![]() My guess is that the left-only hip pocket was just a bit of fashion variation that happened to catch on. Army during the 1870-1880 period had hip pockets on both sides. In the numerous document specimens I have examined, the pockets on the hip of Civil War officers’ trousers were invariably on the right side. Pockets were added to the trousers to make up for the scarcity of pockets on the sack coat. The hip pocket on men’s trousers appears to have originated during the latter part of the Civil War as officers switched from the long, formal frock coat, which contained pockets in the coat’s tails, to the shorter sack coat, which was similar in cut and length to the modern sports coats. Your discussion of left-handed fashions contains an error. There’s a revolutionary movement here waiting to be born. At least one researcher has claimed the number would be as high as 34 percent were it not for coercion by parents, primary school teachers, and other instruments of juvenile terror. Anyone who’s ever pondered the standard QWERTY key arrangement, though, can form his own opinion about whether the inventor was trying to help out lefties or just nuts.Įstimates of the number of lefties in the world vary widely 8-10 percent is the most commonly accepted figure. The only important mechanical device I know of that consistently favors lefties is the computer keyboard. However, if a lefty tries to jot down a note while on the phone, he discovers who the real beneficiary is: right-handed writers, who don’t need to clumsily shift hands. The design of most telephones (as exhibited in such features as cord placement) is intended to encourage the user to pick up the receiver with the left hand- at first glance, another sop to southpaws. ![]() ![]() Wallet pockets aren’t the only example of deceptively even-handed gestures to lefties. By such means are lefties induced to cooperate with a right-handed world. The Roman toga is said to have had just one pocket, which was invariably on the left, and in fact the Latin word and latter-day heraldic term sinister, “on the left side,” is supposed to have derived from siniis, “pocket side.” No one knows who decided to put the wallet pocket on the left (wallet pockets and hip pockets in general came into fashion in the 1890s), but the reason for doing so is obvious: you extract your wallet from your pocket with your left hand, but you fish the money out and fork it over with your right. Pockets have always tended to be placed on the left side, for reasons that have little to do with the free expression of minority rights.
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