I've been building things lately and it really annoys me every time I have to use the tape measure to measure something. Because..., you see..., it would appear that some 'lefty' special interest group has successfully lobbied the tape measure manufacturers to produce nothing but left handed tape measures.

Let me, for a moment, explain the inherent 'flaw' with tape measures. If you're building something and you need to measure and mark that something you will be holding the tape measure in your left hand and your carpenter's pencil in your right hand - providing, of course, that you're right handed. It's just a whole bunch easier and more accurate to run the pencil in the hand that has the finest motor control don't you think? Well why is it then that all us right handed people have to read the numbers on the tape measure upside down and backasswards? Was Stanley or Lufkin a lefty or did a lefty catch them doing something they shouldn't have been doing? There has to be some kind of an explanation. How hard would it be to make an ambidextrous tape measure? Not too bloody difficult if you ask me. Why hasn't it been done long before now? Damn good question!

We have come a long way in the last hundred years or so. Technology has provided us with many things to make life easier or just more entertaining. Modern medicine has increased our life expectancy and we see many solutions to age old problems on the horizon or just in front of us but we still don't have a right handed tape measure that's readily available in any hardware store. They're available but they sure aren't easy to find.

Anyhow..., write some letters, join a protest rally or do what ever it takes to get a right handed tape measure in the hands of those that need it most - right handed 'do it yourselfers'!

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but I will guarantee it won't be a 'DIY Nugget'.

Hasta Luego

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