"Kat" wrote in message
...
In message m, Martin
Underwood writes
Sadly many people seem to be congenitally incapable of finding their
ticket
in advance of needing it (eg as they are walking up to the barrier), in
the
same way that a lot of people (a large proportion of them being women)
don't
start to look for their cash or credit card in a supermarket queue until
they are presented with the bill.

This was mentioned on here a while ago and since then I've made it a
point to notice whether more women than men have trouble finding their
tickets.

From my experience I'd say that it's fairly evenly balanced with women
having to search in the bottom of their handbags for the elusive ticket
and men have to search through several days worth of old tickets in
their many pockets.

I've no quibble with people of either sex having to hunt for their ticket,
credit card or whatever. But common sense and courtesy to people behind
suggests that you do it *before* you stand in the queue so you don't delay
other people.

"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
s.com...
- Why should an action such as holding a ticket be a "handed" operation?
I'm
sure as a right-hander I'd have no difficulty whatsoever holding a ticket
in
my left hand and feeding into a slot on the left side of the barrier if
that's how the barriers were designed. Are left-handed people less
ambidextrous (apart from skilled actions like writing) than right-handed
people?

To me it isn't a problem, I'm left handed, and can happily work a ticket
gate with my right hand, I also do other things the right handed way, I use
a computer mouse with the right.
I believe it is also common for left handed people to hold a knife and fork
wrong, with the knife in the left - not me though.
Its these silly people who start requiring Left handed clocks that work
backwards and such which make left handed people seem strange.

"Darren" ] wrote in message
...
"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
s.com...
- Why should an action such as holding a ticket be a "handed" operation?
I'm
sure as a right-hander I'd have no difficulty whatsoever holding a
ticket
in
my left hand and feeding into a slot on the left side of the barrier if
that's how the barriers were designed. Are left-handed people less
ambidextrous (apart from skilled actions like writing) than right-handed
people?

To me it isn't a problem, I'm left handed, and can happily work a ticket
gate with my right hand, I also do other things the right handed way, I
use
a computer mouse with the right.
I believe it is also common for left handed people to hold a knife and
fork
wrong, with the knife in the left - not me though.
Its these silly people who start requiring Left handed clocks that work
backwards and such which make left handed people seem strange.

My mum is left-handed. But she was brought up to use her knife and fork in
the conventional hands (ie knife in right hand) and to use a right-handed
pair of scissors. All these actions are unskilled ones which don't require
any great dexterity[*], unlike writing: she cannot write with her right
hand to save her life, just as I cannot write with my left hand. For
writing, she holds her pen in an exact mirror-image to a right-handed person
(ie with the cap of the pen pointing over her left shoulder) unlike most
left-handed people who hold it very awkwardly, facing away from them to the
right, and with their wrists/little fingers above rather than below the line
of writing.

I've just tried using my computer mouse with my left hand. It feels ever so
slightly odd, but I'm sure within a couple of minutes I'd be used to it.
[*] Excuse the pun: I know that etymologically "dexterity" relates to the
right hand!

In article m,
(Martin Underwood) wrote:

"Darren" ] wrote in message
...
"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
s.com...
- Why should an action such as holding a ticket be a "handed"
operation?
I'm
sure as a right-hander I'd have no difficulty whatsoever holding a
ticket
in
my left hand and feeding into a slot on the left side of the
barrier if
that's how the barriers were designed. Are left-handed people less
ambidextrous (apart from skilled actions like writing) than
right-handed
people?

To me it isn't a problem, I'm left handed, and can happily work a
ticket
gate with my right hand, I also do other things the right handed way,
I
use
a computer mouse with the right.
I believe it is also common for left handed people to hold a knife and
fork
wrong, with the knife in the left - not me though.
Its these silly people who start requiring Left handed clocks that
work
backwards and such which make left handed people seem strange.

My mum is left-handed. But she was brought up to use her knife and fork
in
the conventional hands (ie knife in right hand) and to use a
right-handed
pair of scissors. All these actions are unskilled ones which don't
require
any great dexterity[*], unlike writing: she cannot write with her right
hand to save her life, just as I cannot write with my left hand. For
writing, she holds her pen in an exact mirror-image to a right-handed
person
(ie with the cap of the pen pointing over her left shoulder) unlike most
left-handed people who hold it very awkwardly, facing away from them to
the
right, and with their wrists/little fingers above rather than below the
line
of writing.

I've just tried using my computer mouse with my left hand. It feels
ever so
slightly odd, but I'm sure within a couple of minutes I'd be used to it.

[*] Excuse the pun: I know that etymologically "dexterity" relates to
the
right hand!




Or as a comedian said "use your other hand, it will feel like a stranger"
no idea what he meant, though :-)

Roger

Niklas Karlsson wrote in message ...
Indeed. Another thing most people get right is letting people off the
train before trying to get on.

Most of those who don't get this right (seems to be more common on NR
than on the Underground) seem to be teenagers, and some even have the
gall to be offended when I insist on getting off first.

Niklas

From my experience, when they get older (I won't say "grow up") they
all go and live in Maidenhead!

I never understand why, particularly if it's a crowded train, anyone
even thinks there's room to get on until others have got off. It was
much easier fo me a couple of years ago: it is hard for anyone to get
on whilst a pushchair is coming off.

PhilD

--

"PhilD" wrote in message
om...
Niklas Karlsson wrote in message
...
Indeed. Another thing most people get right is letting people off the
train before trying to get on.

Most of those who don't get this right (seems to be more common on NR
than on the Underground) seem to be teenagers, and some even have the
gall to be offended when I insist on getting off first.

Niklas

From my experience, when they get older (I won't say "grow up") they
all go and live in Maidenhead!

I never understand why, particularly if it's a crowded train, anyone
even thinks there's room to get on until others have got off. It was
much easier fo me a couple of years ago: it is hard for anyone to get
on whilst a pushchair is coming off.

PhilD

--


Just chipping in...this is one of the things that annoys me most.

I have to trek around, at the moment with a knee brace. I did it for the
first time in London yesterday. Now, it was very much on show because I was
wearing a skirt. Everytime I went to get off a train, it was exceptionally
difficult to bend my knee, and I ended up jumping, or hopping down. People
were tutting, and pushing me back into the train. Is it so difficult to
wait a few seconds while someone gets off?

And, even before the doors have opened, they are crowding around it waiting
to get on, not leaving any space for those who wish to get off. Many times
yesterday I shoved myself through groups of people waiting at the doors, and
got "you piece of scum" looks. And for the first time yesterday, I actually
swore at people who couldn't be patient. It's difficult enough for me at
the moment to get on trains, I don't need it made more difficult to get off.

Now, the idiots who ignore the "Keep Left" signs in tunnels and on
stairs...that's another story.

Laura-Ann
-----------------

In article , Darren
] writes
Its these silly people who start requiring Left handed clocks that work
backwards and such which make left handed people seem strange.

Left-hand clocks are a joke.

Scissors only work if held in the right hand. If you want ones for use
in the left hand, they need to be constructed in a different way. If
you're left-handed, you might find such scissors better for detailed
work.

--
Clive D.W. Feather, writing for himself | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Written on my laptop; please observe the Reply-To address

"Clive D. W. Feather" wrote in message
...
In article , Darren
] writes
Its these silly people who start requiring Left handed clocks that work
backwards and such which make left handed people seem strange.

Left-hand clocks are a joke.

Scissors only work if held in the right hand. If you want ones for use
in the left hand, they need to be constructed in a different way. If
you're left-handed, you might find such scissors better for detailed
work.

I've tried using left-handed scissors with my left hand - felt a bit funny
but soon got used to it. As I said earlier, I wonder if left-handers
generally are more polarised to left-handedness and less ambidextrous than
right-handers for non-precision tasks?

On a related "handedness" issue, I knew someone who had great difficulty
driving in mainland Europe becauase she expected the pedals and the
arrangement of the gears on the gear lever to be mirror image in an LHD
car - she couldn't get her brain around the fact that they were the same as
in an RHD car.

Martin Underwood wrote:
As I said earlier, I wonder if
left-handers generally are more polarised to left-handedness and
less ambidextrous than right-handers for non-precision tasks?

This seems to me to be rather unlikely, as left-handers have to adapt
continually to the right-handedness of everyday objects, and should
therefore become more ambidextrous than the average right-hander.
Possibly resentment about this can lead to some left-handers
deliberately (or subconsciously)limiting their apparent ambidexterity?
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 at 11:37:33, Darren ] wrote:

Its these silly people who start requiring Left handed clocks that work
backwards and such which make left handed people seem strange.


Sinister, in all senses of the word!
--
Annabel Smyth
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/index.html
Website updated 8 March 2004