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Wednesday, November 13. 1996
Bird's EyeView
Left Out in the Cold
Southpaws are notoriously left out of our right-handed society, from scissors to cars to desks. Most businesses, even KU, could be better at accommodating left-handers, but some say it isn't cost efficient. So who's right?
story by dave breitenstein
Bill Clinton's re-election last week marks the fifth consecutive term in which a left-hander has been president.
Clinton, George Bush and Ronald Reagan are similar to approximately 10 to 15 percent of the population that is left-handed. But as any lefy knows, society seems to revolve around right-handers.
Hillary Meyer, Emporia senior, is a lefty. She has problems with little things, such as classroom desks, getting ink smeared on her hand and indentations on her arm from spiral notebooks.
"People always comment on me being left-handed," she said. "They'll say that I'm doing something the wrong way."
Meyer said she had difficulties finding left-handed items, but was accustomed to buying objects designed for the right-handed. Lefties are often bothered by scissors, coffee mugs, right-handed computer mice, sports equipment and desks.
"I have to shift my car with my right hand, but that's the only way I've ever driven, so I'm used to it," she said. "I'm so used to right-handed desks that the left-handed ones feel uncomfortable now."
Bob Porter, associate director of KU physical plant maintenance, said there were two requests each semester for left-handed desks to be put into classrooms.
"I'd be highly surprised if even one percent of the desks on campus were left-handed," he said. "Most left-handed people adapt well to our right-handed society."
Audrey Heisey, Wichita sophomore, said that there should be left-handed desks in each room, and that inequalities were abundant between right- and lefty-products.
"The left-hand notebooks are of cheap quality, but they still cost more," she said. "I have to spend more money buying school supplies than most people do."
Hesley possesses some left-handed products but has never shopd at a left-handed store.
"I've never even seen one," she said. "I doubt they would be very successful. But I get so frustrated buying products that I know it won't fit me right."
Hugh Smith, owner of The Left Hand Supply Company in Oakland, Calif., sells more than 120 items designed for lefties. Smith, who is right-handed, said the most popular lefty items were scissors, keyboard mice and measuring cups.
Smith said there was only about 20 left-handed stores in the country. Ergonomically designed products, such as computer mice, cause lefties problems.
"Since right-handers are the ones designing most products, some things just don't occur to them," he said.
Kim Kipers, managing editor of Lefthander Magazine, said her magazine catered to issues of lefties, such as medical research on lefthanders, teaching children to write lefthanded, and profiling left-handed celebrities.
"Most things are just inconveniences to lefthands, but they are generally well-adapted," she said. "I hear a lot of complaints from people about everyday items, but nothing major."
Lefthander Magazine, based in Topeka, has a circulation of about 50,000 and is the only left-handers magazine in the world. Kipers said. Some articles deal with the high cost of left-handed products.
"Many businesses don't see a large market for producing left-handed goods because it is not cost-efficient," she said.
Many famous individuals were left-handed, including Julius Caesar, Leonardo DaVinci, Aristotle, Henry Ford, Mark Twain and Marilyn Monroe. Popular southpaws today include Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Bob Dylan, Bill Gates and Ted Koppel.
But now individuals become left-handed is debatable. Theories include genetic mutation, one side of the brain dominating the other, or inheritance.
But how individuals become left-handed is debatable.
The modification hypothesis states that left-handed individuals convert to being right-handed because society revolves around righties.
Another unproven theory is that lefties are clumsier than their right-brained counterparts.
But Heisey said this was because she had trouble using some tools and objects designed for right-handers.
Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said the only plausible explanation was that lefties had a dominant right brain.
Medical research shows that the left brain controls the right side of the body, and the right brain controls the left side of the body, Yockey said. Most people are left brained; therefore, they are right-handed. But for the small percentage of right-brained individuals, they must accept the problems associated with being left-handed.
"There's no reason for either being left-brained or right-brained." Yockev said. "Being left-handed is not a disease."
But left-handed athletes sometimes enjoy advantages. Left-handed baseball players are highly sought after because they have advantages in hitting and pitching. Lefty tennis players have similar advantages.
Jeff Erin, Colorado Springs, Colo., freshman, and KU tennis player said he had an advantage because lefty tennis players were rare.
"I think it's the fact that the opposition hasn't seen that much in practice or matches," he said. "The ball spins the other way, and their timing is off."
WEDNESDAY
JazzFunkBlinks Project, 8 at the Full Moon Cafe, 803 Mass. St. Free.
Sister 7, 10 p.m. at The Bot
neck, 737 New Hampshire St.
Cost: $5 and $6.
Lou's Revenge and Ekopaite
Hookah, 10 p.m. at the Greene
1020 Mass, St. Cost; $5 and
$6.
THURSDAY
Speed Dog Champion and
Iron in the Way, 10 p.m. at the
Jazhaus of Lawrence, 926 1/
Mass. St. Cost; $2.
Beth Scalet, 9 p.m. at the Fur Moon Cafe, 803 Mass. St. Free
Failure, 10 p.m. at The Bottle neck, 737 New Hampshire St.
Dock: $5 and $6
Derrailers, 10 p.m. at The
Zhaus of Lawrence, 926 1/2
Mass. Cost: $3
FRIDAY
Bill's Blues Jam, 10 p.m. at the Full Moon Cafe, 803 Mass St. Free.
Moonshine Wille, 10 p.m.
The Bottleneck, 737 New Har-
shire St. Cost; $4 and $5.
Teddy Morgan and the
Sevilles, 10 p.m., at The Jaz-
zhaus of Lawrence, 926 1/2
Mass. Cost; $4.
SATURDAY
Urban Safari, 10 p.m. at the Full Moon Cafe, 803 Mass. St
Free
Linda Perry, 10 p.m. at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampsh St. Cost: $5 and $7.
Simplexity, 10 p.m. at the Granad, 1020 Mass. St. Cos $4 and $5.
Caroline's Spin, 10 p.m. at The Jazzhaus of Lawrence, 920 1/2 Mass, St. Cost; cover.
SUNDAY
Alumni Recital Series: Jerel Hamilton, organ; 2:30 p.m. at Sales Recital Hall. Free
MONDAY
Faculty Recital: Michael Bou
organ; 7:30 p.m. at Bales Rei-
hall, Fife.
Primitive Radio Gods, 10 p at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., Cost; $B.
TUESDAY
Mariee Macleod, 8 p.m. at tl Full Moon Cafe, 803 Mass. St. Free.
Visiting Artist Series: Willa Hilla, tenor; 7:30 p.m. at Swarthout Recital Hall, Free.
Rex. 10 p.m. at The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St. Coat: $6.
Skinny D, 10 p.m. at the Granada, 1020 Mass. St. Free
News of the weird
Strange happenings around the world
LEAD STORIES Phone Solicitors
Several news services reported in October that there are a growing number of "telephone clubs" in Tokyo in which men (mostly middle-aged and older) talk sex with junior-high and high school girls, who use mobile phones for privacy from parents and teachers.
According to The Wall Street Journal, perhaps 8 percent of school girls participate at least occasionally. Many of the calls lead to dates and actual sex.
The money the girls make feeds their habits of expensive designer clothing and accessories.
The age of consent in the city of Tokyo is 12, and prostitution is illegal only if procured through a pimp.
Last September, in Mound Bayou, Miss., Robert L. Johnson, 42, was captured after a three-hour foot chase during which he managed to elude police while rolling a spare tire containing about six pounds of marijuana.
A Rolling Tire Gathers No Pot
Said police chief Richard Crowe,
"That's the fastest runner I've ever seen,
of somebody rolling a tire." And back in
February, in Kanab, Utah, Germain
Berrelzeza, 18, was arrested for marijuana possession hours after his car broke down.
He aroused the suspicion of the tow-truck operator when he insisted on taking the spare tire out of the car before it was towed and carrying it with him to a nearby motel.
G-string Poses No Health Hazard
Harrison said that fellow dancers had complained of a health hazard because surgery forces Harrison to wear an ostomy bag tucked into her G-string, into which body waste can flow during her performance. An expert cited by the Associated Press said there is no health hazard to others.
Exotic dancer Pamela Harrison complained in October that she was wrongfully fired by the Kat Tales Club in Stuart, Fla., because of a disability.
THE CONTINUING CRISIS
Fluing In the Face Of Danger
In August, Reuters news service reported that Brian Howson, 51, of Perth, Australia, repaired his single-engine plane's landing gear, in flight, while dangling into the door at 4,000 feet with three passengers holding his legs.
Bad Hair Days
■ In September, Michael Potkul, 33, won a $400,000 malpractice award against surgeon Dominic A. Brandy in Pittsburgh. Brandy had convinced Potkul that he could give him a nearly full head of hair by surgically (in six operations) grabbing the hairy back of his scalp and stretching it over the thin hair on top of his head. Potkul suffered such pain and depression by the fifth operation that he attempted suicide.
Mean Business
In July, in Cape Town, South Africa, four cab drivers were killed and several customers wounded as gunfire erupted again in a continuing war between competition among taxi companies. And last September in Los Angeles, police said that four of six recently missing boarding house residents had actually been kidnapped by a rival boarding house; stealing boarders apparently is an increasingly common tactic to land other houses' customers to get access to their government checks.
All Fun & Games Until Someone Gets Hurt
- Last July in Japan, a 4-year-old boy drowned while playing unattended as his mother played Pachinko, a pinball-slot-machine craze that has swept the country.
More than two dozen toddler deaths have been attributed to parents' obsession with the game. Also in July, The New York Times reported that the Russian government is cracking down on various gambling manias, including "one purely Russian refinement — virtual-reality cockroach races," in which images of the insects scurry competitively across video screens.
Rising Septic Tank
The Providence Journal-Bulletin reported in August on the environmental-regulation troubles of Manuel and Ana Martins of Swansea, R.I.
Because their house is built on wetlands, their septic tank cannot be installed very deep. In fact, it is largely above ground, covering their front yard in a mound of dirt 30 feet by 50 feet, rising five feet high, almost concealing the house from passersby.
Beautiful Ewes
In July, researchers at Utah State University and other schools announced that they had solved the problem of how to mate sheep to produce the mutation known in the animal genetics community as "beautiful buttocks," which means the lamb will have about 30 percent more meat.
Answer: The trait will be passed on only if the ram has the gene and the ewe does not.
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