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
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.
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:
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.
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.
Can anyone come up with something that could have appeared on the news clip of her?
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
