dianaxy
dianaxy@yahoo.com

a Neuropsychologist showed me two cool ways to determine brain dominance which is correlated to hand dominance. . . The first way is to hold the hands together as in Namaste or prayer position. . .make sure the base of the palms are aligned perfectly. . .then see which fingers are the longest. . .If the right fingers are the longest, this indicates left brain dominance, and if left fingers are longer, the indication is right brain dominance. . . .

the other is a bit awakard to do by oneself but can be done. . .Take a writing tablet ask someone to hold it for you in a vertical position. . . Or one can sit and ask the knees to hold the tablet vertically. . .now take two pens and at the same time write your complete name. . .do not give this much thought just spontaneously write the name with both hands at the same time. . .the one that is the mirror image is the non-dominate brain. . .Sometimes when people do this test it gives them all kinds of insight into the experiences of whether their brain dominance is congruent with the hand dominance. . . i am right brain dominant but write with the right hand. . .i think it was because of having a sister that was a lefty. . .There were eight kids around the table. . the Mother and Father got the end places, the oldest son had his chosen spot, leaving one placement for a lefty . . .My sister is really sweet, but her left elbow was a bit wicked at the table, so she got the remaining lefty spot. . .lol!

***Me too Dave, left hand tied behind back to chair slat in grade school. Made a bit worse cause raised by right handed-immigrants who had a shadowy idea of these matters sometimes. lol. Am ambidextrous as a result, can write with both hands, eat with left, prefer left to write with, but swing a racket, bat with rightare…. large motor coord seems to be on right, fine motor on left. I have some dyslexia and am not sure whether the hand-tying-behind-back brought it on (serious, I have a sense that you can interrupt brain pathways by conscription and by restriction) or whether it just was in the dna. I cannot tell my left from my right unless I have my wristwatch on my left wrist. When driving, I have to think ahead about which way to turn for a right or a left. It is strange. So much about my strange compensatory life. lol. Im glad youre 'both-handed” Dave. there oughter be an award for such, dont you think?

***and Ghost, that is an amazing story… esp the prescience of a child understanding that no one aspired to be lefthanded. What a child you must have been. AND, thank you so much for listing your fav pens and inks. I will look into this immediately. I was starved for paper and pens as a child. And now, whenever I hear of paper or pens that others like a lot, I just want to rush right out and try them too. lol

***You know, profbacon, your remark about Pres. Ford standing and sitting, different handedly at each, is interesting. You just wonder what the brain is broadcasting to the body if you are inclined to use left as dominant when standing or sitting and the other hand dominant when doing the opposite. I wonder if Pres. Ford had some 'early accident' of his natural dominant hand being interferred with. Very interesting fact you brought.

***River, can you imagine doing the Garfieldesque thing and writing your grocery list with one hand while you write a thesis with your other? It made me laugh when I read your note… most of us are already a little too obcessive compulsive about trading sleep for 'getting more stuff done,'. just imagine if you really could divide your brain the way Garfield seems to have; literally that would mean both sides firing at the same time, and the corpus caloseum probably practically burning to a cinder from the effort of sorting alone.

great stories you guys.

dr.e

Simon And Garfunkel
A Simple Desultory Philippic
I been Ayn Randed, nearly branded
Communist, 'cause I'm left-handed.
That's the hand I use, well, never mind!

Then my attempt to go “right…”
My leftiness:
As a child I wanted so badly to fit in with my peer group that when I was seven or so, I subjected myself to having my left hand tied behind my back in an attempt to change myself into a “righty.”
I had realized for a long time that being left handed was an impediment. Little things had tipped me off to the fact that in this society, “leftys” were not the desirable or popular people.
NO ONE aspired to being “left handed” yet I had heard quite a few stories about leftys being “changed” into rightys.
Then there were the subliminal messages …
I mean, it was rare that I'd heard anyone directly say something negative about being left handed BUT ..
There were “things” that let me know the truth of the my position in life as a left hander …
Things like
Scissors!
Baseball mitts!
Golf clubs!
Even in my chores there were little reminders of my leftness loser ness! My family actually gave up on me being able to successfully iron clothing!
I still remember hearing my mother whisper to my aunt, “Lura..at this rate the girl will be unable to wear anything but DRIP DRY for the rest of her life.”
DRIP DRY FOR LIFE!?
I wasn't sure what drip dry was, but it sure didn't sound good!

So, not long after hearing those horrible words uttered from my mothers lips, I made up my mind.
I would and could change this situation!
This wasn't the same as that time when I decided that I would be a boy when I grew up so that I could marry Kim Novak – which my mother found hella funny and cute until I stopped wearing anything that was “girly” in appearance, told the whole neighborhood that I wasn't a girl anymore but a boy and everyone now had to call me Franky and then continued to act out this rather bizarre fantasy (publicly) for a year – no, my mother stopped laughing somewhere in the first day or so on that one and I sure didn't want a repeat of anything even remotely resembling that little disaster – I was so disappointed when I realized I really just could NOT marry Kim Novak (shaking head).
No! THIS was a mind over matter situation and thus not dependent on the technicalities of what I came equipped with at birth!
Or so I thought …
I spoke with my teacher about my “lefty” issue. She listened attentively and paid close attention to the list I gave of
“The things I CANNOT do because of my lefthanded disability”.
She looked thoughtful for a time and then with some hesitation she said, “Well….. Back in the old days when I was a child (about the same time as Moses from the way she said it)…I remember that they would tie a child's left hand behind her/his back. It didn't seem to take long either. Within week or two the children were using their right hands.”
So, plot conceived, I was ready to go.
I knew I had to keep this to myself. Secrecy was of vital importance. I still smarted from that Kim Novak fiasco and was concerned that this too might be one of those “if you're born X then you are X – so deal with it” situations. If I kept this “secret,” at least no one at home would know about it.
My teacher agreed to help me with this project (I did not inform her of the need for secrecy and she was so offhand and easy going about it that I didn't see the point) and the game was a foot!
We started the project on a Monday morning and by Tuesday morning I realized this wasn't going to be quite as easy as I thought ..
By Wednesday afternoon I was becoming confused, light headed and a bit dizzy …
By Thursday I was in bed with a headache and suffering from nausea as well and by Friday afternoon I was throwing up and sick as a dog. It was about then that my teacher decided to call my mother to make sure I was ok (as I didn't much school very often).
And it was during their phone call that my mother found out about my “secret.”
My teacher took the brunt of it but my mother informed me in no uncertain terms that this was not to happen ever again. We were who were and some things just are what they are!
And I realized ….
I would always smear ink to a greater or lesser degree and I really needed to learn more about the nature of “keeping secrets” before I did anything like this ever again. LOL

My two cents worth
Ghosty

PS I do know that “smearer” is not a word but I kind of like it now that I've used it. Ink smearer … Ink smearer …
It has a nice feel to it, eh?

I understand that this practice has been discredited since then. It certainly was discouraging for me.

My point is that I think we'll see a lot more lefties now simply because it's acceptable.