Heston Blumenthal

I've been watching Heston Blumenthal's programmes on telly where he creates an unbelievable dinner for his celebrity guests.

And I mean unbelievable. Last night's was a Roman feast: pig's nipple scratchings followed by calf brain custard and 'Trojan' pig where Heston's white, grey and pink sausages fell out of a pig's guts so it looked like intestines were dropping out. Then, for pudding, it was a cake that spewed out bubbles.

For someone who creates such amazing dishes, it comes as no surprise to see that he is left handed.

A strange left-handed coincidence

Everyone's been talking for the past couple of months about how the US has had five left-handed presidents in the last seven. No, I don't think left handers are more siutable material to be in high office; it's just coincidence.

Take a look at this:

At school, five of us did Latin A level and we had two Latin teachers. All seven of us were left handed.

My niece works in a team of seven and six of them are left handed. Admittedly, one or two are in creative roles, but the rest aren't.

When a friend was at law school, all eight of them in the constitutional law tutorial were left handed - and so were their tutors! Needless to say. the tutorial desks all had tables facing the wrong way...

Lawyers and Latin students are no more likely to be left handed than US presidents. Sometimes it just happens that way.

Left handed cartoons

Here's an amusing site I came across recently. It's right handed people drawing cartoons with their left hands... I'm not quite sure why you'd want to do that - maybe they secretly desire to be southpaws. Anyhow, it's called Lefthandedtoons and you can check it out here.

Left-handed children

According to today's FT, researchers at Melbourne University have found that left-handed children do significantly worse in nearly all measures of development - and left handed boys do even worse than girls.

You can read the whole FT article here.

I decided to look up this study on the internet and found that the researchers used a 'comprehensive range of measures covering learning, social, cognitive and language skills' to come up with their findings.

If this is true, it's probably because we have to struggle in a world that's designed for right handers. But I certainly don't feel I devleoped more slowly as child compared to my right-handed pals.

The research also said: "we find evidence that lefthanded children spend significantly less time each day on educational activities than their righthanded peers, and significantly more time watching television".

Source: Handedness, Time Use and Early Childhood Development

Hmmm, well considering I always had my nose in a book when I was child and came top of my class, I can't say I agree with this. And what about 'significantly more time watching television'? We lived in the Far East and didn't have a TV until we came to England when I was aged six. And then I only watched about an hour a day.

Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major was composed by Ravel between 1929 and 1930. It was commissioned by the Austrian pianist, Paul Wittgenstein (brother of the philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein), who lost his right arm during World War I.

Wittgenstein gave the premiere with Robert Heger and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on January 5, 1932.

source: Wikipedia

You can watch it being played here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k75oGTJ-fU

Mind you, it takes two and a half minutes to get to the piano bit, so you may want to skip the first part.

Neanderthal lefties

According to Yahoo News, some of the oldest evidence of left-handedness comes from Kenya, where of a 500,000 year old cache of 54 stone tools made by one of our pre-human ancestors, six (or about 11 percent) were chipped using the left hand.

Similarly, Neanderthals working with meat and stone tools more than 150,000 years ago left marks on their teeth at left and right angles - indicating opposite hand use - in almost perfect proportion with today's 9:1 ratio.

In the Yahoo story, it mentions that Paleolithic cave paintings from France and Spain also hint that there were lefties about 30,000 years ago. Studying a collection of so-called negative hand drawings on the cave walls - similar to tracing one hand with the other - scientists found that individuals drew their left hand much more frequently than the right.

Good at problem solving - but forgetful

I read the other day that people who throw balls with their left hands, or use their left eyes to look through peepholes, or place their left ears against the wall to eavesdrop are twice as good at problem-solving than those who use their right hand/eye/ear.

We also have wider vocabularies than our right-handed peers.

But the downside is, we're also more forgetful.

Mugs for southpaws

I came across some mugs the other day especially for southpaws. When you hold the mug in your left hand you read "It's a left-handed thing...."

Right-handers will be kept guessing as the rest of the slogan on the side facing them says "... you wouldn't understand!"

Take a look at the mugs here.

More left handers in the Middle Ages?

A study of the arm bones of the medieval residents of Wharram Percy, a deserted village in Yorkshire, suggests that left-handedness was more common in the Middle Ages than today.

The study found that 16 per cent of the Wharram Percy adults were left-handed, most of whom lived between the 11th and 16th centuries.

And a staggering 30% of men in the Kerr clan in Scotland were left handed. They even built their castle with a staircase that spiralled the other way so they could attack with their sword in their left hands.

Today, around 10-12% of the population is left handed

Left-handed tennis champ

Congratulations to left hander Rafa Nadal who won the Australian Open last week.

He met fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco, in the semifinal. According to Global Village Tennis News, this was the first all-lefthanded Grand Slam semifinal since 1992 Roland Garros (Petr Korda v. Henri Leconte). The last all-lefthanded Australian Open semifinal was in 1979 (Guillermo Vilas v. Victor Amaya).

They also say that a lefthander has won the Australian Open title six times in the Open Era: Rod Laver (1969), Jimmy Connors (1974), Roscoe Tanner (1977), Guillermo Vilas (1978-79) and Petr Korda (1998).

Make that seven now that Nadal has won it.

Snowy London

This has nothing to do with being left handed, but we had some GREAT snow today in London. First time for about 20 years! Here are some pix I took around the complex of flats where I live:

Always the right leg

In the fitness classes I go to, we always have to start an exercise (like lunges) with our right leg, or (in the case of a grapevine) by moving to the right. My natural inclination is to start with my left leg.

It's the same with Pilates. If we have to draw circles in the air with our legs, the teacher says 'when you've done six circles, go anticlockwise'. But I've just done anticlockwise. Then she says 'now draw circles with your left leg' . Erm, I've already done my left leg.

So, I just do my own thing in my way.

"I'm a lefty - get used to it"

So, yet another US President is left handed. The new President Obama is meant to have told his staff: "I'm a lefty - get used to it."

Let's hope he changes some things around the White House so it's more southpaw-friendly.

It really irritates me when you go to the loo somewhere and the soap dispenser is located to the right of the basin. I either have to lean right over as I naturally want to use my left hand, or I am forced to use my right.

And bathrooms where the space for placing things like cleanser, lotion, tooth mugs etc is to the right of the hand basin.

Even windows and doors are designed to be opened with your right hand. Well, they are in my flat and it's simply too costly to re-do them.

What I'd really like to see is a toaster designed for left handers. I have searched and searched but can't find one anywhere.

Maybe President Obama will champion the cause of left handers, so we are no longer the forgotten minority.

Lefthanded sword fight

For just about the most enjoyable sword fight you'll see on film, take a look at this clip from The Princess Bride.

You'll get the left-handed assocation as you watch it. But make sure you watch to the end!