Ambidextrous

[stoogmeister]

I do some things left handed but others right handed. Am I ambidextrous?

[wildwood]

Yes and no:-)
To be truly ambidextrous you have to be equally skillful with both hands at the same task, such as writing or picking your nose.
Left-handedness is a cerebral condition and people who suffer from this have a preference to use the left side of their whole body, not just their hands.

[Elle]

Sorry to hijack the question, but is left-handedness really a condition that is suffered from. I can't really think of one instance where I've been hindered by it. Or am I just taking Wildwood's choice of words too literaly?

[incitatus]

in a right handed culture it could be seen as a disability....because everything is designed with a right handed bias. Just as being 6 ft 3 i am disabled because cars, seats and beds dont fit. As to the main question...wild is right. Personally i suffer from extreme dispraxia and so could be considered ambisinistrous.

[rja211077]

I don't know about that, wildwood, look at the number of cricketers who bat left handed and bowl right handed (or vice-versa, like myself). I am convinced that the number who do 'one of each' will not be far off the number who do both with their left (obviously i'll concede that the number who do both with their right will be way ahead).

[wildwood]

You are quite right Elle, it was a poor choice of words to include suffer in my original answer, but as Incitatus has pointed out, it is somewhat of a disadvantage in a mainly right-handed society. As a Lefty myself, I too have adepted very well to life in a right-handed world... except with writing. At my dutch school in the 50s one just wasn't allowed to write with the left hand, resulting in an illegible scribble which now passes for my writing.
rja21107, you missed the main point. People like you and many others are deemed ambidextrous (perhaps not wrongly) because you can perform various tasks with different hands which people would expect a Lefty to only do with the left hand. To be truly ambidextrous you have to be able to bowl, bat or do various things with both hands equally well, very few people are gifted with that ability.

[Elle]

Hey Wildwood. Glad to know you're a fellow lefty! I do see yours and incitatus' point. It's just that it reminded me of a friend whose Grandma, if she saw her writing with her left hand, would snatch the pen away and force her to write with her right hand. She thought it an illness - unnatural or abnormal in some way. Although I do write, eat, smoke, do almost everythng with my left hand, I've never been able to get to grips with left-handed scissors. Strange that the one thing that's made for me, doesn't help me at all!

[Svenson]

Just turned 40...there's only one thing I've never been able to do with my left hand.......touch my left elbow.... Seriously, all us geniuses are / were left-handed.