I just watched 201 - Madam Ex. That's the one where Lois has a criminal double, and the only difference between the two is that Lois is righthanded and the double is lefthanded. But when Lois and Clark investigate the dumpster where the doctor's body was found Lois is all upset and kicks an empty can WITH HER LEFT FOOT.

I watched the scene a couple of times and I'm convinced that that was her natural way of kicking. Don't you think the editors should have been more careful about that?

By the way, I'm only very new here but I really enjoy this forum. Thanks to all posters.

Hey there, welcome!

Hmm...well, I write with my left hand, and it's my natural tendancy to kick with my right foot. But that could just be me and my weird tendancies; I get ambidextrous with things. I don't know whether or not there's a correlation between hands and feet.

Interesting.
JD

I thought of that because I know lots of people who are righthanded and leftfooted or vice versa. Still the point is that even before the matter was mentioned in the episode I noticed that Lois kicked it with her left foot because it seemed unnatural for me. So even though it's quite possible that she's like you - aren't you lucky! - if I was the director I would have been more careful with it.

It also seems possible to me that it's just another one of the loose ends that seem to abound in L&C, like the fact that the nude of Martha was never explained, or that there was a timer counting down when they broke into an office - don't remember which episode but it was towards the end of the episode - and that was never dealt with either.

Makes it that much more exciting, I suppose.

I've never kicked cans, but I have kicked pebbles down the street while walking home from school, and I used whichever foot was closest to the pebble. Consider this: if an object is directly in front of your left foot (by however many inches) it is MUCH easier to kick it with that foot than to try to kick it with the right foot. I mean you CAN, but then the object will go sideways. The only way the object will go forward is if you twist your foot/leg and that's really too much effort, if you ask me.

I'm sure the director wanted the incident to look natural. If the director had told Teri "you NEED to kick it with your right foot" then she'd have been concentrating on making sure her right foot was in the correct position and she'd be focused on her pacing and not so much on her lines and would it really have been worth it?

...eh, who knows. But good observation & welcome to the MBs.

Okay, I'll leave it at that. I'm not really into kicking pebbles so I wouldn't really know. Still seems strange to me that the difference in handedness between the double and Lois was mentioned but hardly pursued.

On handedness I have a question. In the different episodes I've notice Clark/Dean writing with his right hand but in the episode where Lois cooks breakfast he has the fork in his left hand. Is Dean right or left handed.

Not sure how to answer that, but I know that I am 100% righthanded yet I tend to eat with my left hand. I usually will hold the fork with my left hand and a knife with my right, that way I can cut with my right hand but I'm too lazy to swith the fork over to my right hand after I cut something, so I end up just eating with my left. If that makes ANY sense LOL. Maybe Dean is the same, or perhaps I'm just weird and he is just ambidextrous?

According to a book I got at Christmas, although around 90% of the population is right-handed, almost no one is entirely one or the other. Handedness is largely a matter of degree. As a result, I would say that Dean is right-handed, just not entirely so.

To test your own degree of handedness, try the following test:
1. Draw the profile of a face.
2. Draw a circle.
3. Grasp your hands behind your back.
4. Clap your hands.
5. Fold your arms across your chest.

Strong righties always draw the profile facing left. They draw the circle counterclockwise. Their right hand grasps the left hand behind their backs. When clapping the right hand beats down on the left, and when they cross their arms, the right fingers are showing.

Strong lefties do the opposite. When I tried the test, I was a lefty for all but item five, where I cross my arms like a righty.

Interesting test, Sheila! As I knew, I am 100% lefty .

I agree with everyone else about the kicking. I played soccer in high school, and although I kicked much more accurately and stronger with my left foot, if my right foot was at a better angle to the ball, I wouldn't hesitate to use it.

- Laura

I had a discussion about this with a French friend and an American friend before. And we came to the conclusion that Americans do the fork-switching-hands thing and Europeans hold the knife with the hand they write with. I do the European way but I'm not sure I'm the average Canadian. I think I've heard that the European way is the formal, proper way in business dinners. Anyway, so I think Dean is just right-handed, not ambidextrous.

Just my 2 cents,
Simba

Interesting test indeed, Sheila. I'm right handed and always considered myself to be, in not 100% right handed, then at least very strongly so. I use my left hand to do almost nothing, always prefering to use my right. However, on the test, I only scored as a righty twice (numbers 1 and 4) and all other times scored as a lefty. Fascinating.

As for switching hands while eating, I learned at one point that it became an American tradition and point of ettiquette during the early colonization/frontier days when everyone was armed and the country still had a very rogue feel about it. Putting the fork in one's dominant hand was a way of signifying that they were not a threat. People who used their left hand to eat and kept their knife in their right hand the entire time were regarded suspiciously. For the record, I have no idea where I read this though, so while it seems to make sense, I can't vouch for it's accuracy.

Annie

I've always known I'm a total lefty. Can't even carry a purse or bag over my right shoulder, it slides right off.

But on this one, like you, Sheila, I was a righty on #5.

Huh.

Now I know that can't be interesting to anyone but me, but I felt compelled to say "Me too!"

CC

Well, just because I'm different, I'm right-handed, but scored left-handed on no. 3. No idea why; that's the way I've always held my hands if I link them behind my back. Everything else I do the right-handed way. Fascinating test!

As for the fork thing, I never knew there was an issue there. If I'm not using a knife at all - eg eating a rice dish or a stir-fry - I'll hold my fork in my right hand. Otherwise I'll hold it in the 'proper' hand - the left - and use my knife in my right hand, using both items of cutlery together. I'm trying to get a mental picture, though - do people actually cut something with their knife, put it down and then take up their fork in their right hand?


Wendy

Yes, Wendy, I've actually seen this. Seemed a very long-winded and clumsy way to eat to me, but then etiquette often has little to do with good sense and convenience, doesn't it? <g> I'm intrigued to learn that it may stem from a need to show yourself as unarmed - although isn't it just as threatening to know someone's got a free hand that they could use to stab/shoot you?

Yvonne

A couple different things to say here.

1. I've never understood that obsession with the fake-Lois pushing her hair out of her face with her left hand. I've talked to lots of people and we all agree -- you push the hair with the hand that's closest! Or the hand that's free, even if it's an awkward push, when you've got lots of stuff in one hand. I think having fake-Lois be left-handed is an interesting way to 'smoke her out,' as it were, but they picked a really stupid way to reveal it.

2. A lot of right-handed people are left-footed, or vice versa. I personally am right-handed, right-footed, right-eyed and left-eared. <g> (I literally cannot use a phone with my right ear. It's as if all hearing capabilities are shut off.) Plus the argument about using whichever foot is closest -- although I'm strongly enough right-footed that when randombly kicking pebbles, etc, *I'll* move to be able to get a right-kick position, even if a left-kick would've been simpler.

3. The test. Well, I was confused at first...clasped my hands behind my back by folding them. So neither one was 'grasping' the other. <g> But when I understood, yes, I test as a righty. Except the clapping thing...both hands come in from the sides equally. :p And when I switched to the described way, I test as a lefty. Odd, since I can't *do* anything with my left hand.

4. Eating. I've adapted to the European way of holding the fork and the knife. But yes, overall, Americans tend to cut-switch-eat-switch-cut-switch-eat. I have never heard Annie's explanation before, but it does make sense -- same reason we shake hands with our right hands. Most people are right-handed, so both then had their sword hand occupied and couldn't attack.

However, I do use my right hand with the fork when eating without a knife. And, I have a personal habit from childhood that I don't do in polite company (I've been told it's rude) -- I cut *all* the food, switch hands, and use my right to eat all my nice bite-sized pieces. The reason for this is that it leaves the left hand open to hold a book! (What? You didn't read during every meal except family dinners the entire time you were growing up? <g>)

I think that's all I have to say. Well, except that the whole left-hand-to-brush-hair-means-she-can't-be-Lois thing still bothers me!

Bethy

I tried your test, Sheila, and scored right-handed for all questions.

I'm generally right-handed, but some things I do with my left hand "obligatorily". For example, I am just *unable* to even hold the fork with my left hand. So, I use the knife with the left. Same when I want to serve a glass of water: For some reason, I *must* hold the glass with my right hand, so I grab the bottle with my left hand. (Weird, isn't it?)

As for left-footed or right-footed, I can't really tell. I pretty much suck at football I *think* my right foot is slightly more efficient, though.

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

The book had one other test which I found interesting and explained something that had puzzled me all my life. Of the lefties I knew growing up, I was the only one who had been taught how to hold a pencil and paper so that I write with my hand and arm lined up straight with the paper and have a slight right-handed slant to my letters instead of a strong back-slant. I assumed it was because I had been taught to write left-handed properly, and the others hadn't.

However, I carefully taught my left-handed daughter how to hold her pencil and write, but she was never able to do it the way I showed her. Instead, her hand hooked over, and her letters had a slight back-slant.

This test explained the discrepency to me. Write your name on a piece of paper and answer these questions:

1. Did you write with your left or right hand?
2. Did the pencil point away from you when you wrote, with your hand below the line (straight writing)?
3. Did the pencil point towards you with your hand above the line of writing (hooked writing)?

"Those with hooked left-handed and straight right-handed writing seem to have the language center in the left brain. They are said to be left-brained dominated. Straight left-handers and hooked right-handers have language centers in the right hemisphere. These are the right-brain-dominated people."

So, although my daughter and I are both left-handed, she is left-brain dominant, and I am right-brain dominant.

To bring this closer to the original topic , I've watched Dean autograph things, and he writes straight right-handed, so he is left-brain dominant.

Bethy, I also understand the point you're making, but I was slightly stumped when I tried to think of something that the imposter could do quickly and unthinkingly on camera that would reveal her left-handedness instead of her carefully practiced right-handed actions. Can anyone come up with something that could have appeared on the news clip of her?

Sounds interesting.... What's the title of the book?


metwin1

ok, i guess i have to add my two cents in here too. believe it or not, i always considered dean to be left-handed. i'm not really sure why, i think it was because a lot of times in the show i noticed him wearing a watch on his right hand. (i know, crazy me). as for the test, i consider myself to be totally right-handed, and i was except that i always crossed my arms left-handedly. interesting. this was a fun topic!

In pics I have of Dean from a few years ago, I've got him writing with his right hand, drinking out of a cup with his left, and dribbling a basketball with his right. Just to add to the heap o' facts we've got going on, here.

hmmm I did the test and according to the test Im left handed, except I'm not 3/5 for left.

If I play tennis seriously I'll play with my right hand, but if I play against family I'll play left handed, makes it more interesting

When I kick a footy (Aussie footy) I'm right dominated, so kick-to-kick I'm right. However if I'm kicking for goal I'll use the correct foot depending on what side of the goal I am. If you're to the left of goal you use your right and visa-versa.

when it comes to surfing or grinding I'm googly foot - that is right dominated but use my left foot forward.

When it comes to eating, I was taught to use my left hand for the fork and right for the knife. It is considered incorrect and rude to eat any other way.

Sheila, what does it mean when you write neither hooked or straight? I write with the pen in line with the line pointing to the left.

The hooked/straight thing threw me for a second. I am by no means right-brained. I have the most purely mathematical, non-creative brain of anyone I know. Yet I am left handed and don't write hooked. My dad is both logical and creative and can write either hooked or straight because of the way he was taught. I think I write straight rather than hooked because I hold my pen incorrectly to begin with, and also in elementary school, I hated being the kid who got pencil and ink all over the side of her hand! So I hold my pen between my middle finger and ring finger with my hand below the line I am writing. However, if i were to hold the pen between the two correct fingers (the first finger and middle finger), my hand does naturally hook. This might be the reason for my absurdly poor handwriting skills, and even though I had many, many special handwriting classes in elementary school, they never were able to "correct" me.

- Laura

I'm going to start posting before I forget all the points.
Wendy & Yvonne, I would say with confidence that 80% of U.S. citizens "cut and switch". That's what we were taught as children. I've always heard that is American and Europeans turn the fork upside down and use the left hand. We use the fork right side up in our right hands after cutting. Maybe it was meant to slow down our eating habits.
I'd never heard this
It does make sense, though. We've been a frontier a long time.
I think we had a lengthy discussion on knife and fork eating habits before. Interestingly to me, my son-in-law eats "European" style and he's American.
Right, back to the can kicking. I haven't seen the ep in a long time, but very often actors use the appendage closest to the camera so the action shows clearly. This goes for both arms and legs. Remember they are making 3D action 2 dimensional on your TV screen. And, IIRC, the real Lois dug for coins in the pay telephone just like the fake Lois. The writers were trying to up the dramatic quotient.
Interesting test, Sheila. I'm right handed except for clasping behind the back. Sheila said:
That's what I was lead to believe. That when I went to school in the Middle Ages, eveyone had to have their paper on their desk aligned as a right-handed person would. They were trying to eliminate left-handedness because it was believed to be "wrong." So the hook maneuver came because the lefties came in from the top of the paper. But it is interesting your daughter does it naturally.
The fake could have been writing notes in her reporters notebook left handed. That would be tough to do the hook bit with though.

Artemis

I don't really remember the ep that well, but off the top of my head, I think a more revealing and simple thing would have been a reflex action. Catching or swatting at something thrown her way, for example. No matter how hard you train yourself, I really doubt that you could get yourself to catch an unexpected ball (or other object) with your off hand.

As for myself... I'm a strong righty in the sense that I will, by instinct or preference, do most things with my right hand. OTOH, when I broke my right arm as a kid, I found myself running into a lot of difficulties. Since then, I've made sure to practice doing most common tasks with my left hand, to make myself as ambidexterous as possible. My dad has helped with that, actually. He needs a lot of elbow room at the table (a fact which he refuses to understand or aknowledge, whether it's pointed out subtly or point-blank), so I've quietly taught myself to eat lefty. Whenever he sits on my right, I simply tuck my right hand in and use my left as my primary. I'm still a little shaky with a spoon, but I can use fork, knife, or chopsticks with either hand.

On the test, I come out 50/50. I never learned to draw a profile, for some reason. I draw circles and clap hands righty, but I clasp and fold arms lefty.

As for writing, I have this talent. I can write illegibly with either hand. Thank goodness for keyboards. I do prefer to use my right hand, though, and my writing is slightly more legible when I do so.

I'm not sure about this hooked vs straight thing. I hold my pencil with three fingers. It's braced against my middle finger, but controlled by my thumb and first finger. My hand ends up basically on the line, and the pencil isn't really pointed towards or away from me. I tend to have it straight up and down, although as I move across the page, I sometimes shift my hand so it points slightly towards or away from me.

Of course, I have some personality traits which, I'm told, are associated with a strong left-right connection. So... <shrug>

Anyway, interesting discussion.

Paul

Interesting discussion.

Just a few things I wanted to point out:

The shaking hands with your right hands. I've never heard the swords explanation, but it makes sense. The explanation I've always heard turns out... after a little research ... to be more of a cultural custom. I found this site described the reason I recalled.

This may be true of other cultures too.

/me looks at the clock...

Yup, I used my whole break catching up on this and posting. *sigh* Oh well.

Sara (who's back to work where she carries trays with her left arm like an oddball )

Yeah, the swords explanation is the one I learned in my Western European style upbringing. As a coda to that, the men walked to the right of the lady so that their sword arm was then free. (BTW a left handed fencer has a great advantage because he/she comes from an unexpected direction.)
Which brings me back to...Lois and Clark! In "We Have a Lot to Talk About" Clark and Lois are walking along the street after the rainstorm. Clark automatically switches from inside to outside of Lois (i.e. near the curb) when they turn a corner. I always thought that was a great indication of Clark's gentlemanly upbringing. Why the curbside? To protect the woman from mud splattered by horse carriages on unpaved streets. We just still do it today even though most streets are paved and the gentleman would probably be as distressed about his suit getting splattered as the woman.
Ah, the trivia I know!

Artemis

I took that test and I had to laugh. I'm a righty when writing but I scored lefty on arm folding, arm grasping, and clapping. And as for drawing a circle and a profile, I do those both ways and don't favor one direction over the other. Does this mean my brain is totally confused?

The title of the book is "The Whole World of Hands." It seems to be written for youngsters, so it doesn't go into deep discussions of the neurological or sociological underpinnings of handedness.

Someone mentioned writing with the pencil facing right or left instead of away from you or toward you, and I noticed that when I write right-handed, that's the way I do it. So maybe that's more of a "hook" type of writing than "straight."

Since I was a leftie, my parents didn't really teach me to cut food up the way they and my right-handed siblings do, so I eat European style. I always eat with my left hand, so when I cut things up, I just add the knife to my right hand and then set it down. I was a young teen before I realized I was the only one in the family who wasn't switching-cutting-and-switching-back.

Actually, I'm not surprised at a righty carrying a tray in her left hand. I carry everything in my right hand so my left hand is always free for fine motor operations such as placing the plates of food on the table.

Then again, I'm probably not a good example since my family thinks I was born to be a righty. I burned the fingers of my right hand very badly when I was about 7 mos old (I still carry the scars), and I switched to the left hand. However, I've always done all gross motor actions right handed, so I play sports right handed. But when I've taken tests to reflect brain dominance, I'm very clearly ... in the middle. That's probably why I teach both math and English with equal ease. That's also why I was surprised to have the handedness tests show I'm such a strong lefty. Then again, they were almost all fine-motor tasks.

I'm glad you find this an interesting topic. I had all my family do the tests when they were over for Christmas dinner.

To bring this back to Lois and her left-handed double, I thought about the reflex action, but if something came at me from the right, I'd bat it away with the right hand (even though that's the hand I throw with), and if it came from the left, I'd use the left hand. Remember that the double was on-camera on the street, so the cameraman was in front of her (and not likely to be throwing things at her ). I thought about having her writing in her notebook, too, but from the dialog in the show, it was clear that Arie had drilled her on not using her left hand, so that would have been something she would have practiced. A reflexive response is the only one that would catch her, but I really had a hard time thinking of what she would have done on camera that would have been reflexive.

In current pics, Dean is wearing his watch on his left wrist, which to me says "right handed."

Artemis

Of course, the one point where the European way of eating falls down flat on its face is when you're faced with a plate of peas or sweetcorn. You're supposed to squish the peas/sweetcorn onto the back of the fork in your left hand - turning the fork around and using it like a spoon to shovel them up is considered poor table manners. But, if you ask me, life is too short to eat your peas in groups of three or four at a time, and who wants squished peas, anyway? So, unless I've got something to glue the peas to like mashed potato, I shovel away and stuff the table manners <g>.

Yvonne

LOL Yvonne, I never knew that about it being bad manners. I don't think I've ever met anyone who squishes their peas/corn. I'm with you, who would want to make baby food of their peas

I agree, Yvonna. Squished peas are no fun.

And, just to be contrary... <g> The watch is not *always* an accurate indicator of handedness. My sister is left-handed and wears her watch on her left hand. I, on the other hand, am a righty -- and wear my watch on my right hand.

Call us the exceptions that prove the rule, if you want.

Bethy

Hi there! I'm a newbie on this board, but I was quite intrigued by this discussion Pls forgive me for any newbie boo-boos.

Sheila, on the handedness test, I actually scored 5/5 righty. On the straight/hooked writing thingy, I had this thought:

When a righty writes straight or a lefty writes hooked, the words you're writing appear in your left field of vision, while the right visual field is blocked by your hand/pen (try writing while closing each eye in turn and you'll get what I mean). So there's more input into your left eye, and hence into your left brain. Vice versa for the lefty writing straight and the righty writing hooked.

I wonder if that's the reason why that test indicates your dominant hemisphere for language. My 2c

Welcome to our playground, JudeMustard - hope this isn't the only time you post and that you have fun hanging out with us, here.

There's a valid reason for people to wear a watch on the opposite wrist to whateverhandedness they are...and I'm danged if I can remember what the heck it is. There is one though. And it's a bloody good one. Trust me.

And..um...I'm afraid I'm now going to gross everyone out and say that my favourite food ever is mashed potatoes with peas or baked beans. So I can squish the peas/beans into the potatoes, mix them all together into a paste...and then put it in a slice of bread and make a sandwich of it. Oh, and preferably, you put in enough of the paste to make it squish out of the sides when you fold the bread over. <g>


Sorry. I know, it's appalling. But it works for me.

LabRat (now firmly in the mood and making mental note to make potatoes for dinner this evening...)

Well, I have a non-bloody-but-still-good reason to wear my watch on my dominant hand -- a bracelet my parents gave me became daily attire before a watch did; it went on the non-dominant hand. By elimination, when I started wearing a watch....

Of course, the bracelet has had to be replaced since, and I've occasionally considered setting it aside, but I'm too used to my watch on my right hand now to move it.

Oddly enough, I score lefty on three of the five tests above....

Thanks LabRat! I'm the one who emailed you last week asking if I should write that story my Muse came up with just when I was supposed to be studying.

(And the exam is this morning! Ha! Pls pray for Divine intervention if y'all would like me to have some tiny vague possibility of passing.)

With regard to the watch thing, I always just thought it was more convenient to wear it on your non-dominant hand cos it gets in the way when you're writing, and it's easier to look at it when your dominant hand is occupied doing other things - such as checking how much time you have left while frantically scribbling answers in an exam In fact, most people I knew in school who wore their watch on their dominant hand would take it off and put it on the table during any exam that involved a lot of writing.

(Thank goodness the one I'm taking today is multiple-choice. A friend at church offered to get me Divine Dice... )

Yeah...where is that story, JudeMustard? <g> Make this your first official nag.

Good luck on the exam!! Crossing all of my claws and my tail for you.

I think I've just remembered what that reason was. I think actually I'm recalling something that was once in a fanfic and is purely Lois. Something about her always wearing her watch on the opposite wrist because it fooled villains in some way when they tied her up, making it easier for her to escape.

Would be a very old fanfic. Anyone recognising this? Or have I finally taken that final step off the edge of the loopy cliff?

Exam over. Muse... gone!

Sigh. Thanks for the good wishes, I'm sure they helped. This was one of those exams where I have NO clue at the end of it whether I passed or failed. So we can all keep our fingers crossed for the next month, while we wait for the results. It was so exhausting, 200 MCQs in 6 hours... about 3/4 of the way through, I really was ready to start rolling dice!

About the muse, okay, she's MIA, but I managed to get enough out of her before she vanished for me to start writing something. Not the one I asked you about, LabRat, but another one, which I started in... are you ready for this?... 1997! (I have the IRC chat logs with KathyB to prove it. She said, "This story has potential. Don't be in a hurry to finish this." LOL. Don't think she expected me to take her that seriously!)

Okay, I'm going waaay OT here, since this has nothing to do with handedness. Unless I were to propose a poll -- seems a great many of our LnC authors are lefties... what do you guys think?

I have a feeling there was a poll on this question a while back. Yup, here it is:

Left or Right Handed?

Course, it was a while back and it's always worthwhile revisiting these questions, as more new members arrive. Might be interesting to see if the balance has changed since August.

LabRat (who recommends chaining your Muse under your desk. It stops them running off to the beach and the cabana boys...)

Personally, I've always felt that it made more sense to wear my watch on my primary hand, with the face on the back of the wrist. This was a decision I made as a kid, back when writing was something I did with a pen. The idea was that if I was going to be sitting looking at that hand anyway, it would be a lot easier just to tilt it a bit than it would be to shift my focus to my other hand. My oldest sister is one of the few people I know who agrees with me.

One of the other people I've heard of who wears his watch on his primary hand may be the cause of Lab's vague recollection. He's a friend of a friend who is somewhat paranoid. His thought was that if he wore his watch on his right hand, a potential mugger would have the opportunity to notice that and thereby assume that the victim is a lefty. This would give him a slight advantage if things then came to a struggle. It doesn't make much sense to me. I don't know how many muggers are really that observent. I don't know how many would get that close to their targets without being very aware of any movement. I don't know how many of the observent ones would be observent enough to notice other things, which might give away the ruse. But hey, if it makes the guy feel better, good for him. <shrug>

Paul

I'm still young enough to remember that when I wore a watch for the 1st time, I made the decision to wear it on my dominant hand, that is, my right hand.

I remember that I was corrected and told that the "correct" hand to wear my watch was the left hand, and I was really confused because the whole concept about looking at my left hand to tell time when I'm right handed was too much for my then young and easily confused mind.

I remember that. LOL. During my O and A level exams, it was like preparing for war. First the watch was removed and place at an optimal position on the table such that you could see the time without changing writing posture. Then names and student numbers were written on at least 10 sheets of paper before the exam began so that the entire 3 hours of exams could be devoted to answering the questions. Some people even made rubber stamps of their names so as not to waste time and energy. We calculated how much time to spend per mark before the exam so we knew exactly how much time we had to work on a question. But I'm going off topic.

I know that my sister meclone2 got used to using her left hand to eat finger foods and sandwiches when we got into the bad habit of eating and surfing the net. This way, her right hand remains grease-free and she can use the mouse.

I sometimes wonder how much of our handedness is trained rather than inborned. I mean, my right hand is much more nimble than my left hand, but I do wonder if it is because I use my right hand so much that the muscles are more well developed than that of my left. I tried to hold a pencil with my left hand once. It wasn't pretty. :p

I mean, I play the piano. You pretty much need to be strong in both hands to handle running passages. You have no idea how many times I've cursed composers who put trills to be played by the left hand. Even with all the extra training my left hand gets because of piano, the playing field is still skewed towards the right hand. Imagine if you don't have a regular activity that requires the dexturity of your non-dominant hand. :p


metwin1

PS: JudeMustard, welcome to the boards. I'm so glad to see another Singaporean here.

I have two reasons for wearing my watch on my dominant hand. First, my dad, who was a righty, put his watch on his left hand, and I just copied him. And second, I began wearing watches before batteries were common, so we had to wind them every night. Since the stem was always on the right side of the watch, it was easier to wear the watch on my left hand and wind it with my right hand (which faced the stem) than it was to wear it on my right hand and try to reach across and super-pronate my left hand (turn my hand so the back faces my right and the palm faces my left) to wind it with my left hand. There was a reason most lefties learned to do many things with their right hand--it often required a contortionist to use equipment designed for a righty with the left hand.

You forgot to mention the Ten-year series! (Past year questions that you're supposed to practise on until you have this reflex arc where you can read the question and shade the circle without processing any information in your brain.) And the 2 dozen or so 2B pencils. Speaking of which, I brought so many spare pencils to the exam I just took that I felt like Mr Bean! (But ya can't beat the person sitting diagnonally across from me, who before the paper started was fully prepared with, in addition to the relevant stationery, three *peeled* and *seeded* tangerines sitting neatly at the corner of her desk!! Talk about a continuous supply of brain food... I just drank Red Bull during every break )

I had a few classmates who were actually ambidextrous, and during those long essay papers would switch hands while writing. I always thought it was really unfair, since the rest of us had to just take breaks and wait out the cramps in our hands before we could continue writing. Did you ever see those people who'd drop their pens and shake their hands vigourously to get the circulation going? I was one of those and also would have to use my left hand to pry the fingers of my right hand off the pen when I wanted to stop writing cos they'd just be in spasm!

Thanks, it's nice to be here, and to see other Singaporeans here! When (If...? Nah. When.) the LnC DVDs come out, what say we all get together and have a marathon?

Gosh, Sheila! (/me thwaps herself). That's such a simple (and very good) reason to wear your watch on your left hand. Actually, as I remember it, I had really bad eczema as a kid and would develop a rash on my wrist if I wore the same watcb on one hand for more than a few days straight, so I'd switch my watches back and forth between right and left every few days. It always took a while to get used to it being on the other wrist, though -- I'd always glance at the wrong wrist and quickly swap, hoping no one noticed