To the Left

An autobiographical sketch of my left-handedness; plus, go read Kin so I can talk to you about it, stop hijacking poor Idris Elba, and a few things I'm enjoying.

Hi readers,

How are you doing?

Hello and welcome to my new subscribers. I'm Paige and I'm a journalist and author. This newsletter is where I catch you up on what I'm doing, and what I'm thinking about or liking. Sometimes I plan ahead and assemble it in a really organized way. A lot of times, there's not a lot of rhyme or reason to it, but that can be fun too. At any rate, thank you for joining me here. Don't hesitate to hit reply and let me know what you might like to see, or whether you have questions you might like me to answer (that goes for you O.G.s too), or share with friends who you think might like a little break each Friday at noon. Sound good? I sure hope so.

Now, how many of you are left-handed like yours truly? We're about ten percent of the global population, and males are more likely to be lefties than females, as if you needed more proof that I'm an odd duck.

Anyway, I'm doing some research this week for a sample chapter I'm writing. In the sample chapter, part of the subject's coming-of-age involves being forced to write with her right hand. Throughout history, people used to do this to southpaws for a variety of reasons, among them: 1. the belief that the devil was left-handed, and 2. it was better to be right-handed because the world was made for righties, so why fight it? Forcing handedness leads to a lot of things, some of them quite traumatic. Fortunately the practice has pretty much fallen out of favor, but I'm fascinated and a bit horrified by how things used to be. All I ever really had to deal with were righthanded desks, my hand bumping up against the wire binding on notebooks, and ink-smeared hands.

Oh, and Mrs. M.

Mrs. M. was my really mean and despicable fourth grade teacher, who I wanted to name here but decided not to because I am a lady of a certain age who believes in rising above it all. There were two lefties in fourth grade that year – me, and a kid I'll refer to as Andy (which is actually his name...oops, hello bitterness). Mrs. M. used to give Andy better grades than me because while our answers were similar, my handwriting slanted backwards (common among left-handers) while that flawless bastard's didn't. Mrs. M. was determined to dock me points until my handwriting literally straightened up and flew right because Andy's did and why couldn't I be more like Andy?

Can you believe this broad?

No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get my longhand to be more Andylike, and no amount of right answers on the page prevented Mrs. M. from punishing me for my transgression. So, I did what any self-respecting fourth-grader would do: I went straight to my mommy and told her everything right after she had gotten home from a very long and exasperating day of work.

You know what doesn't pair well with a long and exasperating day of work? A story about some petty old witch picking on your left-handed kid.

Mom called Mrs. M. at home and, I'm told, spoke to her in terms she could understand. As someone who had also been spoken to in terms I could understand, I imagined that it must have been a terrifying exchange. Whatever was said, for the rest of that week, my grades reflected correct answers, not my back-slanty penmanship. I felt free at last, so free that I sat down next to someone who is one of my oldest and dearest friends to this day, and proceeded to jibber jabber with her while Mrs. M. stood at the chalkboard and taught us how to be more like Andy, probably.

You know what doesn't pair well with a severely reprimanded teacher trying to teach? Two students – one of whom is the daughter of the reprimander – unabashedly running their mouths. Mrs. M. yelled at us so fiercely for talking while she was teaching that you probably could have heard her all the way in California. But then she had a little something special for me...

"And Paige Bowers, don't you DARE go running home to tell your mommy..."

Oh, but she spat out "mommy" in such a truly wicked way, and it got me a lot of grief from my peers for the rest of the afternoon. So what did I do? I went ahead and told my mom anyway, and Mom called Mrs. M. at home again, making sure to close the door to her room so I couldn't eavesdrop.

My guess is the conversation began with my mother hissing, "Listen..."

Whatever Mom said, Mrs. M. let me be for the rest of the year, which was awfully whatever-passes-for-nice of her.

As for me?

(whispers)

My handwriting no longer slants backward.

And with that, I will wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Paige

Writing prompt: Write about a good or bad memory from elementary school and how it shaped you today.

You can't sit around and wait for someone to say who you are. You need to write it and paint it and do it.

-- Faith Ringgold

Endnotes

Have You Read Kin Yet?

In the last newsletter, I mentioned I was going to Tayari Jones' book launch for Kin, which came out this week. The launch was two days before the official release, which means I finished the book the day it came out and was announced as the latest Oprah's Book Club pick. Kin is the story of two motherless best friends, Niecy and Annie, who grow up in a small Louisiana town in the 1950s and take diverging paths in life. Niecy goes off to Spelman College in Atlanta and marries into an affluent family. Annie heads to Memphis in search of the mother who abandoned her, a decision that leads to all manner of agony. Beautifully written, and at turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this book was marvelous from start to finish. 1 million out of ten would recommend, so grab yourself a copy. What are you reading and loving right now? Hit reply and let me know!

Motorhead

Dutch photographer Martin Roemers just published the book Homo Mobilis, an ode to how the cars we drive reflect identity, inequality, and the ever-changing ways we get where we need to go. The five-year-long project brought Roemers to eight countries on four continents, and involved him shooting more than 200 people with their cars and other modes of transport. "I strongly believe that the spirit of the car reflects that of its owner or its driver," Roemers told NPR. "It says something about the culture they come from, their world view, identity and even about society itself." Take Suresh, an attorney and climate activist who appears up above with his car, which has a rooftop garden to counteract pollution. "He told me you can grow plants on any kind of vehicle and that he waters his "garden" everyday!," Roemers said. For more on the project and some great pictures, click here.

More Thoughts on Apple TV's Hijack

Here's the thing: If I have the opportunity to watch Idris Elba doing something, I will take it. For example, I recently watched a video of him taking penalty kicks (that the goalie "missed") at Arsenal FC's training ground, and it wasn't like I didn't have anything better to do. Don't judge. As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I've also been watching Elba in Hijack on Apple TV. In it, he plays a negotiator of some sort (he says it's corporate-related, but I question that). In the first season, he finds himself trying to talk some plane hijackers out of hijacking a seven-hour flight to London. Good, riveting stuff, to the point where I even yelled at the television a couple of times. Well, now I'm on season two, which is a little more complicated to explain without spoiling things, but I can say that it involves a subway train hijacking in Berlin, and a duo of dark-haired, bearded men that are really difficult to tell apart (I think the good guy is the one with the slightly longer hair). Anyway, the season ends next week and I'm not sure how I feel about it so far. I know we're probably due for a last-minute plot twist, but I honestly don't understand how this show gets renewed past this season. Like what's next? A bus with Sandra Bullock? A cruise ship? How many hijackings is Idris Elba going to be in before he wonders why he keeps winding up in these messes? Surely he doesn't enjoy it, unless he has some weird danger kink. Is anyone watching this too? If so, let me know what you think. If not, give me a recommendation for a show I definitely need in my life and why.

A Few Things I'm Enjoying

My kid's frisky little surface design projects. A Year of June's glorious return to the internet. The story about the nougat fight that broke out at this year's Salon de l'agriculture. The way a creative director used artist notebooks in the layout for a story I'll share next week.

Please Consider...

...rounding up some gently used books and donating them to your local library. Extra points to anyone who drops off some banned books. Again, reading is cool, reading is fundamental, and reading is going to help the good guys win. So spread books, not hate. Thank you.