I met Sheila E several years ago and I got a few things autographed. However, I am puzzled as to why her writing is backwards? And it's like excellent penmanship. Can anyone fill me in?

I've wondered the same thing.

She wrote a several line autograph on a photo for me and it was monstly backwards, although some of hte letters are not.

My guess is maybe she is/was dyslexic at some point. I think I'm semi dyslexis at least with numbers... i often reverse numbers.... I'm also left handed which I hear can be a factor.

ooo!! ooo!! pictures please!

I also have a signed picture of her and she even wrote my name correctly...backwards.

I don't think its because of dyslexia... you have to put it in a mirror to read it. When my best friend lived abroad, I was about 11 and used to write her whole letters backwards to be like sheila. What a loser.

ladymisskat said:

I was just guessing. I lot of people have it and don't know. LIke I said, i think i have a mild form of it with numbers.... and I hear left handed people are more prone to it.

I don't if she is left or right handed. but I remember rading that she learned to paly timbales watching her dad and mimicking what he did. but since her perspective was from the other side, she learned to play "baackwards" with the high and low drums reversed. I never remember which goes which way, but I think i've seen her play them the other ways sometimes more recently.

anyway, I don't know why she writes like that but it's cool.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's cool but it's definitely different. It just looks so excellent to be so backwards like that.

It could have something to do with the whole backward recording thing that Prince and his proteges were into in the 80's. Btw, check the 1999 album cover to see some of P's backward writing as well!


zzzaj
[Edited 9/23/05 12:43pm]

GaryMF said:

i dont think it has to do with being a lefty, cuz i'ma a lefty and know people that are leftys and we dont write backwards, i CAN write backwards, but its not like..second nature or anything

i'm ambidextrous.

I can read backwards, or upsidedown.

However, I think this is something "Sheila" choose to do.

There's a quote from Sheila...maybe in the Lovesexy tour program? That says something like, "Life must be lived forward but can only be understood backward."

December1984 said:

Nope. That's Cats quote

During the Xenophobia concert, she threw her sticks into the crowd at the end of Glamorous Life and I caught one. They were her custom sticks made with her autogragh on them and I believe it is printed backwards.

soulyacolia said:

Maybe she writes backwards too.

maybe its just something cutesy she did during english class or somethin.

Maybe she's a fan of Leonardo da Vinci, the most famous backwards writer. And left handed.

I've wondered if there were ever any left handed cultures, like the ancient Jews for instance who wrote right to left (I know today left handed people write left to right, but it makes more sense to write right to left if you're left handed). In fact, if you print backwards, it actually looks a bit like Hebrew.

Yes, she signs her name backwards so that you have to hold it up to a mirror to read it.

andyman91 said:

:confused: why?

Moonwalkbjrain said:

So you don't smudge the ink. And if the binder is on the right instead of the left it won't get in the way of your hand.

jazzz said:

You're very warm! It has a lot more to do with it than that, though. No doubt that P hipped her to it. I myself, have actually sdrawkcab ereh no detsop.

andyman91 said:

oooo....well the ink part make sense. i do that alot.

blackguitaristz said:

ooooo! werbeh kool seod ti !thgir saw namydna

VanitySixx said:

December1984 said:

Eye remember that quote, it was a mirror message

Moonwalkbjrain said:

But it really does if the letters themselves are backwards.

She's certainly just doing it to be "cool".
I doubt that it's dyslexia or anything.