August 13th – International Left Handers Day


As some of you may already know, I’m a Sinistral: that is to say, I prefer the use of my left hand to my right one. The word comes from the Latin ‘sinister’ (meaning ‘left’), and as you might have guessed, it’s come to mean something a little bit different than the preference for which hand we like to flush the toilet with. Hatred for left-handed people hasn’t only been limited to the Romans. In French, the word is also synonymous with clumsy (‘gauche’), so as you can see, we poor left handed people have been demonized for quite some time. So, what better way to celebrate being marginalized by society than by celebrating our own holiday!

In case you might be wondering why there are left handed people in the first place, you might be intrigued with a theory that suggests it’s because we’ve evolved to be mostly co-operative, but with some room for being independent jerks who refuse to play ball.  The problem, of course, is that we tend to live fewer years due mostly to the stress of living in a right-handers world, as much as a whole decade! Now you know why we need a day to celebrate our shortened lives!