In this issue...
1. Mixed handedness
2. New left-handed leather goods range
3. January Sale Items

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A very Happy New Year from all of us at the Left-handers Club!

How do you define a left-hander?  Pretty much everyone would agree that if you write with your left hand, then you’re left-handed. But what if you play racquet sports with your right hand, can use scissors equally well in either hand, or have a dominant right eye?

According to psychologist Stephen Christman at the University of Toledo in Ohio, we have been looking at handedness in the wrong way.  He says it is not being right or left-handed that matters, but the strength of your preference for one hand over the other.  According to his controversial idea, people are not either left-handed or right-handed but “strong-handed” or “mixed-handed”.

Much research has been done to explore the theory that left-handed people have a larger corpus callosum – the cable like bundle of nerves that links the two hemispheres of the brain – than right-handers, which leads to faster communication between the two hemispheres.  This may give left-handers an advantage when playing stringed musical instruments (whether they play them left or right-handed) because of the need for tight coordination of the two hands to create single notes.  Where the hands work independently, like on a piano, a smaller communication link in the brain may be an advantage as it allows “inhibition” to stop the two sides of the brain “mixing” their messages.

How well do the two sides of your brain communicate?
Below is an example of a widely used “Stroop Task” in which subjects are asked to name the colour of lettering on a card.  The task is complicated by making the letters spell out colour names:  the word “white” written in green, for example.  Reading is generally considered to be a left-hemisphere function, whereas colour recognition is a right-hemisphere task.  If you are left-handed or consider yourself mixed handed, according to Christman’s theory you should score lower on these tests, since you should find it harder to prevent the automatic reading action of the left hemisphere from interfering with the right hemisphere’s efforts to identify the colour.

Try to work across and down this graphic saying out loud the COLOUR of each word (NOT what the word actually says)

Click here to see a fuller version of this article and links to an online test

We have developed a relationship with an excellent manufacturer of high quality leather goods and persuaded them to make a range of items designed fully left-handed for us in their best quality soft leather. We love these and hope you will too! We had to place a very big order to get these made so we are offering them to Club members at a 30% discount for January 2007 only to reduce our stocks to manageable levels.

	Men's Leather Wallet The exclusive design of this soft men's leather wallet makes it unique, with the whole layout reversed so a left-hander can open it out in their natural direction from right to left without all the contents falling out. Available in black or dark brown leather. 120mm x 95mm closed. Normally £15.95, Now £11.17 Click here to order your wallet
	Ladies' Leather Purse / pocketbook Made from soft black or light brown brown leather, this attractive and functional purse / pocketbook has a fully reversed design so it opens without everything falling out when opened by a left-hander! 180mm x 100mm closed. Normally £19.95, Now £13.97 Click here to order your purse
	Leather Conference Folder Made to a high standard in top quality soft leather this conference folder has the paper holder on the left and the insert pockets and card-holder on the right so it will all be the correct way up and none of your papers will fall out when you open it in your natural right to left direction (contents for display only, not included). Size is 12.5 in x 9.5 in (316mm x 240mm) Available in Black, dark brown or light brown Normally £22.95, Now £16.07 Click here to order your folder
	Leather Clip folder Made to a high standard in top quality soft leather with stitched edging, this unique conference folder has a spring clipboard notepad holder on the left for comfortable and efficient writing, whilst 2 insert pockets and business card holder are comfortably supported on the right, so they will all be the correct way up and none of your papers will fall out when you open it in your natural right to left direction (contents for display only, not included). Size is 12.5 in x 9.5 in (316mm x 240mm) Black and light brown Normally £24.95, Now £17.47 Click here to order your clip folder
	Zipped Leather Portfolio Designed to our owner Keith’s specifications, and used by him on a daily basis, this luxury padded conference folder is ideal for safely transporting your papers, and is conveniently laid out with the writing pad on the left for ease of writing. Your papers, CD’s, cards etc. are easily housed on the right side, so nothing falls out when you open your case. It features dual zip fastening (so you can open it from top or bottom as you choose), 2 pen holders, loads of pockets and flaps for storing cards and papers plus a deep zipped pocket. Available in black or light brown leather Normally £29.95, Now £20.97 Click here to order your zip folder

We are sure you are going to love these so take advantage of our offer now - we will not be repeating it again in 2007.