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.
