Left handed dayIt’s predominately a right-handed world we live in,  many of us ‘lefties’ have been persecuted by sinistrophobia* at some point in our lives, either by people or by design and manufacture. If you’re one of our many BITE readers who is naturally left-handed, this coming Saturday (13th August) is your day to hold your left-hand up high and be counted as we celebrate ‘National Left Hander’s Day 2011’.

Get down the pub, demand that the barman serve you a pint in a left handed pint-glass, stand at the bar drinking from your left-hand and intrigue your friends with your knowledge of left-handedness.

(*Sinistrophobia – the fear of left-handed people.)

Some Left handed Facts:

  1. As a fellow left-hander, H. G. Wells wrote the first draughts of his famous books, ‘War of the Worlds’, ”The Time Machine’ and ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ using his left-hand.
  2. When current U.S. President Barrack Obama signed his name and the wrong date in the visitors book at Westminster Abbey, he made the gaffe with his left-hand, being one of eight left-handed U.S. Presidents to serve office.
  3. Master puppeteer Jim Henson was left-handed, making by proxy Kermit the Frog also left-handed.
  4. Left-handed people are three times more likely than right-handed people to become alcoholics, the right side of the brain being more susceptible to the effects of alcohol.
  5. Left-handed stroke victims have been known to recover faster than right-handed stroke victims.
  6. Left-handed people are also generally better at 3-dimensional perception. This has connections to creativity, and it’s known that left-handed people process shape using a “visual simultaneous” method in which several threads of information can be processed simultaneously into the brain.
  7. In 60s music, Jimi Hendrix played a right-handed Fender Stratocaster strung upside down to accommodate his left-handedness.
  8. Paul McCartney of The Beatles is left-handed; when he first played alongside John Lennon , he played Lennon’s right-handed guitar upside-down. Ringo Starr, also left-handed, made 50% of the Beatles members of the left-handed club.
  9. In the Middle Ages, writing with your left-hand was believed to be a sign of demonic possession and often punishable by death.
  10. Half of left-handed people use a computer mouse with their right-hand, and have a  higher average of multi-tasking, in this case being able to use a pen and paper at the same time as a computer mouse.
  11. Dreams, gut-feelings and paranoia are controlled by the right side of the human brain, left-handed people can tap into these instincts with much more ease than right-handed people.
  12. Left-handed peoples eyes adjust to being underwater much quicker than right-handed people giving them faster orientation skills.
  13. Adolf Hitler was right-handed.

If you’re left-handed or you know a left-handed fact, you can leave a comment in our comments section below, or by joining in the conversation on our Facebook page.