I always heard that the button thing was so a gentleman could unbutton his coat/whatever for ease of movement while drawing his sword.

OK, so there's apparently been a high incidence of sword references in my life.

makes me wonder why someone else buttoning men's shirt had enough hassle that they switched it for the ladies.

I think the argument would be that it wasn't the buttons in the front, but the dresses/shirts for women often buttoned down the back.

Of course, there's at least one person on the Internet who says the "maid" theory is hooey. And only experts post on the Internet.

Hmm. It appears that the theories are indeed servants, side-saddle riding, mass production and some sketchy "historical custom."

but the dresses/shirts for women often buttoned down the back

If I'm the maid, the buttons aren't down my back, so whether my left hand is on the button side or the right--still makes little difference.

I was just coming here with Erin's link.

At the end it says Orthodox Jews have the opposite convention. Where's Nilly? And do they just mean Ashkenazic Jews (which happens a lot when something is declared "Orthodox" or "Jewish").

My step-grandma is in the hospital. They don't know what's wrong, but it doesn't look good.

2006. You suck.

The history of buttons is more interesting than I'd have expected. This article also mentions the sword-drawing issue, and there's a lot of interesting stuff about women adopting male clothing.

I am home from my visit with brenda an tommy. Am Lushed up for a good long time. Yay!

{{vw}} I'm sorry 2006 is getting off to such a bad start for your family.

{{Cindy}} Get-over-it-quick~ma for you and the rest of the family. Ugh.

As for buttons, I know that in the Navy men's and women's uniforms all buttoned opposite each other. Also, the zipper on the dungarees faced opposite directions, so that the shirt overlap and the zip overlap matched up. Then your belt had to be fastened just to one side and facing the same direction as the overlap. It was all called the "gig line." Having your gig line not lined up was a big deal at inspection time. Still, if a girl wanted to wear any of the men's uniform (and I had at least one good friend who did because of her basic body shape), it had to be both shirt and pants so the gig line matched.

I seem to have supercharged the cats.

I gave them each a small piece of the jumbo shrimps I had for supper. Now they are wandering all over sniffing the 'frige and around the sink, and looking at me, and smelling my hands, etc. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? MORE!!!!" They blert.

I swear I heard one say "Woah."

Sheesh, it's like catnip.

The reason that was given to me at one time was that women of means in the old days had someone dressing them, and it was supposedly easier to button for the servant.

This is the one I have always heard too.

{{{vw}}} I'm sorry. Much ~ma to your step-grandmother.