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• all polar bears are left handed.

• The Japanese word for left, "hidari," is derived from "dari-on," or "horizon," because the emperor faced south for ceremonial occasions and the sun rose on his left.
• Scholars agree that in declaring "the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense," Hamlet was referring to the left hand.
• The ancient Incas of Peru held left-handers in high esteem. One of their early monarchs, Llloque Yapanqui, was known as the "Unforgettable Left-handed One."
• Research studies suggest lefties are more perceptive to changes in musical tones, perhaps because they, unlike right-handers, hear equally well with both ears.
• Lefties have a decided edge when it comes to using the standard QWERTY keyboard on a typewriter. There are no plans to replace QWERTY with the Dvorak keyboard, which places 56 percent of the workload on the right hand.
• More than one-third of all children who were made to switch from naturally using their left hand to using their right, developed some stammer or impediment to their speech.
• Eight of our solar system's nine planets, including Earth, rotate counterclockwise on their axes. The planets orbit the sun "to the left," and our sun, along with the billions of other stars  in the universe, orbits the Milky Way in a counterclockwise direction.
• One archeological study found that 55 percent of a sample of French Stone Age tools were for left-handers. Another discovery revealed that one-third of North American Indian stone implements were made by lefties.
• Among early Eskimos every left-hander was viewed as a potential sorcerer.
• In tribute to his left hand, Immanuel Kant once said, "What can more resemble my hand and be in all points like, than its image in the looking glass? And yet I cannot put such a hand as I see in the glass in the place of the original."
• Being left-handed was evidence against a person in the 17th century witch trials in New England. A French superstition held that witches greet Satan _avec le bras gauche_ ("with the left arm").
• It is believed by some that the reason Leonardo da Vinci used his left hand exclusively was that his right hand was paralyzed.

• As many as 70 percent of the Punjab tribe of Fiji use the left hand by preference. There is also a consistently higher occurrence of left-handedness in aboriginal tribes of North and South America, South Africa and Australia.
• In 1989, Stanley Coren, author of _The Left-Hander Syndrome: The Causes and Consequences of Left-Handedness_, determined on the basis of nearly 1,000 case histories that the average age of death for right-handers was 75 years, while left-handers lived about 66 years.
• Proudly proclaiming itself as the "World's only magazine for Lefthanders," _Lefthander Magazine_ is published bimonthly from Lefthanders International at P.O. Box 8249, Topeka, KS 66608. The magazine is lefty friendly with pages tailored for left-handed use.
• Visit the zoo this weekend and see for yourself that gorillas, monkeys, chimpanzees and orangutans are completely ambitextrous.
• The skulls of 700 Egyptians from the twenty-seventh to thirteenth dynasty (525-332 B.C.) werefound to have a larger cerebral capacity in the right hemisphere, which strongly suggests they were left-handed.
• Left-handers make better typists. Not only do they have more practice using both hands for other tasks, but the most used letters - A, E, R, S and T - are on the left side of the keyboard.
• When bats emerge from a cave, theyfly in a left-spiraling pattern to keep from bumping into each other.
• Ancient Egyptian tomb drawings show about 10 percent of the figures using the left hand.
• Ancient Aztec healers believed in the importance of using a particular hand to administer medicine. Liver medication had to be taken with the right hand, and kidney medicine with the left.
• Baseball has become a popular sport in Japan, and the natural advantages the game offers southpaws has been credited with helping change the centuries-old anti-lefty bias in that country.
• Studies on immunities and susceptibilities indicate left-handers seem to be more susceptible to the effects of drugs and alcohol than right-handers.
• The French word for left, "gauche," also means clumsy, socially inept or incorrect.
• Left-handedness was believed to be a sign of good luck by the ancient Zuni tribe of North America.
• The Zuni still believe that the left hand is the older and wiser one.
• According to a study published in South Africa, vegetarians are more likely to be left-handed.
• On average, lefties score lower on the verbal portion of standardized tests, but far outrank righties in math.
• If there were no interference on the part of parents and teachers, 34 out of every100 children born today would be left-handed, and about 3 percent would be using both hands with  equal dexterity.
• The Romans were the most militantly right-handed people in history, and made up rules against left-handers. Romans invented the right-handed handshake and the left-to-right alphabet.
• While many ancient cultures considered left-handedness a bad sign, the Incas of Peru looked upon it as a harbinger of good fortune.
• Lefties generally use both hemispheres of the brain to carry out certain functions, rather than rely on one hemisphere like their rightie counterparts. Some experts studying the brain think the bilateral functioning by lefties is problematic, but others feel it can result in superior mental power.
• Stewardesses is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
• Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater.
• 4 of the 5 original designers of the Apple Macintosh computer were left-handed
• Anomalog:
  • Handedness Equals Hairstyle
  • Guy Solves Rubik's Cube In 44.98 Seconds Using Only Left Hand

Lefties:
 

• Albert Einstein

 

• Angelina Jolie (_Girl, Interrupted_ (vhs/ntsc), _Hackers_ (vhs/ntsc))
• Balthazar Getty (_Lost Highway_)
• Bart Simpson
• Ben Stiller (_There's Something About Mary_ (vhs/ntsc))
• Benjamin Franklin (also a vegetarian)
• Big Bird (the right hand is used to move the 4.5 pound head)
• Bill Bradley - Senator and Presidential candidate, ex-NBA basketball player for New York Knicks
• Bill Clinton
• Bill Gates
• Bill Lee (eccentric pitcher for the Montreal Expos)
• Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins - plays guitar right-handed)
• Bob Dylan
• Bren Spiner (Data)
• Bruce Willis (_Pulp Fuction_  (vhs/ntsc), _The Sixth Sense_ (vhs/ntsc) )
• Carol Burnett
• Cary Grant

• Charlie Chaplin
• Christian Slater (_Heathers_(vhs/ntsc) , _The Name Of The Rose_  (vhs/tnsc) )
• Dan Aykroyd (Blues Brother, Ghostbuster, _Trading Places_)
• David Byrne (Talking Heads)
• David Letterman
• Demi Moore
• Diane Keaton (_Sleeper_ (vhs/tnsc) , _Annie Hall_)
• Don Adams (_Get Smart_)
• Drew Carey
• Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (NASA astronaut)
• The Elephant Man
• Fidel Castro (Cuban leader)
• Fran Drescher (_This Is Spinal Tap_ (vhs/tnsc))
• George Burns
• Greta Garbo
• H.G. Wells (sci-fi author; also a vegetarian)
• Hans Christian Anderson (also a vegetarian)
• Harpo Marx
• Harry Anderson (_Night Court_)
• Helen Keller
• Isaac Hayes (voice of the chef in _South Park_)
• Isaac Newton
• Jason Bateman (_It's Your Move_)
• Jennifer Connolly (film _Some Girls_ (vhs/tnsc), _Requiem For A Dream_ (vhs/tnsc))
• Jerry Seinfeld
• Jim Henson
• Jimi Hendrix
• Joanne Woodward (also a vegetarian)
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols)
• Jon Stewart
• Julianne Moore (_Boogie Nights_ (vhs/tnsc))
• Keanu Reeves (_The Matrix_  (vhs/tnsc))
• Kermit The Frog
• Klaus Kinski (_Nosferatu The Vampyre_ (vhs/ntsc))
• Kristy McNichol
• Larry Bird (Boston Celtics NBA basketball player, also a vegetarian)
• Lenny Bruce

• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Lewis Carroll
• Ludwig Van Beethoven
• M.C. Escher - drew with his left, wrote with his right
• Mahatma Ghandi (also vegetarian)
• Mark Hamill (v_Star Wars_ (vhs/tnsc) )
• Mark Twain
• Mark Wahlberg (_Boogie Nights_ (vhs/tnsc))
• Marshall McLuhan (media guru)
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Mary Stuart Masterson (_Some Kind Of Wonderful_ (vhs/ntsc))
• Matthew Broderick (_Wargames_, _Ferris Bueller's Day Off_ (vhs/tnsc))
• Matt Groening (creator of _The Simpsons_)
• Michael Stipe (REM)
• Mickey Rourke (_Angel Heart_ (vhs/tnsc))
• Milla Jovovich (_Resident Evil_ (vhs/tnsc))
• Morgan Freeman (_The Shawshank Redemption_ (vhs/tnsc))
• Nicole De Boer (_Cube_ (vhs/tnsc)(1997), also a vegetarian)
• Penelope Ann Miller (_Biloxi Blues_)
• Peter Fonda (_Easy Rider_, _The Trip_)
• artists formerly known as and is once again known as Prince
• Rachel Leigh Cook (also vegetarian)
• Richard Dreyfuss (Roy Neary in _Close Encounters Of The Third Kind_ DVDx2)

 
 
• Richard Pryor
• Robert DeNiro (_The King Of Comedy_ (vhs/tnsc))
• Robert Redford (_The Natural_)
• Ron Perlman (_Name Of The Rose_  (vhs/tnsc)  , _Alien: Resurrection_, _City Of Lost Children_)
• Ron Reagan, Jr.
• Sarah Jessica Parker (_Mars Attacks!_ (vhs/tnsc), _Ed Wood_)
• Stefanie Powers (_Die! Die! My Darling_, _Hart To Hart_)
• Steve McQueen (_Papillon_ (vhs/tnsc))
• Tippi Hedren (_The Birds_)
• Telly Savalas
• Terence Stamp
• Teri Garr (_After Hours_ (vhs/tnsc) , _Close Encounters Of The Third Kind_ DVD x2)
• Winston Churchill (also a freemason as well as vegetarian)

• avant garde track _Sacred Rites Of The Left Hand Path_ MP3 (192k) by John Zorn off of _I.A.O._ CD no Tzadik (2002)

• track _Left Hand Suzuki Method_ MP3 (192k) by Gorillaz off of s/t CD (2001)
• electro acoustic track _The Left Remembers_ MP3 by Paul Schutze off of _Green Evil_ on Tone (2000)
• track _Lefty_ MP3 (192k) by Rocket From The Crypt off of _Boychucker_ 7" on Sympathy For The Record Industry (1992)
• neo psychedelia noise pop release _If You Want Me To Stay/The Left Handed Raygun Of Paul Sharits_ MP3 (256k) by Mercury Rev on Rough Trade (1992)
  • release was offered through the Rough Trade Singles Club
• track _Slow Rt. Hand_ MP3 (vK) by Califone off of _Roomsound_ on Perishable (2001)
• indie electronic release _Left Handed_ 12" by Lali Puna on Morr Music #037 (2003)
  • a1 _Left Handed
  • b1 _Left Handed Dub_
  • b2 _Together In Electric Dreams_ MP3
• track _Fat Tuesday_ by Left Hand Right Hand off of _Arrythmia II (compilation of percussive music)_ CD on Charnel House (1996)
• post rock track _Left Side Clouded_ MP3 (192k) by The Sea & Cake off of _One Bedroom_ on Thrilljockey (2003)
• sci-fi book _The Left Hand Of Darkness_ by Ursula K. Leguin
• Copyleft - the Free Art License and Free Software Movement
• track _Left Hand Shake (Banned Studio Version)_ MP3 by Skinny Puppy off of _Last Rights_

• samples from Timothy Leary on _Left Hand Shake_ MP3 off of _Brap_ (European Version Only)
• "You are a light. You are a sun. Drift within. This is your body."
• "Did you get lost on the trip?"
• "Did you get trapped in memory?"
• "Did you forget?"
• "What did you do?"
• "Virtual mindgame..."
• "Trivial paranoia..."
• "You had to make it a bad trip."
• "...Don't see the light... Do not see right..."
• "In this mirror of confession..."
• "What do you see there? Your personality... All your goals and your fears... Your ambitions."
• "The chess game of your life; got to check that, you can't take it on the trip."
• "All those animal impulses that you hide..."
• "And keep down below, all this baggage must be checked."
• "You can't take that on the billion year voyage."
• "Are you ready?"
• "Then take this chalice, the elixir of life."

Usenet:

• alt.left-handed
• alt.lefthanders

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