in his schooldays would beat him for writing with his left hand.
• I don't understand what the "left handed way" of holding a pen is? (I'm a righty and I don't hold a pencil like any of those ways in the link I just posted, nor have I found a similar right or left hold in a quick google search for "left handed pen holding"... I sort of hold it so that it's leaning directly away from me, parallel to the second phalanx of my index finger with the tip of the index finger along the pencil's side and resting against the third phalanx of my middle finger with my thumb straddling the pencil; almost like an 'a' in American Sign Language, but with the first two fingers slightly askew. I find there is more control over the pen this way than when it's held in the ol' thumb-crotch. Should I be beaten for this? Or is it the other things?)
• Monkeyfilter: there is more control when it's held in the ol' thumb-crotch
• *applauds Medusa and birdherder* As a proud leftie who had to learn to adapt to the right-handed world, I'm not impressed with this so-called smudge guard. The spiral notebook dilemma, as birdherder pointed out, was much more troublesome for me (as well as scissors). I think the lowest moment of my "left-handedness" was when I joined little league baseball. My mother wasn't able to afford the purchase of a special "left-handed" glove, so I had to make due with a standard "right-handed" glove. As an outfielder, I developed a rather strange technique for catching balls - - I would catch and throw balls with my left hand. To accomplish this, I had to first catch the ball, then pull my glove off and transfer the ball from the glove to my hand, and throw! Surely many players on opposing teams made their way safely to base due to the slight delay in my return. Humiliating! I also wore the smudge with honor. My great-grandmother (who survived being hit, slapped, beat for being left-handed) always made me feel proud to be a leftie. After she passed away at the ripe age of 103, she left me some of her "lefty" tools (left-handed pinking shears anyone?).
• So what's up with the nuns?
• I was a victim of the nuns. Yes, the mighty ruler slap to the knuckles. The tugging and pinching of the earlobes. The verbal assaults. Your penmenship will suffer if you continue using your left hand! Sister Beatrice, rot in hell... See also Sister Mary Ellen, on the other hand, took slight pity on me. While she was fond of belittling me, she would slip me year-old chocolate covered cherries (the liquid center thus crystallized). Yummy. The Fathers? Somehow, I survived six years of being an altar boy without being molested. *flees thread*
• Why, 'cause left-handed meant "the devil" or something?
• As the odd rightie in a family of lefties, I have to say that none of my kin are smudgers. They keep from smudging their paper because they curl their hand kind of like this: *puts thumb above index finger, sticks out tongue, twists arm, crosses toes, kinks elbow, stands on head Well, something like that. Find out what Handedness has to do with Brain Lateralization, and who cares; Handedness Questionnaire; Famous Left-Handers; On being Gauche! *and MORE!!! MonkeyFilter: Fuck righties with your smug non-smudged hands. Yeah, them nuns were the worstest.
• The Catholic Church held for over a thousand years that being left handed made you a servant of the Devil and that anything left-handed was evil. [Gooch, 1984] Muslims forbid the touching of any holy scripture with the left hand. Jesus sits on the right hand of God. In pictures of the Last Judgement the Christian God shows his disciples their new heavenly abode with his right hand, and points with his left to hell. The Left Hand Path, therefore, being the demonic, the diabolical and the Earthly path to Hell. and here's this: Religion has played an important part in oppressing the image of the left hand. In Matthew 6:3 of the Bible, Jesus instructed his followers that when they do charitable things, to "not let thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." Jesus also expressed the following sentiments regarding the Judgment Day. "And before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...' Then shall He say into them on the left hand, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels...' blah, blah, blah...
• Oh. I see. *slowly backs out of thread*
• also the english word sinister comes from the Latin for "left" so there you go. *flashes sinister grin*
• That's a paddlin' . . .
• On my sidebar right now: Saturn is a Weird Place For Lefties
• well it's true you know. Saturn would definitely be a republican. astrologically speaking, Saturn is a big grumpy conservative old man who always wants to block you and make things difficult.
• Medusa and minda are tikklin' mah funnee bone today!
• Truly, God hates lefties. Okay, not really.
• There's some interesting stuff in this old thread too.
• well I hate god :P
• I always smudged my hand more than the paper. By the end of the day I'd have so many little blue lines on my hands it looked like varicose veins. Never did get that blasted Parker Penmanship certificate. 2 things always come to mind when I think of left-handedness: 1. There was always a full rack of nice, shiny "lefty" scissors in the classroom and a half-empty rack of battered "righty" ones. So, you had to learn to cut left-handed in order to get a decent pair. 2. Extended-family dinners where we kids, packed like sardines around the table, would fight over who had to sit next to the left-handed cousin cause you'd bang elbows with him whenever you both lifted your fork.
• when I dine with a group I always insist upon the left site seat, to avoid the elbow-bonkage.
• side d'oh
• MonkeyFilter: avoid the elbow-bonkage. Certainly words to live by.
• I minorly broke my left arm when I was 6. cracked the elbow, had a cast on for all of 3 weeks. but oh boy is that elbooo sensitive! If I hit that "funny bone" it brings me completely to tears with pain. so yes, bonkage avoidance is important to me :)
• Ah, so this is bonk in the sense of bumping.
• yes, the other one is "boink" oh the differnce an i makes :D
• Just add u and i...
• My dad got his knuckles whacked for being left handed in public school, so it wasn't only the nuns! Now he has the most interesting, loopy handwriting because of their efforts to force him into right-handed-ness. (I always thought it looked more like chicken ice skating rather than chicken scratch.)
• My dad got his knuckles whacked for being left handed in public school, so it wasn't only the nuns! So it was a Catholic school or what? Cause if it wasn't the left-hand-is-evil thing, what was it?
• My left-handed cousin got knucklewhacked in public school for the same reason. Probably just a misplaced stress on conformity. Or maybe the teachers were Catholic school alumni.
• > yes, the other one is "boink" oh the differnce an i makes :D So boinking in the US is bonking in Britain. *hastily changes greeting card message*
• I always loved the sound of that word. boink boink boink boink boink boink boink boink boink boinkboinkboinkboinkboinkboinkboinkboinkboinkboinkboink BOINK tee hee
• Or maybe the teachers were Catholic school alumni. Possibly . . possibly . . . Couldn't help thinking of the "Apple Bonkers" from Yellow Submarine