#51762: SocraticGadfly — 12/02  at  04:24 PM
But, PZ, if it's easier for righties, why are they against everybody else doing it?

Of course, that would explain how Bob Guccione was able to promise to make public a whole list of Bob Livingstons a decade ago.

#51764: The Chemist — 12/02  at  04:52 PM
I think he's inferring that righties are better at screwing you, and lefties are better at fixing things.

Although my mind did initially go to the sex thing, which is not altogether surprising.

#51771: madbard — 12/02  at  05:58 PM
Actually, I did initially go to the biomechanical answer,,, then realize PZ probably meant a "political" lesson.

#51782: — 12/02  at  07:10 PM
Well, leaving aside political potshots for the moment, this would explain why, when I unscrew a lid off a jar, I usually turn the jar instead of the lid.

#51789: coturnix — 12/02  at  08:14 PM
I. Am. So. Dense!

I got the sex allusion.
I loved the biomechanical explanation.
I never thought of this being a political metaphor, too!
And I am steeped in Left/Right metaphors....

#51799: donna — 12/02  at  08:58 PM
Being a leftie, I use my right hand for screwing things in and my left for unscrewing them. Guess it all makes sense now...

#51801: — 12/02  at  09:10 PM
um,
screwing in right-handed screws is easier for righties. screwing in left-handed screws is easier for lefties.

#51806: — 12/02  at  10:36 PM
I'm somewhat ambidexterous; I can screw in or out either handedway (oh that sounds so sexy now I see it in preview!).

#51807: SocraticGadfly — 12/02  at  10:46 PM
Several points:

1. My original post got in the sex AND the political angles both! I knew just what I was saying, so I didn't even thinking about righties screwing us out of anything. I just took a different political lesson than PZ may have meant.

2. Frumious, since we righties are a vast majority, that's why left-handed screws are few and far between.

3. Buffalo Gal -- with a line like that, it's a good way to get all sorts of off the wall e-mail.

#51817: Alon Levy — 12/03  at  04:01 AM
I got the mechanical angle and to some degree the sex angle, but not the political angle. Though I did want to make a joke about UTI being populated with lefties, still in the mindset wherein a leftie is a left-handed person but not a leftist.

#51843: — 12/03  at  11:47 AM
"this would explain why, when I unscrew a lid off a jar, I usually turn the jar instead of the lid"

Yes; but it is a good tactic for any handedness if the jar or bottle is not too big, to avoid high stress on weak joints.

(Insert obvious joke about using hands too much when screwing here.)

#51845: Ron Sullivan — 12/03  at  11:48 AM
Cripes, and here's dull ol' me thinking it was about chirality...

UTI being populated with lefties

You have a urinary tract infection? I'm sorry, that's a hassle. But why blame it on any particular bug; have you had it cultured?

Ron, still contemplating left-handed screws

#51851: Kagehi — 12/03  at  12:33 PM
Bah. You people are not political enough. My first thought was lightbulbs, followed by, "He he! That could be a funny joke on how they act in politics."

#51860: — 12/03  at  01:40 PM
Umm, I am pretty sure that they are not using lightbulbs in politics. It seems more like dimwits.

Which remind me of a (probably very old) joke I heard yesterday on swedish television as an answer to the question which popular US serial depicts the president and his staff:

"Lost."

I wasn't the only one that saw humour in that answer...

#51866: revere — 12/03  at  03:33 PM
Thanks for the comments (and the traffic!). As the author of the post, I'll add a small historic footnote. It originally had a more explicit polital tag to go with the obvious sexual one:

What's the moral of this? The right is good at screwing you, the left is better at getting you unscrewed.

I changed it to make it less "heavy handed" (sorry).

#51905: — 12/04  at  07:31 AM
errrm...

the consensus that screws should turn the way they do occured because the majority of us are right-handed...

and...

the polarity of the left/right (false) political dichotomy is entirely arbitrary...

have a chuckle but ... screwing has no chirality (last time i checked, it was purely harmonic)...

#51908: revere — 12/04  at  09:05 AM
djlactin: but what about getting screwed . . .

#52027: Alon Levy — 12/05  at  02:44 AM
That has no chirality, either, as far as I know.