Ambidexterity
October 31, 2007
By: Renny Logan <rlogan@hilite.org>
Q&A with Colin Ray, a student who can use both his hands equally well
When did you first realize you were ambidextrous?
It was probably in preschool when my parents were trying to figure out if I was left or right-handed. I started doing some things with my left hand and some with my right hand.
Which hand do you prefer to use?
For things like writing, my left hand, but for things like throwing a Frisbee, my right hand.
Are there any advantages to being ambidextrous?
I’m sure there are but none of them are really apparent.
How does being ambidexterous help with playing the guitar?
Well, you need to have good technique with both hands. For a lot of people, it’s really hard to get both left and right hands coordinated together. But since I could already do that, it made it a lot easier.
Is there anything else people should know about ambidexterity?
Well, if people don’t know what the word ambidextrous means, then they probably think it is similar to autism. So, you don’t want to get it confused with that.
Where did you get that idea from?
It’s happened to me before. I’ve told people I’m ambidextrous and they were like, ‘Oh, you don’t seem slow at anything.’
Being left-handed for dummies
October 31, 2007
By: Ashley Elson <aelson@hilite.org>
I was three years old when my dad bought one of those automatic baseball contraptions. I’m sure you would remember them – you step down on a button and the thing would make this horrible noise and then all of a sudden, the ball would pop up and you swing at it.
My dad set the machine up in our backyard so that when he swung at it, the ball would go sailing harmlessly into the fence.
Perfect, save for one thing. He, as is everyone on both sides of my family in recent history, is right-handed.
And then there is me.
I take the plastic bat from his hands and step up to the machine. My dad places my hands right on top of the left and places the bat over my right shoulder, quickly teaching me how to swing. Then he steps back. I press the button down and place the bat over my left shoulder, my hands still right on top of the left.
How I managed to swing, let alone hit the ball still remains a mystery. All I remember from that day is the crack of plastic against plastic and the consequent shattering of glass. I hit the ball right through the middle of our bay window.
I never experienced many difficulties growing up left-handed in a right-handed world. I learned by copying what everyone else did, just using the opposite hands. How to hold a fork, how to throw a football – it’s all done the same way.
The only “problem” was my penmanship, which bordered on illegible, until I finally had a left-handed teacher in the fourth grade. Of course, by then the damage had already been done in print and cursive, so my writing still remains difficult for many to decipher.
As for baseball, I corrected my swing that day. I learned to kick a soccer ball, throw a football and shoot a basketball just like everyone else. I would just reverse hands for whatever the teacher said to do. I got by just fine.
It wasn’t until eighth grade, when I had a left-handed P.E. teacher, that I learned my form was always a bit tweaked. My right-handed teachers either didn’t notice or just didn’t know what to do to help me.
People are surprised that I am left-handed, but I don’t see anything special about it. Left-handed people get along in the world just fine. It’s not like there is a label making it blatantly obvious that one is left-handed or right-handed.
We might have a few oddities – the way we hold our pencils or something. I can cut paper just fine with so called right handed scissors. I can use a mouse on the right side of a computer better than I can one on the left.
It is not hard to adapt, you just have to try.
It’s a right-handed world
October 31, 2007
By: Lexi Muir <lmuir@hilite.org>
Bumping elbows with the person to her left, junior Erika Petruzzi struggles to write on the spiral notebook in front of her.
Petruzzi has struggled with this her whole life. She struggles not because she has a disability, or a broken arm or similar disabilities, but simply because Petruzzi is left-handed.
“Spiral notebooks have always been a pain,” Petruzzi said. “It’s either that, or it smears and I get marker on my hand.”
According to handanalysis.com, the percentage of left-handed people in the world is not certain, but most estimates hover around 10 percent.
The only major disadvantage for left-handers, because they are a minority group, is the fact that they must live in a world designed for right-handers.
They suffer disadvantages as well as frustration and inconvenience in our right-handed world.
“Gym class was also frustrating for me,” Petruzzi said. “There was never anything for left-handers, like left-handed mitts. I would search forever for a left-handed mitt but I could never find one.”
Along with difficulties in gym class, problems in school and everyday life also arose for Petruzzi from being left-handed.
“Writing is just annoying, but eating is even harder than writing,” Petruzzi said. “It’s just really difficult when I have to sit next to someone who is right-handed. They always get mad because I bump their elbow, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Growing up, Petruzzi said she remembers the hardest part was how much she got made fun of by her peers.
“People thought I wrote weird, so they would make fun of me. It didn’t bother me, though, I thought it was cool.”
She said, “They would sometimes tell me rumors about left-handed people, like that if you were left-handed it meant that you ate your twin while in the womb. Everyone just thought it was weird.”
Government teacher Joe Stuelpe grew up using both his left and his right hand.
“I write with my right, eat with my right, shoot a basketball with my left, throw with my left, bat right and play tennis right,” he said. “That’s just how it came naturally.”
Petruzzi said, “They would say ‘is anyone left-handed?’ and I would always get singled out so they could teach me how to do stuff. I always hated that. Softball was the worst for me, because everything you do in softball is totally opposite from what right-handers do.”
Now, Petruzzi said that being left-handed is a huge advantage for her in softball, whereas in the beginning it seemed like a disadvantage.
“Left-handers are really rare. They have different qualities than right-handers in softball. It’s just a really big advantage,” she said.
Stuelpe said that he also feels more at an advantage because he is ambidextrous.
“It is easier for me to shoot left-handed lay-ups,” he said.
According to Stuelpe, one disadvantage is that he is limited to some activities. Because he uses both hands, sometimes he cannot participate in certain activities because he is not sure which hand he would use.
“I don’t golf, but if anyone ever asked me to, I couldn’t go. I don’t know if I would golf left-handed or right, so I just don’t do it,” he said.
Petruzzi and Stuelpe both said that they feel like they live in a “right-handed” world. “Everything is made for right-handers,” Stuelpe said.
“When you take college courses, they use folded up seats, and left-handers can’t even use them,” he said. “Most desks here are even made for right-handers, I think there’s a few made for (left-handers) in the block room, but other than that the desks are made for (right-handers).”
Petruzzi said, “Everything is set for right-handers. Notebooks are made for them, desks are made for them, and coaches explain stuff the way (right-handers) would do it. I’ve learned to ignore all that and try to have fun with (being left-handed).”
She said, “People jokingly make fun of lefties because they are different, but that’s so stupid. We use a different hand, that’s all. I hope (left-handers) don’t let what people say affect them. We’re the same as right-handers; we just use a different hand.”
Trying to Survive in a Sea of Blue
October 31, 2007
By: Tommy Sneider <tsneider@hilite.org>
Q&A with Joey Buschur, a Patriots fan
How did you begin liking the Patriots?
I used to live in New England, and that’s when I became a fan.
What’s the best part of the team this year?
They have gotten a lot of new players and have really mixed up their playbook, letting defensive players play offense and offensive players play defense.
Why do you like them so much?
I have grown up liking them and have lived there for most of my life.
What’s the worst part about being a Patriots fan in Colts country?
Nothing. Everyone here loves my (Tom) Brady jersey and the Patriots, and if anyone says anything bad about them I remind them we have three (Super Bowl) rings and the Colts have one.
What’s the worst thing that has happened to you because of your faith in the team?
Nothing much, just the usual threats, people telling me to burn my jersey, go back to New England, dissing the Patriots. Like I said, the usual.
Have you ever been to Foxborough?
Not yet, but I would really like to go there some day.
What games have you been to?
I haven’t really been to any yet, but again I hope to go to one eventually.
Why do you think that they’re the best team?
(Bill) Belichick has really mixed up the playbook, and we have gotten a lot of good players this year.
What’s your second favorite team?
The Colts.
What’s your prediction on the playoffs this season?
The Patriots versus the Colts in the AFC Championship game, then the Patriots go to the Super Bowl and win their fourth Super Bowl.
Who’s your favorite player on the Colts?
Adam Vinatieri
On the Patriots?
Tom Brady, Mike Vrable and Teddy Bruschi
If you could meet one player in the league right now, who would it be and why?
Teddy Bruschi because he has been on the Patriots since I lived there.
What position would you play on the Patriots and why?
I’d say receiver just because it would be fun.
What did you think when the Colts won the Super Bowl last year and beat your Patriots in the process?
I thought the Patriots let them win.
What do you think the outcome of the game and score will be on Sunday?
I don’t know what the final score will be but the Patriots will win. It’ll be a close game.
What will you do after the Patriots lose to the Colts?
That won’t happen because the Patriots are that much better.
What do you think about Peyton Manning?
Out of all the Colts people, he’s the one I like the least. There’s just something about him that I don’t like, not sure what it is.
What’s the strongest part of the team this year?
Their offense. They had a lot of people last year that were hurting the Patriots and now they’re helping them.
After Colts’ Super Bowl win, opposing fans face blue nation
October 31, 2007
By: Stephanie Hodgin <shodgin@hilite.org>
She was frustrated.
Frustrated at the fact that her favorite NFL team lost the Super Bowl game to one of its biggest rivals. Frustrated in knowing that all of the team’s hard work throughout the season came down to that game. Frustrated because going to school the next day in a sea of Colts jerseys would be dreadful. The next day at school, junior Emily Morin, a spirited Chicago Bears fan, would have to face her entire group of friends, most of whom are Colts fans.
“I was kind of disappointed (about the Super Bowl loss) because I’m from Chicago and everything. I was even more frustrated because everybody kept rubbing it in,” Morin said.
Students here that support rivals of the Colts, or any other team outside of Indiana for that matter, may face pressure and bitterness from their peers around school. Tracy Markus, Chicago Bears fan and math teacher, that she always gets a hard time from her students that are Colts fans.
“Yes, most of the time they give me a hard time, and it’s all in good fun,” Markus said via email.
Junior Aaron Morrow, a New England Patriots fan, said he didn’t care about the Colts’ Super Bowl win for long.
“I cared the day after, but it didn’t make a difference. We already have three rings,” Morrow said. He said his friends annoyed him after the AFC Championship last year.
“My friends were dogging on me for a week. Finally they just let it go,” he said. Morrow said that he also gets a lot of animosity from his friends and other students in the hallways when he wears his Patriots jersey.
“In the hallways, I sometimes get a lot of ‘Patriots suck’ comments. One girl actually said she liked the Patriots, but only because she liked Tom Brady,” Morrow said. Morin said that she gets yelled at from her friends from wearing the signature navy and orange colors for the Bears.
But students aren’t the only ones that get bitterness from other students. Some teachers in the building get the same amount of resentment for supporting the “wrong” football team.
“(The students) basically just tell me how horrible the Bears are,” Markus said. She also said that she has gotten more animosity from her students since the Colts’ Super Bowl win compared to before they won.
“…Because the Colts beat the Bears in the Super Bowl, it’s like everyone thinks the Colts can’t be touched,” Markus said.
With all the Colts fans in the building, it makes one wonder if they are just fans of winning, or of the Colts team itself. Markus said she thinks that having a great quarterback has something to do with it.
“I think that everyone is a Colts fan now because Peyton Manning has made them a winning team. Where were all the Colts fans before him? Everyone will drop them as soon as he retires,” Markus said. “The Bears made it to the Super Bowl with Rex Grossman, who is a less-than-average quarterback. Could the Colts make it there with Jim Sorgi? I think not,” she said.
“I think a lot of people don’t really care, they just pick the Colts because they are in Indiana and they win a lot,” Morin said.
“Nobody supported them when they were doing really bad. Before last year, nobody went to the games, there were no dress up days, no Colts blue days. Now that they are winning there are a bunch of parties and stuff,” she said.
Markus said, “Pray that Peyton Manning never gets hurt or retires because the Colts are nothing without him.” Morin said that she is tired of students getting after her for being a Bears fan.
“Get off the fact that I’m a Bears fan,” she said. “It is not going to change.”
I Am America sets bar high for literary political comedy
October 31, 2007
By: Meher Ahmed <mahmed@hilite.org>
Looking for your daily dose of political sarcasm? You’ve found just the book. Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!) hit the stores this October and proved to be a comedic classic.
The textbook-style coffee table book seems like any other opinionated stance on American politics at first glance. But upon opening the book, readers will discover it is much more than an ordinary story. I Am America is a whole new level of humor, with sarcasm dripping from every one of Colbert’s words. The book is separated into three main sections titled “My American Childhood,” “My American Adolescence” and “My American Maturity.” And each section is chock full of blunt and often offending statements. On his chapter about religion, Colbert gave a summary of the Quakers: “These folks produced only two things I like – Oatmeal and Richard Nixon.”
The unexpected humor, however, was in the margins. Throughout the book, Colbert injects his exaggerated opinions into the margins of the book. The small and often pointless phrases are worth the squinting; it feels as if no one else would be reading them.
However, midway through the book, the sarcasm does get a bit tiring. The knee-slapping laughter turns to chuckles, then to smiles and then to just plain boredom. The bonus stickers within the book proved to make up for any boredom. The silver seal on the cover, which most would’ve overlooked, ended up being a “Stephen T. Colbert Award for Literary Excellence.” Twelve more were included inside so that the reader may place them on books they deem worthy of the award.
A warning to any readers who may be in any way conservative: this book is definitely offensive. In fact, as a warning to any reader, this book offends everyone except for Steven Colbert. From homosexuals to immigrants to the elderly, Colbert tackles and undermines everyone in the United States in one way or another. Why do we keep reading? The jokes are funny enough that we forgive him.
Overall, I Am America was an immaculately written and detailed book. The more I read it, the more I found it to be hilarious. The devil’s in the details and the humor is, too. As I was closing the book, I found a small picture summary of “How to Retire I Am America for the Evening,” which even featured two boy scouts. Does the book deserve the same amount of respect the American flag does? Certainly not. But it does deserve a “well done.” This book was hilarious.
Welcome to Hilite Online
Advertisement
