I, like Pete Whalon (June 23 article), also had the left-hand smear from dragging my hand across the pencil graphite from my newly written assignments, but for me this was at a Catholic grade school. Fourth Grade was the transition from pencil to a cartridge fountain pen, but the pen was only awarded to those students who demonstrated neat penmanship, and didn’t smear their writing. I was the last one awarded the pen.
It is the penmanship issue that is the problem: throughout those grade school years we were taught the right slanting Palmer method for cursive writing. This is all well and good if you are right-handed, but for left-handers it was an unachievable goal. I think it is discrimination, and bullying.
The only ways for left-handers to copy the Palmer method were to tilt the paper at very odd angles, which made trying to do the impossible Palmer cursive very awkward, or invert the hand over the lettering to avoid the smear. I chose the later. This inverted style is seen in the writing style of President Obama.
Left-handers, to cope with a right-handed world, are very stubborn, and as the only left-hander in a family of nine, I am very stubborn. I continued the inverted method deep into middle-age until recently when my Ukrainian tailor, a very sweet but tough woman, chastised me about my left-hand curving over my writing on the receipt, “Why? Why? Why do you write like this? Crazy! Makes no sense! Let me show you.” She is left-handed and demonstrated how to write without the paper at crazy angles or the left-hand over the top.
I finally tried her method. I pulled my left-hand down with the pen or pencil pointing up the paper and have changed my writing style, and I don’t smear. But it is not even close to the Palmer cursive style. My writing leans left and is more looping. So to those Palmer cursive fanatics I quote Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalki from “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Hah! Hah, hah, hah hah!” This is liberating, I am free from the Palmer cursive bullies.
Regarding the term “southpaw” for lefties, this comes from baseball. In the early days of the game, before stadium lights and batting helmets, it soon became clear that batters could not face the setting sun when at the plate awaiting the pitch. They were blinded by the setting sun and couldn’t see the pitch. This was a tremendous advantage for the pitcher, and very dangerous to the batter. The rules then stipulated that the batter’s back must be to the west so the sun sets behind them, and so, when the pitcher is facing squared to the batter, his left arm is facing south.
— Matthew Hetz
Los Angeles
