Dean actually addressed the eating with his left hand thing in an IRC chat years back. Here's the snippet:
[19:11] <Chrispat> Are you ambidextrous. We've noticed you eating with either hand in some scenes and you were batting left handed in one episode.
[19:12] <Deancain> Nope. Not ambidextrous... I can switch hit in baseball, and I do eat with my left hand most of the time. Long story behind that one...
[19:12] <laurach> tell us
[19:13] <laurach> ;-)
[19:14] <Chrispat> From Evi and KellyG
[19:14] <Chrispat> What was the funniest/ most crazy thing you have done in your life?
[19:15] <Deancain> My Principal in elementary school had lost his right hand to a meat grinder as a teenager. I was in trouble one day, and he had me in his office. He was writing with his left (good) hand, and I was staring at him. I forgot why I had even been sent in in the first place...
[19:16] <laurach> ah
[19:16] <Chrispat> and?
[19:18] <Deancain> He knew I was staring...all the kids did, and he said to me..."I didn't always write with my left hand. I was a good athlete, like you. Well-liked, like you. But I had an accident, and suddenly, in an instant, my whole life changed. I had to learn how to do everything with my left hand. Suddenly I wasn't so cool. People treated me differently. But I overcame that. Learned how to do things with my left hand."
[19:18] <Chrispat> Wow. That's great
[19:18] <laurach> So did he make you do everything with your left too
[19:19] <Deancain> "And that could happen to you, too, Dean. So think about what you do, how you treat the other kids, and realize that all of this can be gone in an instant." That was it. He let go back to class. I went home that night, and have been eating with my left hand ever since.
The full chat with Dean can be found
here.
Sarah