LEFTovers

Are you a true lefty? Do you wear your watch on your right hand?
Do you "right click" your mouse by pushing the left button?
Do you read magazines from back to front?
Do you wash your dishes from right side of the sink to the left?
Are you careful to pick the proper seat in a restaurant or family gathering so that your left arm has room to manouver while you eat?
Do banks who chain their pens on the right side of the counter annoy you? (thanks Phillip)
And while we are discussing banks, wouldn't it be great if they would print books of cheques that were bound on the right side? Jane Maltais (formerly of Vancouver, now living in London, England) tells me that Lloyds Bank in England does make left handed cheque books.
Marie Tol wrote: "I purchased a Magic Doodle for my son for Christmas (Dec '97). I can't use the thing because the pen is attached to the doodle board, on the right side. The string isn't long enough to pull over to the doodle area with your left hand!!"
Dextera Domine is an interesting article about the pastoral care of left handed persons. (Thanks to Michael Leach who has a left handed daughter and publishes AngiCan Arts)
Here is a tip for using your mix master. Turn it so that the bowl is at the front, then it is easier to use your utensils in your left hand. Try it an let me know how it worked for you.
Dave Hart Dyke writes: Cameras are probably the worst, but virtually everything with a control panel on it is backwards. This would include: microwave ovens, clock radios, stereos, video games, keyboards (where's that "enter" key?), etc., etc. Thank God for CD players, though the controls may be incovenient. Record players (even with damped cueing) were much worse. And, of course, most refrigerators open to the left, which means you open them with your left hand, but reach in with your right.
From Sharon Stevens: How about those stupid pens with the digital clocks in them. Everything is upside down for a lefty!!
From Alison Boucher: When people ask advice on teachingleft handed people how to do something (ie, knit, my favorite hobby), often the "experts" will tell them that trying to do it left handed is too hard, so it's just easier to teach lefties how to do it right handed, especially since most directions, etc are geared for right handed people anyway! ARGHH!!!!
From Karen: have to admit, playing piano has enabled me to be ambidextrous in some things (like ironing), and my fridge door opens to the right (so I can reach in with my left hand --- just lucked out when we moved into ournew house! Bugs the day lights out of my hubby!) I crochet with my left hand, and can't imagine doing any other way!!!!!!!
From Renneta Godfrey: I am president of our local dart team, and guess what, we have 24 players plus spares and there are 9 lefties on the league with another 3 lefty spares. When I was growing up there where only two lefties in a school of 85 kids, and I only knew of one adult that admited to being left handed.
From Wilma Miller: University desks should be made for left-handed persons. That was my pet peeve.

Write (leftovers @ shaw.ca) and tell me about your left handed experiences.

TO THE INDEX

LEFT HANDED CANADIANS

I am compiling a list of left handed Canadians, famous or otherwise. If you are Canadian and left handed (or know someone who is Canadian and left handed) please send email to me (leftovers @home.com ) and I will add you to the list.

Alberta

Carson, Dan - Calgary AB
Crowley, Angela - Morinville AB
Crowley, Tasha - Morinville AB
Fluet, Phil - Meadowview AB
Gibeau, Tammy - Rosemary AB
Godfrey, Renneta - south of Calgary AB
Gross, Jacqueline - Barrhead AB
Marcellus, Gary - Fort McMurray AB
Sobchyshyn, Peggy - Edmonton AB
Thompson, Susan - Edmonton AB
Tol, Marie - Edmonton AB
Tuckey, Joan - Edmonton AB
Wilson, Bev - Calgary AB
Wilson, Clive - Calgary AB
Wolters, Franklin Curtis Henry - Two Hills AB
Wolters, Gordon Otto - Innisfail AB
Wright, Carol - Barrhead AB

British Columbia

Adams, Michael - U.Vic. BC
Boucher, Alison - Vancouver Island BC
Foster, David - born in Victoria BC (pianist, composer, producer)
Hutchins, Wendy - born in ON, now living in BC
Karen - BC
Lawrence, Allison - Vancouver BC
Lucas, John Thomas, Professor - Victoria BC
Maltais, Jane - Vancouver BC, now living in London, England
Mencero, Phillip - Hixon BC
Rose, Danielle - born in Vancouver BC
Stevens, Sharon - Vancouver BC
Urbaniak, Hurjit - Victoria BC

Manitoba
New Brunswick

Clark, Robin - NB
Doucet, Mitch - Dieppe NB
Kelly - northern NB
Savoie, Sam - Moncton NB

Newfoundland
Northwest Territories

Semjanovs, Megan, Yellowknife NWT

Nova Scotia

Gault, Karen - Upper Musquodoboit NS
Heather - Darmouth NS
MacDonald, Johnny - Port Hawkesbury NS
Melloy, B - Amherst NS
Sulis, Kelly - Kentville NS

Ontario

Adams, Julie - Kitchener ON (Mike Adams' sister)
Adams, Lynda - Kitchener ON (Mike Adams' Mother)
Armane, Dana - Ottawa, ON
Clayton, Charles - Toronto ON
Coburn, Matthew - Deep River ON
Conn, Sandra - Bradford ON
Dionne, Marie - one of the Dionne Quintuplets
Fleming, Emma - Oshawa ON
Fleming, Susan - Oshawa ON
Glanville, Alice - Ancaster ON
Joynt, Bob - Smith Falls ON
Libby, Marie - Oshawa ON
McCool, Marilyn - ON
McDonald, Bob - host of CBC program Quirks & Quarks
Meier, Leeanna - Oshawa ON
Meier, Lynn - Hamilton ON
Mills, Richard - ON
Nicks, Allen - born in ON
Perron, Judith -Timmins ON
Preston, Janice Francey - Toronto ON
Rudy - Alliston ON
Sandberg, Jodii - Oakville ON
Seabrook, Brian and his brother Paul - Woodstock ON
Teri - Popcorn MOM - Cambridge ON (also her son Shane, her sister, her mother-in-law, her mother-in-law's sister and brother)
Mike Weir - Bright's Grove ON (2003 Master's Golf Champion)
Weiser, Lawrie - Toronto ON - world's only sinistrologist