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Because one post on the the relative frequencies of “I’d give my X Y” simply is not enough, here is a (not the slightest bit) handy chart on the google search results when you plug boths sides of several body parts into the expression. Not only have I helpfully pointed to the body parts (in case you forget where hands and eyes are), but I have adjusted the type size based on the magnitude of results, and underlined the side of the body part that gets more hits, pairwise. A few notes:
- Aside from a few outliers, when you compare paired body parts, people seem almost equally willing to forego their left or right, but the small preference towards losing the lefty is too consisent to write off as mere noise in the data. I think we need to abandon my first hypothesis (based on eyes and arms) about people using this expression to connote giving up the paired body part that means more to them.
- A full quarter of the hits for “I’d give my right arm” are actually for “I’d give my right arm to be ambidextrous,” which I’ll admit I found mildly clever, but I’m more frustrated that it biases the results.
- In general, google counts are pretty suspect, so these totals might not truly express internet usage, let alone non-written speech. If anyone wants to record the results from another search engine, that would obviously be very helpful.
- It’s probably best to assume the bathroom sign man is facing away from you. That way, the results on the right side of the chart, which are for “I’d give my right Y,” will correspond to bathroom sign man’s right side.
- This is, of course, a horrible chart. A table would be much easier to read. I’m also sorry it’s not quite symmetrical. There’s really not much excuse for it not being symmetrical.
- What’s up with Butt Cheeks?
- Gil “GuerillaG/TooKranky” Gershman would give the right hemisphere of his brain for the Watersong/Dragonfly 7” by Windy and Carl.
