"Raving lefties storm the lecture halls" - Mark Morris
(abridged from Varsity)

According to an episode of the Simpsons, where Ned Flanders opens up a specialist left-handers shop, 1 in 9 of us use that very extremity as our dominant writing, cooking and racquet-sport tool. The actual statistics vary from 9-11%, depending on which source you read, so we'll assume Ned to be pretty accurate.
Until a few years back, i'd never paid much attention to the fact that the world's population can define 2 opposite practical methodologies as both being correct, or that there would be any problems with it; it just simply didn't bother me. Then one day I found myself in a rather compact lecture theatre and upon trying to take notes I found the persno my right had an annoying tendency to keep jabbing me with her elbow whilst she was writing.
After this happened for the 7th or 8th time she looked up and apologised for the inconvenience, but she was left-handed and couldn't really avoid it. I was stunned. The fact that being a lefty could actually cause such issues had never occurred to me, the fact that this girl was apologising for something that clearly was not her fault was even more striking. Perplexed by this matter, I began to do some research.
... Contrary to my right-sided ignorance, the curses associated with using your left hand can strike nearly all the time. Such simple measures as using scissors, trying to uncork a bottle of wine, signing a cheque - the list of tasks in which trying to use the other paw generates difficulties are endless. How many designers realise that a left-handed ruler needs to read from right to left? Perhaps this was a beginning to explaining why a lot of the lefties end up highly ambidextrous; the need to fit in with the rest of society is so great.


But deconstructing the evidence further, my friend went on to tell me that left-handedness was far from the curse one could possibly imagine and that in many circles it was beginning to be seen as a great blessing. Consider the world of professional sports, where accoring to the numbers a cricket team should have one, maybe 2 left-handed batsmen. Most will field 3, maybe 4. In baseball the ratios go even higher.
...politics seem to attract more lefties than average, with 7 of America's 43 presidnets signing off on bills of congress with their pens on the wrong side. That's considerably more than the one in 9 notion expressed earlier.
A perplexing trend appeared to be on its way when Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr and then Bill Clinton rolled up to the oval office championing the cause of the underdog. Then the younger George Bush arrived, putting at least one thing back to 'normal' as the White House aides moved the inkwell back to the other side of the presidential desk.
... attempts to explain these reuslts have suggested that the very fact that being left-handed can be seen as such a challenge, what with all those tools and other implements desinged for right-handed folk, actually makes it an advantage as well. Having to work harder to overcome difficulties from an early age makes people more confident and more likely to succeed in a wide variety of applications.
... one final intriguing insight, one that has kept me thinking for ages, is that some scientists believe the population is actually born with a near 50-50 split of left and right handed people, but society seems to inflict the norm upon us.
Parents and schoolteachers, through no faults whatsoever, are prone to placing a crayon in a child's right hand, something that would seem to make sense after all. This, they argue, is why some people can pick up a pen whilst in their twenties, and begin to write half decent characters with their weak hand....
So if you ever find yourself sitting next to one of these people in a cramped lecture theatre, with their legs crossed the wrong way, notepad on opposite side, and pen clutched in the left paw, stop and think for a moment. Maybe, just maybe, it is you who is performing things the wrong way instead. Probably not, but it can't hurt to try.