Time to post a random
file from my vast and cluttered "My Documents" folder. This happens to be
a news/features story I wrote as a classroom assignment several years ago. That's right. Names have been
blacked out to protect those poor souls I interviewed all that time
ago.
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From classroom to concert hall to shooting
range, left-handed students at the University of Kansas face a variety of
annoyances and challenges. A study published today in the New England
Journal of Medicine shows that accidental death rates are much higher
among the left-handed population. While not rushing to buy life-insurance
policies, left-handed students admit to frustration at a mainly
right-handed world.
“The whole academic setting is geared towards
right-handedness,” said Matthew J., a senior. “Folders, notebooks, and
desks are all irritating.” J.’s main complaint, however, is with computer
mice. “In the last few years they’ve started making the mouse contoured
for right-handers. “Your hand starts cramping up after about half an hour
at the computer, and you have to stop using it.”
J., a cellist
with the university symphony, has always played his instrument
right-handed. “Musical instruments are pretty much mandatory,” he said.
“If you want to find a teacher you have to play the standard way.”
Nathan F., sophomore, was also a cellist in middle school and high
school. He feels left-handedness benefited him. Said F., “You start out
using your left hand for fingering on a cello, which is an
advantage.”
F. currently plays the trumpet in the university
concert band and the basketball pep band. “You finger with your right hand
on the trumpet. You’re slightly less dexterous at the beginning. But you
get so used to doing it with your right fingers it becomes natural.”
Fellow trumpet player Brian H., a freshman, agrees with F. He also
discovered an unexpected benefit. “I found I could switch hands on the
valves of the trumpet if I needed to,” H. said.
H., who hunts
pheasant and quail in the winter months, is most annoyed by shotguns. “The
guns are built for right-handed people,” he said. “The gun shucks the
shell at your arm instead of out on the ground. Left-handed shotguns are
made, but they’re very hard to find.”
The New England Journal of
Medicine report studied death certificates from two counties in Southern
California. On average, the study showed left-handers died at age 66.
Right-handers died at age 75. Left-handers were six times more likely to
die in accidents than right-handers.
F. does not see this
information as a problem. “We’re doing our part to keep the population
under control,” he said. “What are the right-handers doing?”