Letters to the Editor: Leonardo da Vinci and me -- the smug satisfaction of being left-handed

To the editor: As a left-hander who can, figuratively, bat from both sides of the plate, I greatly enjoyed David Ulin’s op-ed article about southpaws representing the best of all possible worlds.

In high school, while doodling during a boring lecture, I noticed that I had written the alphabet backward, which led me to realize I can write fluently in script backward. I later learned this was how Leonardo da Vinci wrote all his notes.

While that’s pretty much where any other similarities between the two of us stop, it still fills me with a smug satisfaction. Plus, it’s a great party trick.

In the words I saw on a T-shirt once: “Everyone is born right-handed. Only the gifted overcome it.”

Babs Greyhosky, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Thanks to Ulin for giving us lefties our due.

My mother was left-handed. In school they tied her left hand to the desk chair with a rope to force her to write right-handed. She never did.

When my turn came, I began writing left-handed with a pen and ink bottle. What a mess. Thank God for the ball point pen.

I became a school librarian, and all the computers were set up with the mouse on the right side. So I learned to use it with my right hand, but I prefer using my left.

My wife was left-handed. We had two girls. They are both right-handed. Go figure.

Carl Martz, Redlands

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To the editor: How about an article on those of us who are bidextrous, who naturally use the left hand for one common task and right hand for another common task?

In my case I write left-handed and throw right-handed, and in doing the reverse, I fare no better than anyone else using their “off hand.”

John Whiteman, San Diego