Happy Left-Hander's Day! I'm a lefty, my father is a lefty, and so is my grandfather. I kinda hoped one of my daughters would be left-handed also, but as it turns out, there was only a 20% chance of that happening since their dad is right-handed. Neither of them are southpaws. Hey, did you know know that the term southpaw comes from baseball? Yeah, evidently, parks were often built with the homeplate in the western corner of the field so when a left-handed pitcher was facing the batter, his throwing arm would be closest to the south.
Some other interesting factoids about us lefties:
- Left-handed people make up 10% of the population.
- Men are more likely to be left-handed than women.
- Stuttering and dyslexia occur more often in left-handers (I can personally attest to this).
- It is against the rules to play polo left-handed.
- The Latin word for right is dexter (as in dexterity) and their word for left is sinister. The Romans invented the right-handed handshake.
- Four of the five designers of the Macintosh were left-handed.
- Left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers because of their widened range of abilities and creativity.
- Studies show that left-handed men are 15 percent richer than right-handed men for those who attended college, and 26 percent richer if they graduated. The wage difference does not appear to apply to women (I can attest to that one also).
Left-Hander's Day
Wikipedia: Left-Handedness
Famous Left-Handers
Being Left-Handed