DAILY DIRT: Getting it right — Lefties have left their mark on this world

Daily Dirt for Thursday, June 22, 2023

I always wanted to be able to bat lefty-handed, but had no desire to write with my left hand. When I was in school, my friends who were lefties always had smeared ink on their papers … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 645 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Before we continue, here are some odd facts about left-handed people:

• Lefties make up about 12 percent of the population and righties about 87 percent. Ambidextrous people earn the bronze medal at 1 percent.
• Lefties are 11 times more likely to suffer from allergies.
• Lefties are twice as likely to experience migraines, when compared to their right-handed counterparts.
• 23 percent more males are likely to be left-handed than females.
• Lefties live an average of 9 years less than right-handers. (Are you listening, JRG and David Adam?) 
• Five of the nine most recent U.S. presidents have been left-handed: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.

All of that said, here’s one man’s opinion on the world’s five most famous left-handers:

1. Leonardo da Vinci: Though there’s some argument over whether da Vinci was exclusively a lefty or actually ambidextrous, his peers referred to him by the term “mancino,” which is Italian slang for a left-hander. Da Vinci also was known for a unique style of taking notes, referred to as “mirror writing,” in which he wrote from right to left. Sounds like a lefty.

2. Babe Ruth: Come on, he’s Babe Ruth.

3. Marie Curie: A Nobel Prize winner, Curie helped to discover the principles of radioactivity. Left-handedness is surprisingly common among well-known scientists — Sir Isaac Newton and computer scientist Alan Turing were southpaws, too.

4. Neil Armstrong: He was the first man to walk on the moon. Needless to say, Armstrong’s left-handedness was truly out of this world.

5. Jimi Hendrix: Come on, he’s Jimi Hendrix.

The aforementioned MRN Publisher J. Robert Gough and MRN Editor David Adam were two southpaws who did not make the cut.

2. Fun facts about the human body that are medal-worthy:

Gold medal: The space between your eyebrows is called the “glabella.” And the wrinkles often found there are called “glabellar lines.”

Silver medal: Your veins could stretch 60,000 miles. According to the British Heart Foundation, that’s farther than it takes to circumnavigate the globe twice. Capillaries, which transport blood between arteries and veins, make up 80 percent of that length.

Bronze medal: Hiccups usually last only a few minutes, but then there’s the strange case of Charles Osborne, who was afflicted with a continuous case of the hiccups for 68 years. That is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest case of hiccups in history.

Osborne’s story began with an accident on June 13, 1922, in which he accidentally slipped and fell. His doctor later said he popped a blood vessel in his brain the size of a pin, and theorized that Osborne must have damaged the incredibly small area of the brain that controls and inhibits hiccups. Osborne’s diaphragm spasmed 20 to 40 times a minute, on average, during his waking hours — meaning he hiccupped roughly 430 million times throughout his life. To cope with this never-before-seen disorder, Osborne learned breathing techniques that effectively masked his constant hiccuping. Although he traveled the world in search of a cure, 

the best he could do was cope with the affliction. Finally, in 1990, his diaphragm suddenly ended its 68-year-long spasmodic episode on its own. Osborne died less than a year later, but he was at least able to experience the final days of his life without hiccups.

3. Since summer is now officially with us, that means July is right around the corner.

Along with the heat and humidity that normally accompany that month, there is also an abundance of food-related celebrations. (My kind of month!)

Sure, the grandest holiday of the month is July 4, a.k.a. Independence Day, which in itself is always marked with a day of gorging one’s self with hot dogs, hamburgers, etc., but the culinary celebrations don’t have to end after the Fourth of July is through. 

Here’s a few of the other food-related holidays in July:

• July 3: National Eat Beans Day.
• July 4: National Barbecued Spareribs Day.
• July 5: National Apple Turnover Day.
• July 6: National Fried Chicken Day.
• July 7: World Chocolate Day.
• July 7: National Strawberry Sundae Day.
• July 9: National Sugar Cookie Day.
• July 12: National Pecan Pie Day.
• July 13: National French Fry Day.
• July 14: National Mac and Cheese Day.
• July 16: National Ice Cream Day.
• July 21: National Junk Food Day.
• July 25: National Hot Fudge Sundae Day.
• July 29: National Chicken Wings Day.
• July 29: National Lasagna Day.

July is also National Hot Dog/Sausage Month and National Ice Cream Month.

And if you are thirsty late in July:

• National Pina Colada Day is July 10.
• National Mojito Day is July 11.
• National Daiquiri Day is July 19.
• National Tequila Day is July 24.

Steve Thought O’ The Day — One of the best-looking jump shots in NBA history belonged to left-handed Gail Goodrich of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Happy birthday to our publisher’s and his wife’s son, J. Alexander Gough.