Having learned “cursive” in Germany I am always struck by how similar/homogenous everyone’s handwriting in the US looks. There seem to be far more variations in German cursive, e.g. mine looking like a continuous doctor’s Rx signature in that most of it is pretty much illegible. Even my PRINT is hard to read, and don’t get me started on my signature 
I blame technology — really, for everything bad in the world — but mostly the deterioration of my handwriting.
It’s probably the ‘Palmer Method’ books. Those things were pretty much country-wide, so far as I can tell, through the late 70’s and 80’s. Apparently the Palmer company itself stopped publishing some time in the 80’s.
The Palmer Method wiki has some interesting bits. Due to its regimented style, it was thought to increase classroom discipline and help reform delinquent behavior.
So it’s MY fault all the bad kids in my 8th grade class went down hill. I robbed them of their handwriting lessons!
Fun fact: writing with your left hand without smudging the paper and leaving the ‘bottom’ side of your left hand blue?
Impossible.
There were a few lefties in my class, and I distinctly remember:
at least one teacher lamenting out loud to them that ‘a few years ago’ they would have been forced to write ‘properly’ and wouldn’t have these issues
all of them adopting a weird posture when writing, hunched over their desk with their arms awkwardly wrapped around the paper, which was set at a ridiculous angle, so they were practically writing vertically, so their letters would have the proper left-to-right slant.
I blame my shitty posture on your 2.
I write right-handed, but do almost everything else left handed: throw a ball, play mini golf (well, that I can do both right and left-handed), swing a tennis racket or a bat. I never was forced to do otherwise, perhaps because I wrote right-handed?
I do chop things with the chef’s knife in my right hand, and learned the European way leaving the fork in my left hand vs. switching to my right hand a long time ago as a child, since my father did that growing up himself. It’s just easier!
Asfor eating with my hands, I think I’d be right-handed, but probably could manage with my left as well.
I’d be using both 
(think burgers, pita concoctions, COTC, wings, ribs, dosas, etc.)
The fried chicken place we adore in Berlin only gives you a fork to attack half a perfectly fried chicken. I never use it. Look, ma! All hands 
You touch on a fine point, here. I think many westerners are uncomfortable with hand food because they’d rather not “dirty” their hands with food. The towel you speak of (oshibori) is key. You eat, Clean hands, sip of sake, eat, clean hands, etc.
Is there a hand cleaning type of deal in India as well? I lik to bring wet wipes wherever I go, especially planes.
Well, burgers and fried chicken, yes! I’d just happily dig in with both hands!
I’m thinking more along the lines of Indian or Ethiopian foods, where you might scoop up some food with bread, naan, injera. I’m honestly not sure how I’d eat using that as my "utensil’!
There’s a BBQ place in Philly that has rolls of paper towels on every table. And they do bring wipes at the end of the meal.
Another BBQ place in the burbs of Philly has white linen napkins 
even though the food is obviously meant to be eaten with your hands (ribs, chicken, etc).
Honestly, neither place is that great though, so they aren’t places I frequent.
Having only had Indian food outside of India (and likely highly westernized in more ways than one), I’ve only ever consumed it with Western utensils, i.e. knife, fork, spoon. Although I’ve not shied away from sopping up any leftover sauce on the plate with naan, and with the exception of the fabulous dosa I got to try a couple of years ago at a street food market in Berlin. That is a major PITA to try and tackle with utensils, as I found out this summer.
I do not enjoy injera at all, so I basically never go out for Ethiopian food… which is a shame, bc the actual dishes on top are quite lovely.
I used to think that was the purpose of the white bread on top of the BBQ I used to get. Why’d they put it there? I postulated, maybe to rinse my paws of. Then, I saw the wet nap underneath. Loved getting a nice box of Q and a piece of white bread on bottom and top. Like that whole mess of meat was just a big samich.
A few years ago a coworker’s father was visiting from China. A few of us were invited to her house to meet him and she ordered pizza (her dad looked forward to his American food fixes when he visited). It was fascinating . . . he ate his slices with chopsticks!
And then of course there’s the “Philly hunch.” A particular posture used to eat a cheesesteak while standing without dripping grease on your clothes.
I thought it was the “Chicago Stance” for particularly messy beef sammiches or hot dogs (?).
We have the Döner Hunch if ya don’t wanna end up with garlic/yogurt/hot sauce on yer pretty shoes.
The international adaptation for eating messy sandwiches. I suppose every city has its variation?
No doubt. After all, popular sloppy foods exist the world over, as do similar techniques eating them
It’s amazing how many things people from vastly different cultures have in common. I like to focus on the uniting factors over the dividing ones.
I take the posture, or doner hunch, with both Philly chzstk and Chicago hot beef. The Chicago sammy is sloppier, though; especially if it’s dipped (the way I always get mine).
Pizza with sticks, though. I’d like to’ve seen that. If the crust was floppy, that might be entertaining. Either way, hoped he enjoyed his 'za!
Fortunately we were all polite enough to not stare. But it was impressive. And he seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.
Not that I am aware of, unless you’re eating in a restaurant, when paper napkins are provided +/- fingerbowls if it’s a fancy establishment. In settings, I’ve never used napkins. It’s not messy if you’re only eating with fingertips of right hand. Left hand is used up pick up a glass of drink as needed. Then you wash your hands at the nearest sink afterwards.
