Today is Left-Handers Day: Plus Many LH Facts

I'm not a leftie, but apparently 7-10% of the population is, so if you are one of the few, CELEBRATE... today is International Lefthanders Day. Started on August 13, 1992, the Left-Handers Club created a special day to appreciate all left-handers and to bring public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being a leftie in a predominantly right-handed world.

More men are left-handed than women and left-handedness also occurs more frequently in twins (both fraternal and identical twins). Since people who use their left hand use their right brain, it is common for lefties to excel in geometry and many math-related areas. Chris McManus, from the University College London writes in his book, Right-Hand, Left-Hand, that the proportion of left-handers is increasing and that left-handed people tend to produce above-average levels of high achievement. He states that left-handers' brains are structured differently and this leads to a wider-range of abilities. The genes that determine whether one is right or left-handed are the same that dictate the language centers of the brain.

Some other interesting facts about L-H's via the lefthandersday.com website include:

• Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right
• Stuttering and dyslexia occur more often in left-handers (particularly if they are forced to change their writing hand as a child, like King of England George VI)
• Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater
• Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing
• Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers
• 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed
• 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed - 250% more than the normal level

Visit lefthandersday.com to learn more about the fun today!

I just tried to write my name with my left-hand and wow, it's tough. Righties, try it. Lefties, laugh at us for our poor penmanship.