Sinistral?

[Paul Whybrow]

Today is International Left-Handers Day.

Famous left-handers and the origin of sinistral and how being left-handed was once linked to weakness and evil are discussed in this article:

Lefties get their day today

I’d never noticed that Bart Simpson was left-handed, as are lots of other characters in the series. Which makes me wonder why he’s not nicer to his neighbour Ned Flanders, owner of the Leftorium store.

There have been many sinistral authors, including Lewis Carroll, James Baldwin, Bob Dylan, Mark Twain, Franz Kafka, Hans Christian Andersen, Peter Benchley, Jean Genet, Richard Condon and H.G. Wells.

I’m dextral or right-handed, though I attempt to do tasks with my left hand, in an attempt to keep the sludge of my brain in motion! Being ambidextrous makes life easier.

I recall that there were experiments in infant schools in the early 1960s with different writing styles and the pens pupils used. Writing with the left hand was discouraged, on the basis that the writing hand would drag across the ink smudging it.

I see that there are various ways that left-handers deal with this problem:

Left-Handed Writers | Nibs

Are you left-handed?

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

 

[RK Wallis]

Had to learn my left, after the stroke rendered my right like the dead.

 

[Hannah F]

I'm ambidextrous. I may have been born a leftie, but, in primary school, i was told, "don't be a cito'g" (that's a fada not an apostrophe but my computer isn't Irish) and was made to write with my right hand. I hold a tennis racket with my right hand (school maybe) but am mainly manually left-handed. My writing looks almost the same irrespective of which hand I use.
I find being ambidextrous really useful, but I'm bad at directions and took ages to learn to tell the time on a non-digital clock. (I can still make time mistakes if I accidentally read the clock back to front!)

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I'm a leftie, but as most lefties do, I learned to do a lot of things right handed. No left-handed scissors in primary school, so I cut right handed. Right-handed PE teacher taught me sports, so I bat right handed, and can throw passably well right handed, too. I can write reasonably well right handed (the result of injuries to my left hand that forced me to learn years ago).

My lucky break was an art teacher who was a leftie. All those manual skills one learns in art class were so much easier to pick up for me when he taught. He taught me how to do calligraphy upside down so I would get the slant right without straining and so I wouldn't drag my hand over the ink. Bonus is writing upside-down is a useful skill as a teacher.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Does our dominant hand affect which of our feet we naturally use? According to this answer on Quora it does:

Are left handed people left footed? - Quora

I disagree with one of the answers, as when driving an automatic car, I can easily use my right foot for the accelerator and my left to press the brake pedal; then again, several passengers have marvelled at this ability, so perhaps it's not that common. Maybe I'm ambidextrous with my feet, as I can kick a ball a long way left-footed. My left calf muscle is an inch larger than my right, and I know this from wearing motorcycle boots which had an internal retaining strap; it really surprised me when I noticed, as I thought my right leg muscle would be larger through being used more.

It's foolish to expect symmetry of our body and face, for we're naturally uneven. Look what happens when faces are made perfectly symmetrical:

Here's What Faces Would Actually Look Like If They Were Perfectly Symmetrical

Here's a mind-blowing idea I once read somewhere: One of our eyes shows what we've experienced in life, while the other remains innocent and full of hope.

 

[Hannah F]

Hmm. Don't know. I'm left footed. When I coach trampolining, I have to work out whether people are right twisters or left twisters. It's about 50:50 and has no bearing on handedness. I am left eye dominant too, but I've had no need to test that on other people. However, the right side of the brain controls the left arm and left leg but the right eye.
The eyes themselves are mechanical - nothing to do with emotion or experience. However, the left side of the brain is more involved in planning whereas the right side is more involved in memory. If you ask someone about something they should remember, they are likely to look right. If they look left, they are possibly making the answer up or gauging your response to the truth.