Language fun. In Finnish, an expression for being surprised by something happening is, translated literally, "came from behind on the left". I don't know why that is more surprising than from the right.

@liw in Slovak, you can say "I’m left jumped into" 🙂

@liw there's a similar English expression "came out of left field" -- I assume this is a baseball metafor, although I'm not sure why left field is any more surprising than right field, either.

PS: thinking more about it, if the runner is running to home plate, the left field is directly behind them, so any throw from there *would* be surprising. But that's what the 3rd base coach is for. :)

@liw I am actually now wondering if the Finnish expression is a calque from the US English expression.

@liw I would assume it is related to cars: cars (legally) pass from left, thus the saying also contains subtext of "well it shouldn't have been surprising, as you are supposed to keep an eye on that direction"

@liw Also, if you leave from a place or situation quietly, you "depart to the back left". Also no idea why back left would be more quiet than the right.

@monsieuricon @liw a right-handed batter will normally stand sideways with their back to the left field, so “came from left field” effectively means “came from behind”…

@orva @liw The whole thing about one direction or side being 'less surprising' or 'more safe' still feels like reckless driving to me, a driver is supposed to take all surroundings into account, and direction restrictions also don't tend to apply to e.g. pedestrians.

@njsg @liw Well it is situational. Passing is legal only in certain situations (highways, etc) where there are no pedestrians, cyclists, etc. By design. The point is to make dangerous situations impossible. The amount of observation time in 80kmh is very limited, so heavily decreasing the importance of one quadrant has a big impact on safety.

@orva @liw (Not that this means it can't be the origin of the expression, of course.)

@andrewg @liw hmm... No, a batter would have a perfect view of the entire field. Trust me on that one, I'm a certified umpire with many hours working behind the plate. :)