part0000

V-

DEDICATED

to the citizens of

LEFT HAND, WEST VIRGINIA

Population 450, and every one a Left Hander.

One person in ten is a left-hander. And every last one of them thinks he's sort of special.

probably

No kidding. Anywhere you look, left-handedness is something of a rarity.

Even most plants are right-handed. Honeysuckle is one of the few climbing plants that twines to the left.

Most flatfish lie down on their left side. This makes them right-handed.

The Pacific sand dab is one of the few that lies down on the other side. This makes it left-handed. Or rather, left-finned.

There are even a few sea shells that curve left-handedly. They are prized by collectors.

Lobsters are

sometimes

left-han

It could be that the only case where left-handers are in the majority is among gorillas. Their left arms outweigh their right, which may indicate a slight left-handed bias. But that's only speculation.

s far as humans are concerned, lere's evidence that the

very first member of the species was left-handed.

In the early days,

as we know from cave drawings,

There were plenty of

right-handers,

but there were plenty of

left-handers, too.

Things were fine for

left-handers up through the Stone Age.

Loofc ^f-fhis pice. Ic-f-i-horded

I -foicnd.

But with the Bronze Age came manufacturing. And since most people were right-handed, that's the way they made the tools. To this day, no one has ever made a left-handed sickle.

Ifinte support

By the Middle Ages left-handers were out in the cold. Even suits of armor were invariably right-handed.

9* ^ouWev-

toon -•fu'^d

That long-ago bias against left-handers is still with us. Bus coin boxes are right-handed.

And so are phonograph tone arms.

Mot rry

-lis

(^■~

-(-he wrond

Benas -five

It's enough to make left-handers a little paranoid.

Even

carousels are right-handed.

You can't reach for the brass ring with your left har

Today, about the only thing that actually favors left-handers is the toll booth.

'fiM.ir ciiKJz^tKjto

Of course, if you are a rich or important left-hander, you can ignore all the prejudice.

For instance, it never bothered Ramses II, who is always shown as left-handed.

We've sHl\ aot

head ^w) oT-p

Red Geo. {

And Ben Franklin actually gloried in his left-handedness. He wrote and published a treatise in favor of the left hand.

ire wcind.

<v>

^ ,o

There have been five left-handed presidents...four of them in the last half of the 20th Century.

'^GAK.Plfc^'

^■?=7

R-'

■^^^T^^

^^r^^

In 1992, all three major candidates for President were left-handed.

Cue. %wd £){

Jimi Hendrix was neither rich nor important, but he became both by beating right-handers at their own game. He restrung his guitar so he could play it left-handed.

In sports, there is often an advantage in I eft-handedness.

This is particularly true in baseball, which may explain why right-handed players are often ambivalent about left-handers.

Sou4Apau/S

In golf, left-handed Ben Hogan played right-handed because he was told the greater strength in his leading arm would improve his stroke.

Years later, he regretted switching.

Swimming also favors left-handers. Neurologists have shown they adjust more readily to underwater vision. Mark Spitz, who won

seven Olympic gold medals, is, as you might expect, left-handed.

o o

But polo is another story

It's actually

against the rules to play

left-handed.

And that even goes for the left-handed Prince of Wales.

■N

For some reason not quite clear, left-handers make fantastic tennis players. At any given time, about 40% of the top pros are left-handed,..people like Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Guillermo Villas, Martina Navratilova, etc.

Sporting footnote: In 1890, the baseball diamond in Chicago was sited to protect the batters from the late afternoon sun. In consequence, the pitcher faced west, and if he was left-handed, he was known as a southpaw.

Where does left-handedness

come from? Is it inherited? Maybe.

6 ut... oa*^'

We know that if both parents are left-handed, 50% of the kids will be left-handed too.

But if both parents are right-handed, only 2% of the kids will be left-handed

left-handedness is genetic comes from Scotland's Kerr family.

For centuries the Kerrs have been famous for the large number of left-handers they produce.

They even gave their castles left-handed

staircases so they'd be easy to defend.

At one time, American Indians may have been the world's largest single population of left-handers. There's evidence that one in three was left-handed.

all rghf 4o rvte.

The Incas thought left-handedness was lucky. One of their great chiefs was LLOQUE YUPANQUI, which means left-handed.

'^r\c^^ci(^K:x-c

There's a high incidence of left-handedness in twins, but it's rare to find both left-handed.

There are more left-handed boys than girls. No one knows why.

Older mothers are more

likely to produce left-handed

children

than younger

mothers.

called-ft^ I Lime Uf^■'ftt^

Some experts claim they can spot a left-hander in infancy. The whorl of their hair, it is said, will twist counterclockwise.

Virtually all pediatricians will agree that if a child has a preference for the left hand, it will show up by age five.

The New England Journal of Medicine suggests you can tell if you're left-handed if the base of your left thumbnail is wider and squarer than the right.

Another researcher, Theodore Blau, has a different test. Using each hand in turn, draw X's, then circle them. If you draw the circles counterclockwise you're left-handed (he says).

But at least one authority takes it beyond the question of which hand you

use.

Tnoy be more a Tnatier of sidedne -of hand,fboL

eye and bodv "

Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was probably a closet left-hander, seems to agree. He was spooked by I eft-footed n ess.

To et^-fer 4^e, house u;"cH\ ■{he leff-fco^

;

' I i

Psychologists are fascinated with left-handers. They're constantly studying them and coming up with reasons not to be left-handed.

3r example, recent studies by sychologist Theodore Blau (he f the counterclockwise circles) low left-handers ) be . . .

stubborn,

oversensitive.

impulsive,

Of course, this kind of data cuts both ways. Left-hander Joan of Arc was certainly impulsive, but thaf s how she won battles.

And although Billy the Kid was almost assuredly one of those left-handers who embarrass his family, he is also without doubt, the stuff of legend.

Blau goes on to find that left-handers have difficulty following directions.

Go ^(cK uf yciujr room.

And have trouble completing projects.

All done!

They're also likely to have speech problems

^^ r~\

And to top it all off, Blau claims that bed wetting among left-handers is likely to continue beyond the age of three.

Another psychologist named Blau—^Abram Blau, this time—decided that left-handers were just plain anti-social and deliberately used the "wrong" hand just to make a mess and raise a little hell.

This suggestion of left-handed deviltry harks back thousands of years, to the time we started throwing salt over our left shoulders to propitiate the fiends who always lurk—of course—to the left.

Even good old Dr. Spock, who usually recommends you let your kid do almost anything,

suggests you discourage left-handedness in young children.

But maybe the final, and wisest, medical opinion on the subject comes from neurosurgeon Joseph

Bogan: "Right-handers are a bunch of chocolate soldiers. If you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. But left-handers are something else again."

Well, at least everyone agrees left-handers are special. But are they specially good?

Or specially bad?

To find out, we must enter a very strange world . . the world of the human brain ... a shadowy place of surprises and contradictions,

only partially mapped and imperfectly understood. But we know it holds the key to the secret of left-handedness.

Cerelo raj

he brain is made up of two Bry different hemispheres. We eed both, but for different masons, since each has its wn functions . . .

I'M "-Hog,

I do

5 own personality . . .

I 4i^inK

I g hoove,

its own specialties . . .

and most significantly, in reference to the subject under consideration, its own hand.

^^K^^\^^^dd'

i eft-l^sy^dQ^i.

Ci^agc here [

^ neOschf ct^e^

Because they have such different points of view,

^ y^J J 1 1 Ji^

Wl\xj dcni-you fcfcnM 'i^'otCfycur *N(?Se

the "thinking" and "feeling" hemispheres compete for dominance.

Generally speaking, people with a dominant "thinking" brain become right-handed.

t"^ Seems

While those with a dominant "feeling" brain

become left-handed.

-I'M afcsoLa-fely over ODME !

You might expect a right-hander to be verbal, analytical, and good at math.

So J unload United federal lr\ a short pc^Stfron, while

greeay ^^\tH cn itr.

And a left-hander to be intuitive, and mystical, with a strong visual sense.

Tt>&-K -Hie

Which is exactly the case.

In politics, maybe this is

why cold, heartless conservatives

are called right-v^ingers.

Mmi e

And why dreamy, bleeding heart liberals are called left-wingers.

P^aschbi

A lot of hard evidence shows that most left-handers— because they are dominated by a different kind of brain—are a distinctly different kind of people.

Hey' iVe^^^

They literally think differently, even when solving the same problem as a right-hander.

Right-handers adapt comfortably to abstractions.

But left-handers tend to translate everything into visual imagery.

Right-handers tend to

think lineally, linking

their ideas in logical order.

Left-handers are more apt to think holistically, skipping over the details.

L&fs 5fi-m,

Which explains why so many creative people have been left-handed.

H.G.

blr^&tdi

//.

'/rl^

V\»

(^urr^^ PSiAi lA/illiaiv\s

Leors

drdO

6e^>^:hley

C^niiT

And why left-handers seem almost to dominate show business.

Garbo

hA^r\iyr\ Momofi'

And perhaps most interesting of all, it helps explain one of the more intriguing statistics of the space age. When NASA went searching for the kind of imaginative, super-reliable, multitalented people they would need to explore the moon . . .

<.v\ ^ ^^

::v;%.'^>-.><>v.

. . . one out of every four Apollo astronauts turned out to be left-handed— a figure

greater than statistical probability.

not n^Kt here!

Far from being society's misfits, data like this suggests that left-handers are almost a different species. Who knows? Maybe they're the next step up in evolution.

In any case, we now know why left-handers have always believed they were special.

In their hearts, they know they're right.