The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams. For publication the week ending Friday, 08-09-96. Copyright 1996 Chicago Reader, Inc. All rights reserved. Publication without express written permission or before Monday of the week ending 08-09-96 is prohibited.
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I feel your pain, brother–I’m left-handed too. So were all the major candidates in the last presidential election (assuming your idea of major is Clinton, Bush, and Perot). Chances are all the major candidates in the next one will be too, although I suppose Dole’s war injury makes him a special case. Five of the last ten U.S. presidents have been left-handed, although lefties account for only 10 percent of the population.
Obviously we have a gift for leadership. The only problem is a lot of us don’t live long enough to use it.
Coren now seems to have conceded the nine-year gap may be a little off. A study of British cricket players found a two-year gap, which he has described as reasonable.
There is a fair amount of evidence that left-handedness is caused by minor brain damage at birth (although there seems to be a genetic component as well). Possibly as a result, lefties are clumsier if perhaps also more creative.
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