To the LEFT, to the LEFT

No, this isn't a tribute post to Beyonce. That post will come in due time.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL LEFT-HANDERS DAY!!!!

Besides using scissors and spiral notebooks, being left-handed is the bee's knees. My mom and grandma are both lefties. My best friend is a lefty. And both Alex's parents are lefties too! 

Today, I celebrate my handedness-heritage with sharing cool facts about lefties!

1. Between 10-12% of people on earth are “lefties.” Men are more likely to be left-handed than women.

2. Studies have suggested that left-handers are more talented in spatial awareness, math, and architecture.

3. Connections between the right and left sides of the brain are faster in left-handed people. This means information is transferred faster, making left-handers more efficient in dealing with multiple stimuli and using both sides of the brain more easily.

4. There are two divergent theories regarding wearing the wedding ring on the left hand. One theory is that it started with the ancient Egyptians, who believed that despite the left hand’s supposed flaws, placing the ring on this hand brought it nearer to the heart. Another theory attributes the origin to the Greeks and Romans, who wore the rings to ward off evil associated with the left hand.

5. Left-handers are more likely to pursue creative careers.

6. They are usually on polar ends of the intelligence spectrum, either likely to be geniuses (20% of MENSA is left-handed) or likely to have autism, stuttering problems, and dyslexia. 

7. They are more prone to allergies, migraines, insomnia, and alcoholism.

8. They're more affected by fear. In a recent experiement, lefties who watched an eight-minute clip from the film Silence of the Lambs exhibited more symptoms of PTSD than righties. That may be because the right side of the brain, which is dominant in lefties, is more involved in emotions like anger and fear. 

9. Lefties adjust more readily to seeing underwater.

10. Lefties excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming, and fencing. 

11. Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers. 

12. 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed. 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed. And 4 of the last 7 Presidents are left-handed. 

13. About 40% of left-handers are homosexual. 

Famous Left-Handers: 

Tom Cruise	Leonardo da Vinci	Albert Einstein
Benjamin Franklin	Whoopi Goldberg	Cary Grant
Paul McCartney	Michelangelo	Jay Leno
Julia Roberts	Oprah Winfrey	Babe Ruth
Fidel Castro	Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin	Marilyn Monroe
Henry Ford	Helen Keller	Mark Twain
Bart Simpson	Dan Ackroyd	Tim Allen
Charlie Chaplin	Robert DeNiro	Jimi Hendrix
Jerry Seinfeld	Lewis Carroll	Paul Simon
H.G. Wells	Celine Dion	Larry Bird
Mozart	Beethoven	Aristotle
Barack Obama	Angelina Jolie	Brad Pitt
Alexander the Great	Julius Caesar	Marie Curie
Thomas Jefferson	Colin Powell	Gandhi
Charlemagne	Horatio Nelson	Ramses II
Billy the Kid (debated)	John Dillinger	Bob Dylan
David Letterman	Schumann	O.J. Simpson
Bill Gates	Fred Astaire	Judy Garland
Dick Van Dyke	Hans Christian Anderson	Sylvester Stallone
Sara Amini	Sara Amini	Sara Amini

Here's me in Orlando a few years ago at a Left-Handers store at Disneyworld.

If you know any or are a lefty yourself, I'm sending a virtual left-handed high-five today!!