Happy International Left-Handers Day!

“If the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body, then left-handed people must be the only ones in their right minds.” – W.C. Fields
As if Hallmark needed another reason to make a card, August 13 is International Left-Handers Day. The nearly two-decade old holiday doesn’t seem to get the recognition it deserves- then again, neither do left-handers.
Not surprisingly, there is a Left-Handers Club that came up with the holiday back in 1992 to “increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed.” Shall we join in a collective waahhh for southpaws everywhere?
But seriously, I do want to take a moment and say Happy Left-Handers Day to my very own daughter: Twin A., Angela.
I have watched her struggle with scissors, knives, seating arrangements where her arm simply has no place to go, and several other situations that most of us normal- ummm, I mean right-handed folks, never consider. The world is definitely arranged for right-handed people and since I love my daughter today I speak out against this bigotry.
Think of the term itself. A left-handed compliment is one that is not a compliment at all. The left side of the theater has the “odd” numbered seats. Obviously, left = odd. If you are “left out” well, clearly that isn’t good. The Italian words for left and left-handed are “mancino and mancini” which translate to “defective and deceitful.” A promise you have no intentions of keeping is called a “left-handed oath.”