Comments by "Andrew Brendan" (@andrewbrendan1579) on "TED-Ed" channel.

  1. I had left-handed scissors in elementary school but for most of my life have used standard scissors and prefer them. I probably couldn't use left-handed scissors now! I've always used a mouse right-handed, have always hit a baseball as a right-handed hitter. I have to use my can-opener right-handed because that's only way it can be used!
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  2. Maybe someone else knows more about this but I read once, many years ago, that the position of the pearl, indicates that the girl in the portrait had done a double-take. How that decision was determined but it's very similar to your thought on the painting.
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  3. I was told once, "You have nice handwriting for a left-handed person"! I love to write and since childhood imitated old-fashioned handwriting. One of the nicest compliments I ever received was from a work supervisor who said, "Your handwriting is almost Victorian", and recently someone said my writing looked like it was from the "1700's or 1800's". I liked that! That's what I've been trying for for many years! I may hold my hand in an awkward position but I love the act of writing and the look of handwriting that is both beautiful and legible.
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  4. It's been a long time now but I remember reading that actress Nicole Kidman, who is left-handed and who played the role of Virginia Woolf in the movie "The Hours", was in a scene that showed Virginia's hand close-up as she was writing the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" and that Ms. Kidman was told someone else's hand could be shown for the close-up because Virginia was right-handed. Nicole Kidman was so involved and immersed in playing Virginia Woolf that she, Ms. Kidman, refused to have someone else right hand shown for the close up so she learned to write right-handed just for those few moments of film. I'm a leftie and after reading about Nicole Kidman, I've practiced here and there writing with my right hand. I found that it's not just using a different hand but even having my upper body in a different position when I write with my right hand.
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  5. Wonderfully done video and narration! True that Sylvia Plath had to make a decision about which life-and-career path to take. I had the pleasure of seeing an exhibition of her paintings at Indiana University and learned that Sylvia Plath had serioiusly considered becoming a painter before her deicsion to pursue a writing career. Recently I read "Ariel--the Restored Edition", by Plath, then Ted Hughes's "Birthday Letters" then "Ariel's Gift--Ted Huges, Sylvia Plath & the Publication of Birthday Letters" by Erica Wagner; a great combination of books. I think it should be mentioned that some of the Ariel poems were not published the first time the collection was published not necessarily because Ted Hughes was trying to protect his own image but because some of the poems were directed at other, identifiable people. Also at the time of her death, Sylvia Plath's arrangememtn and selection of poems for "Ariel" may not have been finalized.
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  6. A trip down memory lane! I've done better with pens. I like to write with a fountain pen and am I ever glad for quick-drying ink!
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