A rchive Date
[ 24-01-2001 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Mass Media ]
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[Saint or sinner?
Only your handwriting analyst knows for sure
By SHERRY THOMAS
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle
Jan. 22, 2001, 8:04PM
Remember elementary school? Those Big Chief tablets of greenish-tinted paper with dotted and undotted lines? How you lithely maneuvered your No. 2 pencil, massaging the curve of your g's and y'ssecretly cribbing the popular girl's "s" hook?
You were innocent then. Unaware and shockingly uninformed that a window to your soul was being laid bare that your jelly-stained, second-grade scrawl would have irrevocable effects on your personality and even your destiny. Forget nurture over nature and family values. The saints and psychopaths of this world are born in handwriting class.
Yep. Always suspected that girl was trouble. Could tell by the way she crossed her t's."
Today is National Handwriting Day, the day when people from all walks of life turn to each other and go: "Huh?"
Created (er, manufactured) about a decade ago by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association to coincide with the birthday of one of America's biggest pen men John Hancock the "holiday" (don't worry, there are no greeting cards to buy) encourages folks to "re-explore the purity and power of handwriting."
In an age where Palm Pilots can convert the messiest chicken scratch to the font of your choice and e-signatures are de rigueur, it seems silly that anyone should think twice about handwriting anymore much less make it into some Hallmark moment. Silly, that is, until you meet pre-eminent Houston handwriting analyst Alice Weiser.
No careless "g" loop, no demure dot of the "i" goes unnoticed with this woman, who has built a career out of scrutinizing the script of everyone from local celebrities to some of this country's most notorious criminals.
"The moment you place your pen on a piece of paper, you're making your mark on eternity," says Weiser, co-author of Judge the Jury: Experience the Power of Reading People (Kendall/Hunt Publishing, $19.95).
"If you were to ask me what you can ascertain from your handwriting, the answer would be almost everything, except for three things: your age, your sex, and whether you're right-handed or left-handed."
In fact, Houston attorney Michael Louis Minns swears Weiser can take one look at handwriting samples and read potential jurors' minds. The two have worked together for more than a decade, but it was a case in Dallas involving father-and-son tax preparers and a charge of trust fund fraud that sealed his faith in the craft.
"They were facing a total of nearly 100 years in jail between the two of them," he says, "and what happens with someone like Alice, you get down to one or two strikes and you have to make a decision."
That happened when attorneys came to a former practicing trial lawyer, now working as a construction expert. Federal prosecutors wanted him on the jury; and by all appearances, Minns and his crew shouldn't have wanted him.
"Alice just passionately argued that he was our juror, all the way," Minns says. "That was a situation that, just looking at the paper, we would have thought he would have been prosecution-oriented. But Alice looked at his handwriting and said the guy was very open to hearing what other people had to say and that he was nurturing."
She was right. That big, slightly severe-appearing man turned out to be the leader of a 7-5 verdict that led to a hung jury. The case was retried and the clients were acquitted.
Yikes.
Makes you never want to put anything in writing again. Don't worry too much, though. (Wouldn't want to seem paranoid.) Weiser says handwriting, unlike a fingerprint, can change with your moods.
"Your handwriting is a portrait of you at the time of the writing only," she says. "But the basic strokes stay the same."
"T's" are the most telling, setting your "game plan for life." The way you make your "a's" and "o's" shows how well you communicate. And your "y's" and "g's" give experts like Weiser insight into how many people you need in your life.
Then there's the slant factor.
"As you lean more to the right, you become more emotional." (Those are the kind of jurors, Weiser says, she'd want if her client were in a wheelchair.) Lefties, she says, are more analytical.
But admit it: What you really want to know is, what separates youmild-mannered, slightly obsessive, stubborn, yet detail-oriented Jane or Joe from the Hannibal Lecters of the world?
"A commonality in the writing of mass murderers is they often have small handwritingvery, very focusedoften times printed," says Weiser, whose criminal credits include analyzing the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note on Court TV's Johnnie Cochran Tonight, the O.J. Simpson "suicide" note on ABC, and, most recently, the "showy" writing of "rail-car killer" Angel Maturino Resendiz and the twisted diaries of the Columbine killers.
When Maturino Resendiz was still on the run, Weiser was called by NBC and ABC affiliates to be a "color expert" on the case. What struck her most was not so much his individual lettering, but his signaturea strange moniker with a detached horizontal line.
"He made this line for no reason at all," she says. "It's showmanship. It's like, if you want to look for me, here I am."
That doesn't mean, however, that all people with small handwriting (or flamboyant signatures) are psychopaths. (Most are actually engineers and CPAs.) The same handwriting that typifies criminals often typifies intellectuals. Just look at Theodore Kaczynski.
"I've found in life," says Weiser, launching into one of her famous quips, "that negatives only work for photographers."
Besides, she's too much of a pro to jump to conclusions. Trained and certified by the International Graphoanalysis Society in Chicago, Weiser has a background in psychology and more than 25 years of experience.
"I'm just the reporter," she says, "and I can only report my findings."
In other words, don't expect to waltz into her Galleria-area office, plunk down $100 an hour, and gain a "psychic friend."
(That means no questions about meeting Tom Selleck this year.)
Handwriting analysis is fairly serious business. While she does the cruise-ship circuit and personal consultations (most often to determine romantic compatibility), Weiser's primary income is derived from jury selection, speaking engagements and consulting with human-resources managers on "handwriting to hire."
Or, scarily enough, not to hire.
(That'll teach you not to scoff at handwriting!)
Even a signature, she says, can say a lot.
"Your signature is your psychological calling card," she says. "It's not who you are, but how you want people to perceive you. It's your trademark."
The trend of using handwriting to weed out job candidates started in Europe, but Weiser says it's catching on in the States.
"It's not the answer to who you should or shouldn't hire," she says. "It's just another assessment."
Hmm. Sounds like all work and no play. With these kinds of stakes, you'd rather strip naked than pick up a pen.
But you have to admit, handwriting still has a place in our society. Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling claims to have penned early chapters in a coffee house (although the laptop was sure to follow).
Miss Manners is a fan of penmanship. It's still considered rude not to send handwritten thank-yous, and even those cute pre-printed holiday cards are deemed impersonal. Besides, writing by hand can be funromantic, almostlike going back to a different time.
As Robert B. Waller Jr., executive director of WIMA, says: "nothing will ever replace the sincerity and individualism expressed through the handwritten word."
So, even if WIMA (a national trade association covering the $3 billion pen, pencil and marker industry) is hardly unbiased in its "mission," maybe we all ought to give National Handwriting Day a break. Turn in that 10-page report to the boss this afternoonin curly cursive (watch the "t's" and "q's")and see what happens. Respond to a colleague's e-mail with a written note. Or be very bold next time you're job-hunting and hand-write your résumé.
(Let 'em analyze that!)
And, if they give you flak, quote Weiser:
"The nine most used words in the business language are still`Hold the line until I reach for a pen.' "
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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