Straight Ls are never good enough

 Posted by on 13 July 2010  Everything Else
Jul 132010
 

Related to my last post, about Brianna Smrke, the high school student who got 100% in all her courses during her senior year, one thing in the Toronto Star article kind of stood out for me.

I suppose the reporter probably asked something like “Where are you dumb?” but hopefully phrased it more politely. Anyway, the paragraph that made the story goes like this:

Smrke, however, admits to needing a little help in one area: “I always get made fun of because I can’t always tell my left from my right without having to check. . . . That’s probably the most shocking thing about me,” she said, laughing. “I subtly put my hands down on my pants and make Ls” to figure out which is which.

Now, I’ve always had a problem with people who think they need to do this. Can’t tell left from right? Yes you can. And your L trick is stupid.

Go ahead, put your hands up and make Ls — or put them on your pants, subtly, like Smrke does. I’m guessing your palms are out, or down, correct? Because that’s the only way this works. If you happen to make Ls with your hands, and you’re looking at your palms, the L will be on your right hand.

So, if you can remember up and down — or palms vs. backs of hands — you can remember left and right.

(Aside: I read somewhere that right-handedness is determined genetically, but if you don’t have the gene for right-handedness, you basically have a 50/50 chance of being either right- or left-handed.)

  • MPot

    You’re assuming that if someone can remember to do one thing, one can remember to do another, but nearly everyone finds it easier to remember some sorts of things than others.

    • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

      No one (that I know of) has any trouble whatsoever differentiating between “back” and “front” or “up” and “down” … I wonder if there is a neurological basis for having trouble remembering which is left and which is right? I could see there being a “handedness blindness” the same way there is colour blindness, perhaps.

      But I’ll stand by my (completely unfounded) assertion that most people should be able to remember their lefts and rights without much trouble, if they would just apply themselves.

      I mean, really, do you think she has to think hard and check her hands every single time to remember which side of the road to drive on?

  • ma’am

    Is this really important to the issue at hand? The young lady achieved outstanding academic success. So she has a little foible? You can’t possibly assert that you have never used mnemonics or such aids to negotiate life! She is a young woman thrust into a maelstrom of attention. She handled herself with grace. Give her a break and get over yourself. To call anyone or anything “Stupid” shows your true worth.