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

[Stearmen]

Of all the indignities inflicted upon left-handed people (scissors, wristwatches, coffee mugs, guns, corkscrews, baseball, can openers, measuring cups, computer mouses, fishing rods, snowblowers, lawnmowers, circular saws, chain saws, lawn chairs, violins and most musical instruments, ballet, figure skating ....) when I first encountered this type of desk upon graduation to the junior high school level I was the most livid.

I have no trouble using a lot of those left handed. Coffee mug, baseball, lots of great south paws, my last strike in bowling was left handed, made every one there mad, lawnmower requires both hands, just pull the cord with the right, lawn chair, can't say about the last two, but a cork screw, righty tighty lefty loosy, same, same both hands! Of course, I am ambidextrous, translation, I can write equally illegibly with either hand! Sure has come in handy riding motorcycles, flying airplanes and working as a mechanic. I sure fill sorry for all you mono hand people!

 

[p51]

That's the same reason the seating in fast-food joints is hard and uncomfortable -- they want you to eat your food and leave, not linger over coffee reading the paper.

This is not a modern idea, though -- the "one-arm lunch rooms" of the 1910s-1930s were designed the way they were for exactly the same reason.

I agree, but can anyone explain to me why it's so common these days for you wait forever to get the check? I've never understood why so many restaurants are in such a hurry and seem to think the check is an afterthought. I get so sick of sitting around waiting for the check. Many tips have taken a hit (or have been killed entirely) from prolonged waiting for someone to come by with the check. Neither my wife nor I can understand this...

 

[2jakes]

I agree, but can anyone explain to me why it's so common these days for you wait forever to get the check? I've never understood why so many restaurants are in such a hurry and seem to think the check is an afterthought. I get so sick of sitting around waiting for the check. Many tips have taken a hit (or have been killed entirely) from prolonged waiting for someone to come by with the check. Neither my wife nor I can understand this...

I usually go to the front & pay the cashier directly .

I once went to a store where two young salesclerks were having a conversation about their
boyfriends. I needed some help with finding the right size. So I waited, they knew I was there but
kept on with their talk. After a few minutes...one of them turns around and says in an annoyed tone...
"what do you want" ?
I said without thinking..."what have you got?"...then immediately I said..."never mind"
& walked out.
I should have said something more positive but was too upset. :eusa_doh:

 

[p51]

I usually go to the front & pay the cashier directly .

The problem is that so many restaurants these days don't have a front counter to go to.
As for your retail experience, hobby shops are notorious for this 'clubhouse' mentality.
I walked into a big hobby shop in Sacramento, CA a few years back. Like most hobby shops, there was that one guy who apparently is too young to be retured but too old to work, hanging at the front counter, talking about the model train layout he'll build someday.
I went to the back of the store and saw something I wanted to buy locked in a case. Being a polite person and foolishly thinking I'd be waited on if I went to the front counter, I did so. I stood 2 feet away from the employee, looking directly at him and more than a couple of minutes. He never even glanced over and the other guy kept rattling on to his captive audience. After a few minutes, my blood started to boil. I pulled out a pen I had on me and grabbed a flyer for something off the counter and wrote down the name of the employee on it. I started to walk out and only as I opened the door to leave, the employee asked, "Was there something I could help you with?"
I turned and said, "Yeah, there WAS something I wanted to buy, locked in that case back there. I don't know how you could have not noticed me staring at you for a few minutes, right there (pointing to a spot less than an arm's length from where he stood). But it's clear you'd rather hold court than do your job. I hope you're related to the boss, because they're going to find out that you're not interested in helping anyone." then I left, so ticked off I didn't think it was wise to hang around for his reply.
And yes, I did write the owner with the employee's name. If I'm ever in that town in the future, I wouldn't go back if they paid me to do so.

 

[2jakes]

And yes, I did write the owner with the employee's name. If I'm ever in that town in the future, I wouldn't go back if they paid me to do so.

Good for you !:eusa_clap



~~~
At a hobby shop just browsing around . I left after a while not buying a thing.
Young clerk runs outside & tells me that I took a merchandise from the counter without
paying. I was very embarrassed & upset. She told me if I didn't comply she would call
security. I went back to see what she was referring to. As she was showing me where the
item was...she noticed that it had fallen behind the display to the floor. She turn to me &
began to apologize...I was so angry, I told her to go to hell & left.
I saw a policeman outside & explained . He basically told me that the only way they can
prosecute is if they see me take the item.
I still wonder if the item had not been found...she probably swore I took it.
What could I have done ?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

As for your retail experience, hobby shops are notorious for this 'clubhouse' mentality.

I'm familiar with such establishments. It sounds like the kind of place that never seems to get much business and the only reason they're still in business is because the owner also happens to own the building.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Around here we call places like that "money laundering operations."

 

[p51]

Around here we call places like that "money laundering operations."

With any other type of business, we call them that, too. Something about hobby shops, though, even the ones which make good profits always have that one (always older and white) guy hanging around who never seems to buy anything and just takes up the employees' time.
Comic book stores are a lot like that, too.
There was a local hobby shop where you could never get the attention of anyone who worked there, they just sat around building models and trying to stump one another on airplane trivia. I never understood how they could stay in business and ignore the customers.
And, one day, I found out they couldn't. The entire chain went out of business, literally overnight.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The local version of the older white guy who hangs around the hobby shop also eats at the Burger King near me and talks my ear off. Though in all fairness I suspect that working at a hobby shop, unlike other kinds of retail establishments, is not "just a job" to the people who work there. It's the kind of job that doesn't feel like a job.

I think hobby shops have generally disappeared. Thirty years ago there were at least a dozen really good hobby shops in my area. Now there's only two.

 

[sheeplady]

Good for you !:eusa_clap



~~~
At a hobby shop just browsing around . I left after a while not buying a thing.
Young clerk runs outside & tells me that I took a merchandise from the counter without
paying. I was very embarrassed & upset. She told me if I didn't comply she would call
security. I went back to see what she was referring to. As she was showing me where the
item was...she noticed that it had fallen behind the display to the floor. She turn to me &
began to apologize...I was so angry, I told her to go to hell & left.
I saw a policeman outside & explained . He basically told me that the only way they can
prosecute is if they see me take the item.
I still wonder if the item had not been found...she probably swore I took it.
What could I have done ?

In NYS, you have to attempt to leave the building with the item in order to be charged with shoplifting. In your case, you should have encouraged her to call the cops. If you are falsely accused of shoplifting in NYS you have a civil case against the establishment.

I once was accused of shoplifting by a supermarket employee for an item I had previously purchased in another store. (Since I was walking and had just come from that store I had it in a reusable bag). It was an honest mistake, but I showed her the receipt for it and she accused me of lying and threatened to call the manager and have me arrested. I told her to call her manager and then I told the manager I wanted him to call the police. I have never gotten such a profuse apology in my life.

Strange how when the customer wants the store to call the cops suddenly the store doesn't want to.

 

[Gregg Axley]

P51 and 2Jakes, I handle that situation the same way I've done for 25yrs.
Back then I was into stereo equipment (amps, equalizers, and sub woofers LOTS of sub woofers).
A large store had moved in town and was really the only place to get good deals.
Soon they started having the "club" mentality, where the same crowd would show up and theorize about whether they should buy this brand or that brand. Rather than wait, I came up with a new method. I'd write down the information on the equipment I wanted, walk up to the associate and tell him/her "I need this (subwoofer, head unit, etc), I have the money to buy it now, I don't have a lot of time, and I'm ready to check out." Usually that got action. Now days I've had to alter my approach with "I need this (tv, computer, suit, etc), I don't have a lot of time, and I'm ready to check out (they don't care how you pay for it these days)." If they dilly dally around, I simply look at them and say
"I'll get it online from B&H Photo (electronics), or your website and have it shipped to me...btw thanks (insert their name so they know I saw it). I too will report bad service to the customer service department, I gladly give my cell number to them, and I speak politely to their SD representative because I know they have people screaming at them all the time I'm sure, and that doesn't help my case.

 

[Veronica T]

I have no trouble using a lot of those left handed. Coffee mug, baseball, lots of great south paws, my last strike in bowling was left handed, made every one there mad, lawnmower requires both hands, just pull the cord with the right, lawn chair, can't say about the last two, but a cork screw, righty tighty lefty loosy, same, same both hands! Of course, I am ambidextrous, translation, I can write equally illegibly with either hand! Sure has come in handy riding motorcycles, flying airplanes and working as a mechanic. I sure fill sorry for all you mono hand people!

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.

On the subject of left handed corkscrews, try leaving one lying around next the bottle at a party and watch the righties trying to use it. Hilarity ensues.

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.

 

[Big J]

I won't miss hipsters when they become obsolete.

 

[HudsonHawk]

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.

I'd have to quibble with you here. First, the biggest problem in my baseball career was that I didn't hit lefhanded. I had more than one pro scout tell me that if I could, he'd sign me in a heartbeat. If I had a son, I'd tie his right arm behind his back and throw him a ball. Secondly, left handed hitters have an inherent advantage with running the bases counter-clockwise. They simply start out closer to 1B. And I'm not sure why you'd have to turn around to face 1B or why the bat ends up in your left hand. Both of those are backwards.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A disproportionate number of exceptional hitters batted left handed. Off the top of my head,

Ty Cobb
Joe Jackson
Babe Ruth
Lou Gehrig
Charlie Gehringer
Mel Ott
Stan Musial
Duke Snider
Carl Yastrzemski

and of course, the greatest hitter who ever lived:

That's just a short list of the ones who come first to mind for me, but it's a pretty impressive group. Interestingly, both Cobb and Williams were naturally right-handed but batted left because of the perceived advantage that it gave them at the plate.

I think the biggest disadvantage for lefthanders is playing middle-infield positions. A left handed shortstop or second-baseman loses a step on the throw to first when they have to shift to throw across their bodies, and they can also have problems making the double-play pivot. There have only been a handful of left-handed middle infielders in nearly a hundred and forty years of major league play. There hasn't been a left-handed shortstop who appeared in anything more than a handful of games in nearly a century.

 

[ChiTownScion]

And then there's this guy:

 

[HudsonHawk]

A disproportionate number of exceptional hitters batted left handed. Off the top of my head,

Ty Cobb
Joe Jackson
Babe Ruth
Lou Gehrig
Charlie Gehringer
Mel Ott
Stan Musial
Duke Snider
Carl Yastrzemski

and of course, the greatest hitter who ever lived:

Even in more modern times...Rod Carew, Tony Gwynn, George Brett, Tony Oliva, Ichiro Suzuki...

That's just a short list of the ones who come first to mind for me, but it's a pretty impressive group. Interestingly, both Cobb and Williams were naturally right-handed but batted left because of the perceived advantage that it gave them at the plate.

The advantage of hitting left handed is a function of the majority of pitchers being right handed. For most guys, it's easier to see and time the ball from an offhanded pitcher (LH hitter/RH pitcher or RH hitter/LF pitcher).


As for running the bases backwards...reminds me of Gary Cooper portraying Lou Gehrig in "Pride Of The Yankees". The story goes, Cooper was so clumsy trying to hit lefthanded, they had to shoot him hitting right handed (with the writing on uniforms in mirror image), and have him run to 3B. They then reversed the film. Other sources say this is not true, they only shot in reverse in the scenes where Cooper had to throw left handed.

 

[p51]

And then there's this guy:

View attachment 15731

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).

 

[Edward]

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.

Where I get this a lot is with guitar.... the number of right-handers who told me over the years I should be playing the "proper" way, insisting it's not a handed instrument (it blatantly is), and then, the final absurdity: "But you should have an advantage, because your dominant hand will be doing the chording." I mean, I know we're supposed to be the artistically gifted ones, but you'd think some righty at some point might have thought "Hang on, right hand no the fetboard - that's much better"... If, of course, that line were true. Which it isn't.

Strikes me now I could have been a violinist, but I was turned down for lessons at primary school because they couldn't cope with the notion of how I'd play left-handed. [huh]

I have a better one for you, Edward.

Ah! Didn't know that about hurdling. I gather Fencing is the same (I dabbled long ago) - lefties confuse people.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Where I get this a lot is with guitar.... the number of right-handers who told me over the years I should be playing the "proper" way, insisting it's not a handed instrument (it blatantly is), and then, the final absurdity: "But you should have an advantage, because your dominant hand will be doing the chording." I mean, I know we're supposed to be the artistically gifted ones, but you'd think some righty at some point might have thought "Hang on, right hand no the fetboard - that's much better"... If, of course, that line were true. Which it isn't.

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...)