I just discovered that 4 of the last 5 US presidents have been left-handed - including Obama. Which is interesting given that only 10% of the general population is.
Of the 10% of lefties, only 1% of those is female. I happen to be in that 1% of left-handed grrrrls. And let me tell you, we rock.
Alas, study after study comes along to advise about the statistical relatedness between left-handedness and premature death, accident, learning disabilities, migraines, mental disorders such as schizophrenia and now, autoimmune disease.
We are also more likely to be presidents (though not prime ministers), artists, athletes, high earners (if male) and synesthetes.
Apparently, lefties think broadly, using a method called synthesis. This tendency lends an ability to multitask. Given that I am also a woman - and you know how we get shit done - I like to think of myself as a frickin' machine. A yellow one. :-) By contrast, our right-handed sisters and brothers are more strictly analytical, performing one concrete mental task at a time. How old school :-)
I'm doing a little experiment - really, I'm just curious. Often when I meet someone, I can tell if he or she is left-handed just by talking - occasionally, just by looking. As you know, I read a lot of blogs. My mind sometimes wonders about the handedness of the authors. Is that outrageously strange?
So tell me, who out there is left-handed? I'm super curious. With both sides of my anomalously dominant brain. Please do tell.
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My son, who seems to excel at music (his guitar playing for a young 14 year old has been compared to experts twice his age), his chess expertise since he was four, and his math problem solving, never ceases to amaze me. Since both his parents are right handed, and both lack anywhere near his abilities in the above, we often put it down to the fact that he is a leftie.
ReplyDeleteWell my father is left handed and petit garcon is left handed too. I can use both but prefer to use my right hand for writing, not sure if this is because I am more right handed or was made to be but I have to use a computer mouse with my left hand and other things I prefer to do left handed plus I kick a ball with my left foot.
ReplyDeleteRight handed here. My late brother Charlie was a lefty though.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother was left handed = ) I can only use right.. at the moment..
ReplyDeleteright-handed. I write, do yoga, construct useful and fanciful objects from a variety of materials, hold an advanced degree, cook, work with numbers and people, and my primary mode of problem solving involves visualization and spatial reckoning.
ReplyDeleteI'm a righty. My husband was born a lefty, had it beaten out of him by the nuns when he was a kid, is now ambi. He plays hockey and golf left. I think my baby is leaning left.
ReplyDeleteI'm right handed, but I think I was secretly born a lefty. I sort of do some things with both hands - and I know I have a left brain!
ReplyDelete(left brain is the one we use for straight-line analytical stuff, right brain is the cool one)
ReplyDeleteNot it. But Husband Mike is.
ReplyDeleteI'm only a lefty when it comes to writing and holding utensils for eating.
ReplyDeleteRight handed here. I don't think it's impaired my ability to multi-task etc though. That's kind of my stock in trade!
ReplyDeleteNot me! My dad was, but no one else in my family is.
ReplyDeleteNo, by now I can't remember anyone near me who is.
ReplyDelete(I had to be when I had my car accident and broke my right hand. Since I remained with marks and a deficiencie many things I still do with left hand, but I as forced to do it, so I'm not a "natural")
But I think left handeds rock!!!
xoxo
i'm a righty!
ReplyDeletewhat an interesting post :) it's so fun learning something new!
xoxo,
La C.
Not a blogger at all so you have never had a chance to guess about me. I am a righty (this would not have been hard to guess) but my twin daughters are both lefties! One is a pure true lefty and her sister is ambidextrous though prefers left. We think she was drawn leftwards by copying her sister. Being ambi is a huge advantage for an athlete like her. Always tricking everyone.
ReplyDeleteI will never be president.
ReplyDeleteYup, I am very right handed. I am horrible multi tasker and I analyze everything to death
ReplyDeleteI'm right-handed. Those are some really interesting facts on lefties!
ReplyDeleteI am left handed.
ReplyDeleteI am a rightie but cannot tell left from right without consciously thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteAn optometrist told me it is because I see no difference between the two.
But get this: I hurt my right hand in an accident during my graduation year (disaster for exams and study) After two pregnancies I have severe carpel tunnel in the rightie. so I use my left a lot more than I used to.
What you think of that scientist K/
Would you have guessed?
Lefty since I first held a pencil. And yes, we rock.
ReplyDeleteAdmit to my rightyness, but happily multitask all day long - so think that piece of 'research' may be utter bullshit
ReplyDeleteMe!
ReplyDeleteCompletely right-handed. I can barely function with my left - can't even hold a fork. Not a chance at being President.
ReplyDeleteI'm another rightie, the only person I know who is left handed is my father. Maybe I'm secretly left-handed though, back in my sports playing days (WELL behind me now), I used to play baseball...and I batted left-handed and fielded with both. Couldn't pitch to save my life though so I never got to test those waters! Apparently I also hold a pencil like a crab (with all 5 fingers), and Mr. Unreliable was very excited to tell me the other day that Barack holds a pen the same way.
ReplyDeleteLet me start by saying I LOVE these comments. What I note with interest is that many of you have left-handed (and often artistic) family members but that very few of you are actually left-handed yourselves. Gotta say I'm surprised. Maybe it's because I'm somewhat narcissistic and I imagine that y'all are just like me :-)
ReplyDeleteThe people I would have bet money are lefties: Rebecca (Clothes Horse), Hammie (whose son and sisters both are) and Yulanda (who is, thank goodness or I'd be all kinds of wrong!).
Rebecca: I'm truly shocked you are right handed. Since I started reading your blog I had you pegged as a hardcore leftie. There's something about your art doodles in your notebook that had me convinced. And your use of colour.
And, I never meant to imply, y'all, that right-handed people don't rock the multi-tasking (any more than lefties suck at analytical reasoning). I was just pointing out what the text books say.