On a recent trawl through the www I came across a site celebrating International Left-Hander’s Day. Apparently the 13 August is the official day for us lefties and the site encourages us to “celebrate our sinistrality” and urges us to increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed.
Co-incidentally I’ve been reading ‘Map Addict’ by Mike Parker who is also left-handed and writes “the most wildly diverse regional expressions seem to be for the concept of left-handedness, or keck handedness as we had it in Worcestershire. Just be grateful you’re not left-handed in the Pennines (dollock- or bollock-fisted), Durham (cuddy-wifted), Galloway (corrie-flug) or Angus (kippie-klookit).”
Other less than complementary names for lefties are Gollie-handed (Hull), Scrammy (Bristol) and Corky Dobber (Leicestershire).
My only comfort is that I share my left-handedness with some well known ‘achievers’ - Albert Einstein, Albrecht Durer, Barack Obama, Hans Holbein, Henri Toulouse Lautrec, Jimi Hendrix, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Douglas Adams, HG Wells, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Pablo Picasso, Raphael, Rembrandt, Paul Simon, Steve McQueen, Charlie Chaplin, Henry Ford and Paul Klee.
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