Gauche:  unsophisticated, socially awkward
(English Definition)

Gauche:  left, awkward
(French Definition)

I do not lie when I say that I am gauche…when it comes to directions and navigation…soooooooo awkward

Besides explaining what the french word gauche means and confessing that it describes my sense of direction well, I also wanted to impart two little hints having to do with the left-hand direction…

• L with your hands to determine left and right:

An easy way to teach yourself and others and little kids, especially, how to remember their right from their left is by using your hands.  Your thumb and pointer/fore finger of both hands, when extended, will make the letter L.   Ok, so leave the other fingers closed and extend your pointer finger upward and your thumb outward.  See the “L”?  If you’re having a hard time, see picture above for the cute, chubby finger version!

Make an L with both of your hands.  The left L will be facing the correct way…that is your left hand!  The word left starts with L!!!

Now next time you are driving down the road and someone tells you to turn left you can take both your hands off the steering wheel, makes your L’s and figure out which way to turn…

• Lefty Loosey  Righty Tighty:

Words to live by…

Pretty sure you turned off your propane tank on your gas grill?   Pretty sure is not very reassuring and that would certainly dampen people’s spirits at a BBQ if the chef went up in flames.  Could have sworn that you shut off the garden hose last night?  Only to find water streaming down the sides of you basement walls this morning?

Lefty loosey  righty tighty…lefty loosey  righty tighty…lefty loosey  righty tighty

To shut something off, or to tighten something, turn it towards the right.  To open something, or to loosen it, turn it towards the left.  And remember to just make your L’s with both hands to tell your right from your left!

I may be navigationally challenged, use my GPS to get to the library in town and once in a while end up heading south towards NY on the highway instead of north towards the seacoast, but darn it all, I can tell my left hand from my right!