On the morning of January 1st I had the idea for this blog category. I was on the plane flying home from Rome, we were drinking sparkling wine (New Year and all) and I once again was a little bit annoyed that the tables in planes are clearly designed for right-handed persons only. The table’s dent for cups and cans and that stuff is in the upper right corner, so I either put the cup on the left side of the table and risk having it spilled all over me during some turbulence. Or I put in on the right side and have to reach diagonally all the way across the table to grab it.
Well, that was January 1st. The idea stayed on the back of my mind and surfaced every once in a while and even more often recently. So I planned to really start this category and was only waiting to get some more photos to prove my point. Of course I rarely took these pictures so I never put up a first post. BUT then I read an article about the International Lefthander Days, which is today, and knew I just had to finally start this tiny thing on my blog.
So… lefthandedness. I guess I’m the last generation which was more or less consciously trained to write with the right-hand even if they were definitively left-handed. (I wasn’t forced to do that though. Or at least I don’t remember and I don’t feel traumatized or became dyslexic or anything). Writing with the right hand is probably the reason why there are a few things I can do with either left or right. I use the computer mouse on the right side as well, because for me it was too much trouble to always put it from one side to the other on the shared computers (at home, school, work). But besides that the left side is always my first choice, although that sometimes leads to movements which are and probably must look rather wrenched.
At an ATM for example (I didn’t dare to actually take a photo of that, even though I would just take a photo of me. But with the cameras around and everything. *g*). The card reader is always located on the right side of the display and PIN Pad. Thus: Diagonally movement. Of course I could and can insert the card with my right hand but getting the card out of my wallet with my left hand just comes naturally as well as the act of putting it into the card reader with the left hand.
The water-tap and more importantly the soap dispenser is always situated on the wrong side (just like the dent in the planes’ tables).
And it’s not easy to find a cup, on which I can actually see the design (logo, slogan, picture) on it. On 75 % of the cups I only see a blank opposite side. I wanted to proved that point with a photo as well, but I actually don’t own any cup like that anymore. I usually only buy the ones with a decor all around. These do exists, but not nearly as many as the usual right-handed cups.
Even though I get used to using the regular appliances it was a huge relief when I found out about lefthanded scissors and sharpeners and can-openers. If you don’t think there is much difference, just try using a right-handed scissor with your left hand without getting cross-eyed :-)
So this definitely is a right-handed world (I couldn’t even find a left-column wordpress blog layout I like because there are just a few). I managed to adapt to it more or less and I’m sure I will come up with some more photos and stories later. I’ll end this with my favorite slogan I found somewhere a long time ago.
God created a few perfect people. The rest are right-handed. (-:
Yes, it IS a right-handed world – even thought 10% of us are southpaws. But yesterday (Aug 13) was Left Handers Day – because lefties have rights, too.