Handwriting analysis and your geographic origins

Dear Matthew: Does handwriting have an accent? I mean, can graphoanalysts tell where you’re from by your writing? — Brian Bosque, San Diego

Figure people from the South form big, slow, loopy letters? New Yorkers put tense, angry-looking spikes on their Ms? Graphoanalysts can tell if you’re a cheapskate, a goof-off, a potential ax murderer, a forger, an employee who’s likely to steal paper clips and industrial secrets, a defense-friendly candidate for O.J.’s trial, or someone’s perfect mate — but nothing in your personal scrawl reveals where you’re from. This is according to the International Graphoanalysis Society in Chicago, which also claims no special insight into your height, weight, sex, age, religion, or handedness. Handwriting analysts see writing as a form of behavior, reflecting an individual’s basic personality traits and more transitory states of mind. So unless you’re always cheery in Elyria and gloomy in Duluth, location is irrelevant. Hey, Brian. Watch those little happy face dots over your Is. Very suspicious.