Here’s something you might not have known:
Barack Obama is left-handed.
Maybe 10% of the population is a lefty. I wonder what the percentage would be if there weren’t people around who were forced to switch to their right hand (like Mom). Maybe life would’ve been easier for people like me (another lefty) if there were more of us and therefore more lefty scissors around. I really suffered in elementary school, thanks to the scissor situation.
I could go on about my chronic issues with smudging ink, but I can tell you don’t care. Good thing keyboards are ambidextrous, or I’d still be finishing high school. In prison.
Here’s the other left-handedness fact worth mentioning:
When Obama is inaugurated tomorrow, he’ll be the 5th of the last 7 US presidents to be left-handed.
Along with Clinton, the first Bush, Reagan, and Ford.
Creepy. I’m sure creeped out. Aren’t you?
McCain is a lefty too, so Americans were going to get another left-handed president, regardless. Sounds like a conspiracy to me (a leftist conspiracy?).
I wonder why this is. I wonder if it’s coincidence or if there’s something about being a southpaw which makes you a popular politician. Or a good one (fingers crossed). Do lefties have intrinsic talents or traits which are an advantage over their average-handed counterparts?
Lefties live 7 fewer years on average than right-handed people. Which would be reason enough to not elect McCain: he’s practically on borrowed time as it is. But I’m not sure how a shorter lifespan is a benefit to politics, unless you suck at it.
Maybe having to adapt to a right-handed world gives you problem-solving and thinking-outside-the-box skills, though I’m not sure I got anything out of my childhood strife. I just avoid using pens with smearing ink or binders, and I use a right-handed computer mouse in my left hand. And right-handed desks at school. Innovative, that’s me. That’s leadership potential for you.
This might be entirely meaningless, and it certainly doesn’t matter, except to lefties such as myself who kind of like it that there’s one of us in the biggest job in politics. Beyond that, meh. It’s a pretty boring topic.
I’m right-handed, but I bat left in baseball. This is considered somewhat freakish, although it’s rather satisfying to have the entire field of player shift positions when you go up to the plate.
Hey filmgoerjuan, I bat the same…
hold on a sec…
I just checked your flickr stream. Was I saying something? I forget.
Ooh I think that is interesting. Actually I have always had a thing for lefties, is that weird!? They often seem to be artistic and introspective, dark & mysterious, and intelligent. Am I just making this up?! I’m right-handed so too bad for me, but my bf is left-handed and he kinda fits the bill. Heheh. Actually now that I think about it, he’s a Rhodes Scholar like Bill Clinton and many other politicians. Maybe it *does* translate to politics! Lefties are more captivating? Well, I always assumed it had to do with right-brain/left-brain.
Like Marianne, I’m also a right hander who has a fascination with lefties. And, like filmgoerjuan, I play sports (baseball, hockey, golf) left despite being mostly right handed (I write and throw with my right hand) – filmgoerjuan, being a player who throws right and bats left isn’t that uncommon. And I’m willing to bet that you are right eye dominant (which makes it easier to bat left and seems to be the main reason that people bat differently than they throw)
I don’t think anyone’s ever been interested in my left-handedness. I feel I’ve been missing out. Where are all the men to find me mysterious and captivating?!
seriously interesting political left handed info there. that was awesome. thank you.
i am left handed and enjoy being left handed, but do regularly bitch about living in a right handed world the smudging, the scissors oh how i hear you. my mother was the first of her line not to be a forced right hander born 1950. i know that because my grandmother was forced so she thankfully refused to force my mother.
i eat and write and drink from mugs left handed. the mugs bit actually really pisses me off that i never get the good picture!! bastards!! i play most but NOT all sports right handed. like say i was a javelin thrower i’d through left but in baseball i’d pitch right.
i find everything about left handedness fascinating i think i’ll add that to my 50 to 75 list… im left handed made 1 through 25. heh
@gusgreeper I play most sports right-handed as well. Except for golf, which feels equally strange in either hand.
adam is right handed and golfs left, totally bizarre!