What's something modern you won't miss when it becomes obsolete?

[F. J.]

The (now mostly-obsolete) Reason? Wet Ink

The moment I realized adults were full of it was when as a kid, I took to writing left handed. The teachers and my Mom ALL said I needed to be right handed. "Why?" I asked. It'd just be easier, they said. "How so?" I asked. Blank stares was all i ever got back. To this day, I have never gotten a fair answer to that and I now know they were just old school people who had some kind of problem with lefties and couldn't really say why.
Many famous artists were lefties and I now realize that I'm very right-brained, that's the most likely reason why i took to being left handed. That said, it's only with fine motor skills, I do most other stuff right handed (like shooting).

The reason might not seem obvious these days with most people writing with ballpoint pens that dry instantly, but was quite apparent in years past when people wrote with dip or fountain pens. There is a reason they used to make blotters and blotting paper and, prior to that, pounce and pounce-pots: real ink can take a while to dry.
In English, we read and write from left to right. When writing right-handed, the pen follows the hand. When writing left-handed, the hand follows the pen, which results in smudging and smearing the still-wet ink that you just wrote, never-mind having a black (or blue) hand. An easy way to prevent this is to simply hold your hand up off the paper, which can be a bit awkward and something that right-handed people don't have to do.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Do we need a list of left-handed guitar players? (Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Tony Iommi, Albert King, Bob Geldof, Kurt Cobain, Dick Dale, Jimmy Cliff...)

Frankie Remley.

 

[Edward]

Do we need a list of left-handed guitar players? (Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Tony Iommi, Albert King, Bob Geldof, Kurt Cobain, Dick Dale, Jimmy Cliff...)

Well, exactly. It's amazing how many people think they know better than Hendrix....

 

[sheeplady]

If you are pulling the starter cord on the lawnmower with your right hand, it means lawnmowers are designed for the right-handed.

A corkscrew is not the same, same with both hands. The spiral only allows turning in a clockwise direction to remove the cork from a wine bottle. For a left-handed person to use a right-handed corkscrew, we hold the corkscrew and turn the bottle.

I do not think there are truly ambidextrous people...

FUN FACT: Boomerangs are right-handed only. The Easter Bunny brought me one in my Easter basket many years ago. I was trying it out in the park and was about to give up when my father gave it a toss and it came back to him. Magic!

I am somewhat a lefty who has progressively been made into a righty. Had horrid problems writing in elementary school and learning my letters by copying them because the teacher was constantly taking things out of my left hand and putting them into my right. I write exclusively with the right, but I can with the left (although slow).

I do disagree with two of your points, however. The first is that in my experience, a person's handedness trumps all else. I live in a house with a left handed dishwasher (to the left of the sink) but a right handed fridge (to the right of the counter, handle on the left). I love the dishwasher, but the fridge irritates me. It would always be easier to open the fridge with my right hand, but I do it with my left. *Always.* This means I turn towards the fridge to open it, and cross my body with my left hand. My husband- a full righty, opens the dishwasher with his right hand, turning towards it and crossing his body with his right hand. My previous apartment had a left-handed fridge (handle on the right) and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I loved that kitchen so much until I moved here.

The second is ambidextrous people being righties. My grandmother (who was a true lefty) was ambidextrous. I've read that highly skilled ambidextrous people tend to be left handed and become ambidextrous because they are in a righty's world.

Your explanation helps me understand why I could never get a boomerang to work. I always thought I just had a bad throw.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Right-handed people obfuscate the conversation by trying to prove me wrong by listing famous baseball players. I said it was more difficult to play baseball for left-handers because it takes longer for us to turn around to run to first base. It doesn't matter we are two feet closer. It takes longer to turn around.

You only have to turn around if you end up facing the wrong way in the first place. In other words...if you're really bad at it.

I am starting a list.

Lawn chairs.

Let me know where I can get a right-handed lawn chair. I'm tired of the lefties sitting in mine.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the Era most refrigerators could be ordered with a right or left hand door at the time of purchase -- there's often an R or a L in the model number to denote which model you have. Never having owned a modern fridge, I don't know if this is still the case -- but if it isn't, it should be.

The discussion of left-handed baseball got me wondering, so I did some looking -- while the overall population of left-handers in the US is about ten percent of the total, the percentage of major league ballplayers who are lefthanded has hovered around thirty percent for most of the last century. I think part of that's demand -- left handed pitchers have always been sought after -- and part of that's circumstance: for a long time, major-league ballparks tended to favor left-handed hitters. As far as the difficulty of the game for left versus right, I won't say one way or another -- handedness made no difference to me, I could never *see* the ball.

 

[HudsonHawk]

In the Era most refrigerators could be ordered with a right or left hand door at the time of purchase -- there's often an R or a L in the model number to denote which model you have. Never having owned a modern fridge, I don't know if this is still the case -- but if it isn't, it should be.

Modern refrigerators can go either way. You can move the hinge and handle to either side easily, though I never thought of them being for left or right handed people, but rather for where your fridge is located relative to other things...wall, counter, etc...like entry doors.

 

[HudsonHawk]

No. You are wrong. Right-handed people usually are. He will have to turn to run to first base.

First, 1B isn't behind him, it's to his right. Secondly, You don't run until after you've hit the ball, at which point you'll be facing the pitcher, same as a righty. If you're still facing 3b after the pitch, chances are you never made contact in the first place.

That is precisely why I want a left-handed lawn chair. Unfortunately there is no such thing. I have an "ambidextrous" chair. At neighborhood parties, right-handed people play their version of Musical Chairs as they seem to think a temporarily vacated seat is fair game for anyone.

Do these right handed people have right handed chairs?

Sooner or later you will have a left-handed daughter or son or niece or nephew or granddaughter or grandson. Then some of these things will not be so funny anymore.

I already do, and this stuff is still hilarious.

 

[GreatWhiteHunter]

The reason might not seem obvious these days with most people writing with ballpoint pens that dry instantly, but was quite apparent in years past when people wrote with dip or fountain pens. There is a reason they used to make blotters and blotting paper and, prior to that, pounce and pounce-pots: real ink can take a while to dry.
In English, we read and write from left to right. When writing right-handed, the pen follows the hand. When writing left-handed, the hand follows the pen, which results in smudging and smearing the still-wet ink that you just wrote, never-mind having a black (or blue) hand. An easy way to prevent this is to simply hold your hand up off the paper, which can be a bit awkward and something that right-handed people don't have to do.

There is another way. When I was a kid we used pencil. Being a Southpaw, I smeared lead all over the page. The "teachers" were complaining. My mother found a left handed teacher who showed me that if I turned the paper roughly 30 degrees to the right so that the left upper corner was higher than the right, AND straighten my wrist, my hand would be below what I was writing and I would no longer smear my paper. Learning to turn the paper was easy. Learning to straighten my wrist was a whole different matter. Thought I would post this in case there is a parent with a struggling Southpaw out there.

 

[p51]

I just hovered my hand over the page, I always did.
This is why it made no sense why everyone else was making such a big deal about it when I was a kid...

 

[sheeplady]

You can order a fridge (as with most major appliances) with the handle on either side, or change the hinges as HudsonHawk suggested.

While most of the time the arrangement is somewhat limited by the space, in an empty kitchen that isn't plumbed, you have all sorts of freedom (if it is large enough) to place your appliances. In our current house, the dishwasher is to the left of the sink because of the house arrangement- it simply would not fit anyplace else unless you moved the sink from being centered under the window. In the new house, it will also be to the left of the sink because I'm designing that kitchen and I prefer it to be to my left as I stand at the sink. Most good design books and designers will bring up a new kitchen's handedness for the primary cook. But most kitchens are too limited in space and/or not designed by someone who understands kitchen design and efficiency.

As far as the lawn chairs- perhaps Veronica was referring the fold up ones with a cup holder? I think the cup holders tend to be on the right. I don't own one but I am thinking of the ones I know.

Come to think of it, when I played softball in high school I hit left-handed. If I were to pick up a bat that would be my instinct, but honestly I could go either way. When I shot skeet in college I did it right-handed because I am right eye-dominant. One of my teammates was right-handed but left-eye dominant, so he shot left handed. (He also had his own custom gun to boot, whereas I used my coach's gun.)

 

[HudsonHawk]

As far as the lawn chairs- perhaps Veronica was referring the fold up ones with a cup holder? I think the cup holders tend to be on the right. I don't own one but I am thinking of the ones I know.

All of mine have a cup holder on each side. One to hold your longneck and the other to hold your cigars. I guess those are the ambidextrous kind.

 

[sheeplady]

All of mine have a cup holder on each side. One to hold your longneck and the other to hold your cigars. I guess those are the ambidextrous kind.

lol.... maybe they are all like that.

 

[Stearmen]

You are having trouble. You just do not realize it because you are a northpaw and do not understand the problem because of your prejudices.

I am not saying that to be a wiseguy or to be mean or to catch you out. Most right-handed people say the same thing. Until they have a left-handed daughter or son and suddenly they realize they have been wrong.

If you are pulling the starter cord on the lawnmower with your right hand, it means lawnmowers are designed for the right-handed.

A corkscrew is not the same, same with both hands. The spiral only allows turning in a clockwise direction to remove the cork from a wine bottle. For a left-handed person to use a right-handed corkscrew, we hold the corkscrew and turn the bottle.



I have a better one for you, Edward.

Baseball is the worst team sport for left-handers. The first problem is finding a reasonably priced mitt. Then there is having to turn around after hitting the ball to run to first base. And getting rid of the bat in your left hand while running as fast as possible to first base by tossing the bat across your body towards the benches. The bases are laid out in the wrong direction for running. For a left-handed person the bases should be clockwise. If you mean there are many famous left-handed players in the major leagues, they are probably pitchers who had designated hitters taking their ups at bat for them.

Sometimes you will see the right-handed person who professes to bat left-handed because that is how he learned. He may very well get a hit but instead of pivoting towards first base will turn counterclockwise which takes up even more time and puts him outside the batter's box and outside of the baseline. That tells me no one recognized his problem and tried to coach him properly.

My friend Spewgie does a lot of things left-handed because we've been together since birth.

In my own experience, the only athletic competition in which being left-handed can influence the odds of winning is the one-hundred meter hurdles. Although I am taller than the average USA woman of 5' 4", I am not a willowy Amazon six feet tall. But if I am starting in a middle lane, there is a good chance I will win. Actually there is a good chance I will win anyway, but being in a middle lane ensures it.

If you are left-handed, you lead with your left foot over the hurdle. While the other girls are running bop bop bop bop boom, I am running boom boom boom boom bop. It throws the two girls on either side of me completely off which breaks the rhythm of the girls in the more distant lanes and the race becomes a shambles.

More fun than a left-handed corkscrew.

I do not think there are truly ambidextrous people. Yes. There may be people such as Stearmen who is extraordinarily gifted at doing some things with his left hand. The thing is, it has been proven that left-handed people are more creative and smarter than average and that our brains are wired differently. And not just a mirror-image of a right-handed brain. Differently. I believe because of this difference, there is something only left-handed people do. I have never seen ambidextrous or right-handed people do this one thing. This leads me to the conclusion the ambidextrous are merely talented right-handers with right-handed brains. Otherwise wouldn't the ambidextrous do this one thing in the left-handed manner half of the time instead of never?

Imagine you have a daughter. She is left-handed. Her dream is to dance as the prima donna with the ballet company. Or play violin in the symphony orchestra. Or compete in figure skating pairs in the Olympics.

Hard luck. You are ____________ .

a. Asian.
b. Black.
c. Catholic.
j. Jewish.
l. left-handed.

FUN FACT: Boomerangs are right-handed only. The Easter Bunny brought me one in my Easter basket many years ago. I was trying it out in the park and was about to give up when my father gave it a toss and it came back to him. Magic!

Do you know what would be cool? An experiment. If everyone who has a serrated bread knife went to the grocery store and bought two unsliced loaves of bread. Not baguettes. Something substantial. More along the lines of a Pullman loaf.

For the first loaf, slice by holding the knife with your right hand as normal. For the second loaf, hold the loaf with your right hand and the knife with your left and begin slicing the end opposite of which you normally do.

The slices from the second loaf will be very uneven. Thin at the top and thick at the bottom. This is not because you are clumsy with your left hand. It is because you're using a right-handed knife.

I was always disappointed my kitchen cutting skills never looked as good as Martha Stewart's in her magazine even though I tried with all my effort. It took me a long time to learn that it was not my fault and even knives have a handedness.

I only drink with my left hand, which is a problem at formal functions, when I have to think about using my right. I have never had a problem with a coffee mug, I just looked at five different ones, and the handle feels the same in my right hand and left. Maybe the cork screw is why I was considered a good airplane mechanic, there are just to many nuts and bolts that you can only access with either your right hand or left! Some one taught you to turn the bottle instead of the screw, you can't do that on a nut or a bolt, unless it is a left hand screw, which are rare. I could not imagine, not being able to put in two head bolts at the same time, saves a lot of time. I guise, I have just taken it for granted, just like, I used to think any one could be a pilot because I was, now I know a lot of people do not have what it takes. No disrespect. Funny, all the left handed people I have known were far more adaptable at using their right hand, such as starting a lawn mower, then the right hand people I have meant, who as one said, I can't even urinate with my left hand," yes, I cleaned up his language. Oh, and I am very creative, I have won many first place trophy's for custom motorcycles, a form of art, and I am pretty good at other forms of art.

 

[Edward]

I am somewhat a lefty who has progressively been made into a righty. Had horrid problems writing in elementary school and learning my letters by copying them because the teacher was constantly taking things out of my left hand and putting them into my right. I write exclusively with the right, but I can with the left (although slow).

I had a nursery (pre-school, I was four years old) acher who was of thed oldc school, and cracked me over the knuckles for painting or drawing with my left hand. Unfortunately, at that age I didn't know enough to report it, so it was a bit too late that my parents found out (after we'd been to a child psychologist, when for a host of reasons said nurery teacher had claimed there was something "wrong" with me.... being left handed and knowing, using and understanding big words like "ferocious" seemed to be the main problem.... lovely woman....). That was the end of it, though. There was a teacher at grammar school who thought it funny to mock the way I used the provided (right-handed) woodworking tools, but everyone thought him an idiot so it never really fizzled.... My paternal grandfather wasn't so lucky. Completely lefty in everything, he habitually wrote with his right hand first, having had that beaten into him at school in the late 10s/20s. He was artificially ambidextrous with handwriting as a result. A nice trick, but frankly I'm rather glad to have livedin a more enlightened age when that sort of idiocy is no longer the norm.

In the Era most refrigerators could be ordered with a right or left hand door at the time of purchase -- there's often an R or a L in the model number to denote which model you have. Never having owned a modern fridge, I don't know if this is still the case -- but if it isn't, it should be.

Probably a special order these days. The doors in my fitted kitchen vary; I didn't spec any of them, but I believe it's a design thing, based on room placement and visual space. Probably the dominant factor now.

There is another way. When I was a kid we used pencil. Being a Southpaw, I smeared lead all over the page. The "teachers" were complaining. My mother found a left handed teacher who showed me that if I turned the paper roughly 30 degrees to the right so that the left upper corner was higher than the right, AND straighten my wrist, my hand would be below what I was writing and I would no longer smear my paper. Learning to turn the paper was easy. Learning to straighten my wrist was a whole different matter. Thought I would post this in case there is a parent with a struggling Southpaw out there.

I was at school with left handed kids who would hook their arm round like a claw in some very strange shapes. I did have a tacher try to correct my writing position to a mirror of a right handed norm, but it never took. I went back to fountain pens of my own volition at thirteen (we were intially taught to write with fountain pen at primary school, though mine later dropped them in favour of a less messy, disposable fibre tip). Never had a problem with them since then; if anythin,g they improve my handwriting markedly. I still hold the pen pointing away from me with the nib facing me, though. Positioning is everything - different things work for diferent folks, but definitely we southpaws need to find our own way of doing it.

Funny, all the left handed people I have known were far more adaptable at using their right hand, such as starting a lawn mower, then the right hand people I have meant,

Years of having to find a work around, or make do with equipment designed on the assumption of being a dexter, I should imagine.

who as one said, I can't even urinate with my left hand," yes, I cleaned up his language.

I wish I could do that. Heck of a party trick, and extremely conveninent if I got caught short in a public place, I should imagine.

 

[Veronica T]

I guess those are the ambidextrous kind.

We'll never know.

I'm actually right-handed. And white.

I'm a graduate student doing research on internet groups. Of the fifty I've been monitoring for the past six months, this one is the worst. Only one person was genuinely nice to Veronica T.

 

[Big J]

We'll never know.

I'm actually right-handed. And white.

I'm a graduate student doing research on internet groups. Of the fifty I've been monitoring for the past six months, this one is the worst. Only one person was genuinely nice to Veronica T.

Hello.
Since your are referring to yourself in the second person, do I take it that 'Veronica T' is a fictional character you have created for the purpose of your research here at the Lounge?
I have to be honest, as a researcher, I'd love to see how you've rationalized your participant observer effect, especially now that you've effectively let the cat out of the bag, and blown it by telling us you were doing research. I guess that research is over now, here at FL.

I'd love to know how other Lounge members feel about being manipulated in order to help you get your Phd.?

Considering that you've come clean, and told us you're here doing research (which, as I've said above, the act of telling affects the observed behavior), now that your research on us is concluded, don't you think that you owe lounge members a little honesty?

Who are you?
What are you researching?
Who (if anyone) is funding your research? Google? Yahoo? Chinese military?

I want to be 'genuinely nice' to you, but you're not helping yourself. You'd have been better off just concluding your research, and slipping off without letting on that we were your 'test group'.

 

[2jakes]

We'll never know.

I'm actually right-handed. And white.

I'm a graduate student doing research on internet groups. Of the fifty I've been monitoring for the past six months, this one is the worst. Only one person was genuinely nice to Veronica T.

With regards to "internet" communication specifically in groups of people not familiar with each other. From all parts of the country & different backgrounds.
Each brings to the table what they feel is right.

For the most part I enjoy what people have posted on this forum.
And those that in my opinion are negative...
I just let it go .






Have a Nice Day Veronica T.

 

[Retro Spectator]

We'll never know.

I'm actually right-handed. And white.

I'm a graduate student doing research on internet groups. Of the fifty I've been monitoring for the past six months, this one is the worst. Only one person was genuinely nice to Veronica T.

I am afraid that your research may be flawed. Of all the forums I have visited, this one has the nicest people I have known on the internet. Loungers are much more polite than the people on other forums I have visited, and don't have a tendency to swear in every post they make. They aren't rude, and they love to help other each other. The Fedora Lounge is probably the most mature forum I have visited. The other forums I used to go to were mostly gaming forums, where the users were mostly lustful beast-eating orcs. I however, am not one of them, so I always left them as soon as they showed their dark side. This forum's dark side is nonexistent, and I am very glad I have stumbled upon this oasis in the desert of the internet.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Having just reviewed all Veronica's posts, I'm afraid I'm not seeing any instances where people were inhospitable or were giving her any kind of a hard time. Hudson disagreed with her about handedness in baseball, but he wasn't particularly disagreeable about it, and I was simply trying to pursue what seemed to be an interesting line of conversation. Ah well.

A bit of advice, if I may -- most of us here are exactly what we represent ourselves to be. We aren't playing games, we aren't assuming "internet identities" for the sake of messing around with the Crazy Retro People, and we really don't appreciate people who come along trying to do that, whether it's deliberate trolling or just somebody's misguided idea of "research." We have no way of knowing if you're telling us the truth, and frankly, I question whether you are -- if this is genuine academic research you're doing, it's difficult to see what the point is other than to prove a preconceived point. Which, as I'm sure you know, will not go over well when you're defending your dissertation.

And for the record, I'm right handed except when it comes to eating and playing the ukulele.