
Not for me though. It’s not shiny or cool for me. For me it’s a taunt, a jibe, a reminder of my second class status in this world.
(Sigh)
The place you push the card in, see, has a projecting ‘thing’ on the left hand side of the slot (sorry for being so technical). This protects your card a bit, from prying eyes and such.
It’s a good thing, I’m sure, so long as you’re not ‘me’ or one of the ten percent like me. For us, it’s just an obstruction that makes the damn thing almost impossible to use…
Have you guessed yet?
That’s right, I’m left-handed, folks, I suffer from Cack-handedness, Sinister-handedness, Sinistrality, Sinistromanuality, or Mancinism, whichever you prefer. In the Irish language, I am ‘Ciothog’. In French (and some other things) I am ‘Gauche’.
Have you guessed yet?
That’s right, I’m left-handed, folks, I suffer from Cack-handedness, Sinister-handedness, Sinistrality, Sinistromanuality, or Mancinism, whichever you prefer. In the Irish language, I am ‘Ciothog’. In French (and some other things) I am ‘Gauche’.
There’s a neat old theory, now largely debunked, that all left-handed people were part of a set of twins originally, the right handed one having being ‘re-absorbed’ or whatever it is they do. It’s not true, I know, but it’s kind of cute, ‘future story-material perhaps.
But I digress. My point, as something of a designer and a one time student of Ergonomics – and as a Leftie – is that it is a tough old world for we ten-percenters. The world has been developed for the convenience of right handed people to such an extent that the poor lefties hardly even notice anymore.
If you are in any doubt of this, you right handed people, try to seek out a left handed tin opener. I have one. It looks just like a regular tin opener until you try to use it. The impossibility of the tool, for you the right handed person, is quite amazing. Yet when a Leftie gets hold of one of these gizmos it’s like the world clicks into symmetry for a brief tin-opening moment. Nonetheless, us Lefties can also use the regular right handed version quite well and without complaint. Funny, isn’t it?
For us, you see, it’s been a case of ‘Adapt or Die’. The whole bloody world is right hand biased. Think about it as you go about your daily business. Ask every situation you meet, “how would this be if I were Left-Handed’. You may be surprised.
Lift Buttons, Cheque-books, inside pockets, scissors, wallets, watches, Boomerangs, playing cards… the list goes on, from left to right, never ending. It’s only when we actually get our (left) hands on a custom design product that we start to see how disadvantaged we really are. Back in London, I used to get left handed chequebooks from NatWest. They flipped open the other way. It made me feel so damn special to be able to fill in the little stubs with how much money I’d spent. I never realised why I had never done that – it was simply because I couldn’t.
We don’t mind so much. I mean, there’s 90% of you other guys, you deserve the bulk of the spoils. Perhaps now and again though, a little recognition of the challenges we face every day just opening the can of beans or flushing the toilet.
Which brings me, finally, to the greatest design challenge for the left handed male. The one that never gets talked about but which is the secret bane of our left-biased lives. That ‘flushing toilet’ in the past paragraph should give you a clue… it’s in the tailoring… the tailoring of trousers and how they open… I’ve said enough now, I don’t wish to be indiscreet. If you’re still in doubt as to what I’m talking about, perhaps the word ‘Rummage’ might shed a little light.
It’s not easy being green, or left handed, but I would not change it for anything. I am possibly the most left-handed person you’ll ever meet but everytime I smudge my handwriting or step to the right to use the cash till machine, I give thanks for that fact. In a small way, it sets me apart from you, the regular users of the world.
As Tom Waits once wrote; It makes it kind of special down in the core.
But I digress. My point, as something of a designer and a one time student of Ergonomics – and as a Leftie – is that it is a tough old world for we ten-percenters. The world has been developed for the convenience of right handed people to such an extent that the poor lefties hardly even notice anymore.
If you are in any doubt of this, you right handed people, try to seek out a left handed tin opener. I have one. It looks just like a regular tin opener until you try to use it. The impossibility of the tool, for you the right handed person, is quite amazing. Yet when a Leftie gets hold of one of these gizmos it’s like the world clicks into symmetry for a brief tin-opening moment. Nonetheless, us Lefties can also use the regular right handed version quite well and without complaint. Funny, isn’t it?
For us, you see, it’s been a case of ‘Adapt or Die’. The whole bloody world is right hand biased. Think about it as you go about your daily business. Ask every situation you meet, “how would this be if I were Left-Handed’. You may be surprised.
Lift Buttons, Cheque-books, inside pockets, scissors, wallets, watches, Boomerangs, playing cards… the list goes on, from left to right, never ending. It’s only when we actually get our (left) hands on a custom design product that we start to see how disadvantaged we really are. Back in London, I used to get left handed chequebooks from NatWest. They flipped open the other way. It made me feel so damn special to be able to fill in the little stubs with how much money I’d spent. I never realised why I had never done that – it was simply because I couldn’t.
We don’t mind so much. I mean, there’s 90% of you other guys, you deserve the bulk of the spoils. Perhaps now and again though, a little recognition of the challenges we face every day just opening the can of beans or flushing the toilet.
Which brings me, finally, to the greatest design challenge for the left handed male. The one that never gets talked about but which is the secret bane of our left-biased lives. That ‘flushing toilet’ in the past paragraph should give you a clue… it’s in the tailoring… the tailoring of trousers and how they open… I’ve said enough now, I don’t wish to be indiscreet. If you’re still in doubt as to what I’m talking about, perhaps the word ‘Rummage’ might shed a little light.
It’s not easy being green, or left handed, but I would not change it for anything. I am possibly the most left-handed person you’ll ever meet but everytime I smudge my handwriting or step to the right to use the cash till machine, I give thanks for that fact. In a small way, it sets me apart from you, the regular users of the world.
As Tom Waits once wrote; It makes it kind of special down in the core.