Writer’s Rant
May 3, 2025
Left-handedness
Approximately 10% of the US population is left-handed. The rest of us are right-handed, except for about 1% who are ambidextrous.
There were six of us children growing up and I had one brother who was left-handed. While it had nothing to do with his ultimate demise, there are only five us left and the left-handed one “caught the first train out.”
While I am for all intents and purposes right-handed, for some reason, when I played little league baseball, I felt much more comfortable swinging the bat as a leftie. I was not by any means a great hitter; in fact, I could almost hit as well right-handed as I could left-handed, which wasn’t well at all. You would figure that since I was more comfortable swinging the bat left handed, the same would be true of the golf club. But I never had the opportunity to learn golf left handed, simply because the hand-me-down set of clubs I learned with were right-handed ones.
Here are some interesting (or maybe not so interesting) facts about left handed people:
Bias against left-handed people-The left hand symbolized the power to shame society, and was used as a metaphor for misfortune, natural evil, or punishment from the gods.
During the Middle Ages, left-handedness was considered “sinful.” Under the strong influence of the Catholic Church, left-handedness was connected with the “devil,” “weakness,” “femininity,” “unhealthy,” “filthy,”; something that had to be forced to turn to the “good-right” side.
Since 1976, “International Left-Handers Day” has been celebrated on August 13th. (But only by about 10% of the population…and maybe a few sympathizers). In recognition of the unofficial holiday, The Durango Herald publishes the first eight pages of its Sunday’s print edition in reverse order, from left to right, so readers can flip the pages from back to front, just the way lefties are naturally inclined to do.
We tend to ignore their left-handedness until it gets in our way. For example, making them sit at the end of the dining table so we don’t knock elbows.
Many left-handers become ambidextrous to compensate for the use of things, such as tools, that are geared toward the right-handers.
In one study, Men were 23% more likely to be left-handed than women…..and there is no correlation between left or right handedness and intelligence.
7 of our 45 men who held the office of president were left-handed: Garfield (he was the only known left-handed president prior to the 20th century), Truman, Ford, Reagan (who was naturally left-handed, but wrote with his right hand), Bush (Sr.), Clinton and Obama. (Side note: all 3 candidates for president in 1992 were left-handed. Clinton won.) And Woodrow Wilson was right-handed, until he had a stroke!
I’ll end this rant by asking the simple question: Why don’t cannibals eat left-handed people? (wait for it………): because they don’t taste right.
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