Hanging the lights

Graham and I have just put the lights on the tree.  As I always have, from days growing up in NC, I hung them counterclockwise.  This year, I noticed a suspicious tendency of the lights to bend inwards and the clips of these strands (from some Arkansas-based retailer whose name I can't recall), to be on the outside.  I recalled this phenomenon from years past, as we've had these strands since we've been in NJ.  And it occurred to me that they were, in fact, designed to be hung clockwise.  Too frickin late for this year, I'll tell you that, as Graham and Natalie are all revved up to do ornaments.