THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996 TAG: 9601260074
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: JENNIFER DZIURA
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
ON JAN. 5 the front of your Daily Break was covered with a gigantic left hand and my lead story on left-handedness.
Since then, my Infoline number has endured a deluge of phone calls. An unidentified 16-year-old from Norfolk called to say, ``I was just reading your story on left-handed people, and you said that Paul McCartney was left-handed. . . . I'm very into the Beatles, and this is going to sound very anal-retentive and whatnot, but Paul is actually right-handed. The only thing he does left-handed is play the guitar.''
Cox High senior Maureen Thorson, the original left-handed interviewee, thinks that Paul should be granted honorary left-handed status ``because if you actually went to all the trouble to learn to play the guitar upside down, then you were either really, really disturbed as a child or just really wanted to be left-handed and were very disappointed that you were born right-handed.''
But while Paul (who, by the way, is the walrus) dallies somewhere on the ambidexterity spectrum, Ringo remains sinistral.
Beatles trivia aside, another issue raised in the left-handed story was the perpetual battle with school supplies. Maureen said, ``It is actually easier to cut through paper with your teeth'' than to use left-handed scissors.
Richard Shwall, 35, called Infoline to say of my article ``There's one thing you forgot - three-ring notebooks.''
In the spirit of investigative journalism, I, like Paul, decided to trifle with left-handedness.
My report is that a southpaw writing in a binder has her hand virtually immobilized by its rings. There are five or six lines on which she may write before her wrist hits metal and she is forced to remove the paper from her binder, which she should have done in the first place.
But before the sinistral people of the world unite and demand recognition as an oppressed group, keep in mind that right-handed people have exactly the same problem when they try to write on the backs of their three-ring notebook pages. So there.
Indian River Middle School student James Madison, 13, called Infoline to assert that being left-handed ``is a privilege.'' His reason? ``It's more unique than being right-handed, plain and simple. . . .'' He continues: ``I have never had a problem with being left-handed. I use regular scissors, not left-handed scissors or anything.''
Finally, my favorite Infoline response was from Jane Wayland, a Virginia Beach woman who has been a lefty for all of her 59 years. She called to say that her sister, who is also left-handed, once sent her a really great pro-lefty key ring. ``Lefties,'' read the key ring, ``never miss a tollbooth.'' MEMO: Jennifer Dziura is a senior at Cox High School. Her column appears
bimonthly. If you'd like to comment on her column, call INFOLINE at
640-5555 and enter category 6778 or write to her at 4565 Virginia Beach
Blvd., Virginia Beach, Va. 23462 by CNB