hi clive ty for the info looks like we part of a good team lol

I remembered that I have a book called "Celebrated Left-Handers" by Leigh Rutledge. So I just grabbed it, and it is arranged by birthday!  I will try to list people daily.  Fovgive me if I forget.  The entry for November 12 is: 

Michael Moorer (1967) US Boxer.  On April 22, 1994, Moorer became the first left-hander to win the world heavyweight boxing title, in a decision against Evander Holyfield in a bout at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.  He lost the title six months later, after being knocked out by George Foreman in the tenth round of their November 5 match.  Also on Nov 12, 1946 driver through tellers were first introduced at a bank in Chicago.

And yesterday was Demi Moore's birthday.  So there you have it!

Whoopi Goldberg (1955) US Entertainer

That Goldberg remains to this day (as of copyright 1999) one of the most popular - one of the most beloved - performers of her generation, despite having had a very uneven film career (puncuated by more than the occasional flop), is testament to the enormous charm and influence that left-handers can wield.  Her one passionate pet peeve is intolerance, whether regarding race, handedness, or anything else: "Anything we don't understand, we want to eliminate.  But I think that people have to recognize that there is nothing you can do to stop people from living their lives.  Either adapt or walk away.  Move to another place where people will continue to be intolerant.  Move to Iran."

From Celebrated Left Handers by Leigh W. Rutledge

If ever I haven't felt lonely, it's Now! 

Edward III (1312-1377) King of England and Jean Seberg (1938-1979) American Actress should have been added to Whoopi Goldberg.

For the 14th, we have Prince Charles (1948) heir the the British throne and Brian Keith (1921-1997) American Actor.

For today, Monday the 15th we have....Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg (1907-1944) German officer and would-be Hitler assassin.  He was a convert lefty, having lost his right hand as a staff officer in a panzer division in Norht Africa in the spring of 1943.

The profile has a lot more on the plot which I will post if folks are interested, but won't if no one cares.

So there you have it!

Cool to see so many famous lefties.

 Light&Laughter,Rhia

Today is the feast day of St. Margaret of Scotland and in 1595 The Sound of Music opened on Broadway.

Now on to the good stuff

Today is the birthday of Tiberius (42BC-37AD) Roman emperor.  He was a nasty, nasty fellow.  I'm not even going to go into it here unless someone asks.

Tiberius was not the kind of left-hander you wanted to drop in on unannounced.  So paranoid, so corrupt, so utterly oblivious to the value of human life did he become in his later years that when a friendly foreign emissary casually stopped in at the royal palace on the island of Capri to say hello, said emissary was barely allowed to utter a benevolent word before Tiberius had him instantly whisked away, tortured for days, and then murdered in a particularly unsavory fashion.  Tiberius acceded to the throne of Rome in a.d. 14, at the age of fifty-six, and at first seemed a wise, patient, and temperate emperor.  He strengthened the military (though rarely misused it), and built up the empire's treasury and power, mostly by fair and evenhanded means.  However, as time went on, his initiatives and laws became increasingly bizarre.  In one edict, he outlawed the execution of virgins: thus, any condemned woman who was still a vrigin had to suffer the added humiliation of being publicly raped by the executioner before the sentence could be carried out.  Ravaged by syphilis in his final years-contemporaries describe his face as a mass of oozing pustules-he turned to prepubescent children to satisfy his sexual desires.  And of the dozen or so villas he built for himself on the island of Capri, where he exiled himself from the age sixty-seven until his death, virtually all were equipped  with torture chambers, dungeons, and extravagantly designed orgy rooms.

From "Celebrated Left-Handers" by Leigh W. Rutledge

Today (Nov 17) is Rock Hudson's birthday. (1925-1985)

Hudson went from capable contract player to adored movie star with a single performance: the penitent wild-playboy-turned-brilliant-surgeon in the 1954 four-hankie classic Magnificent Obsession.  His salary nearly quadrupled, and the volume of his fan mail skyrocketed to more than three thousand letters a week.  "Oh, those sad eyes!" one woman cooed in a letter to him.  "When you looked at Jane Wyman," panted another, "I wanted to scream and deep down inside of me, I did!"  Shortly after Magnificent Obsession's premiere, one Hollywood gossip columnist wrote of Hudson, "He believes in fun babes.  He believes in a goodnight kiss of the first date.  He's leery of two careers in one marriage, but feels the future Mrs. H. should be hep to show biz."  Of course, what millions of adoring fans probably didn't know was that Hudson was-left-handed.  Hudson's left-handedness appears not to have played any significant rolewhatsoever in his life: not in his schooling, not in his slightly better-than-average athletic abilities, not in his acting career.  Whatch the otherwise almost unendurable All Than Heaven Allows (in which he was paired with Jane Wyman again, this time as a virile, Thoreau-quoting gardener wooing a middle-aged socialite widow) to see him not only write with his left hand but saw, prune, hammer, and even use a butter knife left-handed as well.

Celebrated Left-Handers by Leigh W. Rutledge

Brenda Vaccaro is today's famous left-hander. (1939) US Actress.

Left-hander Vaccaro is like a potent cappuccino.  She either livens you up, makes you feel giddy and light-headed, makes you laugh--or she sends you clutching blindly for the nearest horizontal surface to collapse on with a troubled, overloaded stomach.  In her first major film role, she played one of the first women to fall for Jon Voight's cowboy boots in John Schlesinger's X-rated Midnight Cowboy.  Six years later, she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as Deborah Raffin's cheerfully ithyphallic best friend in Once Is Not Enough, based on the Jacqueline Susann potboiler about sex, the jet set, and beautiful women with father fixations.  Perhaps the quintessential Vaccaro performance came in the underrated 1981 comedy Zorro, The Gay Blade (one of my husband's favorite movies): as the shrieking, jumpy wife of corrupt gobernador Ron Leibman, she alternately made one exasperated with her hyperactivity and then laugh with pleasure over her hilarious reading of simple lines like "My party--what's happening at my party?"  A good cappuccino can affect you either way.

Celebrated Left-Handers, Leigh W. Rutledge

James Garfield (1831-1881) US President

During his brief term in office, Garfield often amused visitors by sitting at his desk and writing classical Greek with his left hand while simultanwously writing Latin with his right.  Unfortunately, he was shot four months after his inauguration in 1881--by a right-handed assassin who boisterously sang "I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad!" while ascending the gallows.

I sometimes wonder just how well researched these lists of so-called historical left-handers really are. For instance, the ONLY pictorial representation of Alexander The Great that I am aware of which depicts his 'handedness' is a (very famous) mosaic which quite clearly shows Alexander bearing his lance in his RIGHT hand whilst facing the Persian king Darius at the battle of Gaugamela. Also, absolutely nothing I've read (and I've read a LOT about the guy!) ever mentions him being a southpaw.

Especially when looking at historical figures.  The case of Joan of Arc is a great example.  She is always listed as a lefty.  The problem with that is that most of the reason this is said, is that all the classical paintings of her have her holding her sword left-handed.  However, that was a typical move of the Catholic Church, saying that a dissident/heretic was left-handed as another symbol that they were evil and going to hell.

Now, Leonardo da Vinci is another matter.  Between his journal pages and papers left my his contemporaries, it is a pretty sure thing that he was left handed.

For Nov. 20 We have Estelle Parsons (1927) US Actress and Dick Smothers (1939) US comedian (one of my personal favorites)

Nov. 21: Goldie Hawn (1945) US Actress, Stan Musial (1920) US baseball player, Laurence Luckinbill (1934) US baseball player and Jim Bishop (1907-1987) US writer.

Nov 22: Ron Dean (1950) US actor.  He's been in over 30 feature films but is probably best remembered as the detective with the bullhorn yelling "Get off the babysitter!" to Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

William H. Bonney, "Billy the Kid" (1859-1881) US Outlaw

In the summer of 1880, Western outlaw Billy the Kid took time from his other activities--cattle rustling, gambling, murder--to have his picture taken at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.  The resulting photograph--widely reproduced in newspapers and books--showed the Kid apparently wearing his holster on his left hip, giving rise to the widespread supposition that he was left-handed.  In fact, what most people never realized was the the photographwas a tintype--a reversed image--and the holster was actually on Billy's right hip.  Whatever the truth about Billy's hand preference, eyewitnesses attested to his deadly precision firing a gun with either hand, or on at least one occasion, firing two pistols at once, one in each hand.  Before he was finally shot to death in 1881, at the age of twenty-one, Billy was reputed to have murdered over twenty men, though some authorities believe the actual figure is much smaller.  He is buried in the Fort Sumner Cemetary with the epitaph "The Boy Bandit King--He Died as He Lived."

Harpo Marx (1888-1964) US comic actor

Harpo was the Marx brother with the curly reddish-blond hair (a wig) who never spoke, usually whistled, played the harp (he was self-taught), carried an old-fashioned taxi horn, and chased women.  Okay, they all chased women--Harpo's the one who did it with the face of a demented child.  His real name was Adolph.  Some sources alternately give his birthday as November 21.

Celebrated Left-Handers, Leigh W. Rutledge

I've read that the main reason that left-handers _statistically_ have a shorter lifespan than right-handers is simply that many more of us suffer (sometimes fatal) workplace accidents in what is essentially a world designed to accommodate right-handers.

I would guess that the majority of the working population anywhere tends to be in 'blue-collar' manual jobs, many of which involve the use of potentially dangerous machinery and tools principally designed to be operated right-handed, and therefore potentially far more dangerous for southpaws to use. I should mention that the only serious workplace accident I have ever suffered was whilst working at an engineering firm, operating a press drill designed for right-handed users 'cack-handed'.

It does also appear to be the case that, proportional to their numbers within the whole population, left-handers as a group tend to suffer from a higher incidence of mental illness and depression. If this is true, I suspect that this could also contribute to the 'early death' statisitics.

Bottom line being that, if you ignore deaths by industrial/workplace accidents and suicides, and count only deaths by natural causes (old age, disease etc.)  left-handers have, statistically, much the same average lifespan as right-handers. 

Perhaps not terribly famous, but the actor who played the blond sniper in 'Saving Private Ryan' was very obviously left-handed. Interesting that they should choose him for that particular role, as the scoped rifle unique to his character is a particularly awkward weapon for a lefty to operate. If you ever watch the film, note how he has to stretch his left hand right over the top of the telescopic sight to work the bolt on the right of rifle.

In a similar vein, I recently played a PC shooter game based on the first 'Die Hard' movie. Bruce Willis is of course left-handed, and to my surprise, this was fully reflected in the game. I used to do a bit of shooting (and I play a lot of PC shooter type games)  so it was nice for once to see the guns carried, operated and reloaded  left-handed, exactly the way I would (sometimes quite awkwardly!)

Nov. 24 is Ted Bundy (1946-1989). 

Not someone that I am happy about having in our illustrious ranks, but I guess we can't pick who has an attribute on common with us.

Nov 25 is Helen Hooven Santmyer (1895-1986)  US writer.  She wrote the 1300 page 1985 best-selling novel And Ladies of the Club, which she wrote over the course of 50 years.

Nov 26 has Daniel Davis (1945) US Actor.  A Shakespearean actor by training, Davis is best known as Niles, the glib, often acidic butler on the popular TV series The Nanny (which is one of my guilty pleasures and also has another lefty, Fran herself, as the star).

and Vernon "Lefty" Gomez (1908-1989) US baseball player.  He compiled an enviable 189-102 record pitching for the Yankees from 1930 to 1942.  He was as famous for his humor and antics as for his abilities.  He was nicknamed "Goofy" after announcing his latest invention--a revolving goldfish bowl that saved its occupants the necessity of swimming.  He liked to tell fans that even his pet Chihuahua was left-handed.  The proof, according to Gomez: "When the dog goes to the fireplug, he raises his left leg."

More famous left-handed people:

Barry Van Dyke (son of Dick Van Dyke and co-star of 'Diagnosis Murder')

Chris Potter (co-star of 'Kung Fu - the Legend Returns' and 'Silk Stalkings')

For 10% of the population we certainly do bulk of the big work!

First, I have to say ... Lisa, I just LOVE that photo!!!

Now for the good news ... although Jack the Ripper is on this list of famous lefties, and it is commonly believed that he was left handed, the evidence points to his right. According to various doctors, Dr. LLewellyn (the man responsible for starting the suspicion of Jack's sinistral nature) was mistaken, and the good doctor himself later addmitted that he might have been errant. The rumor was continued due to the prejudice against left handers.

Here's an article that might clear some things up ...

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rip-left.html

It's such fun hanging out with the right - minded!

Ooh - you're going to be a famous author? what do you write about?

I didn't know Queen Victoria was a leftie! And Charles and William too! I sense a pattern in British monarchy... Well that proves something about lefties! After all, Queen Victoria did invade about one third of the world.

Don't think anyone has mentioned this, but the talk of weapons reminded me. Ehud, in the book of Judges is a south paw. He is also an assasin and is able to get into the enemy king's palace without them detecting his dagger because as a lefty he has it slung on the wrong hip and the king's guards don't think of checking there...

It's kind of funny, like a play against right handed stereotpying, in Hebrew it says he is from the tribe of Benjamin, which means son of the "right" and it describes him the "right hand man" and the word hand keeps coming up, and then comes the "twist" he puts his dagger on the right hip and stabs the Moabite king with his left hand. Tricky these left handers.

Although I do write right handed, I shoot pool left handed or right handed.  I bat left, bowl left. and when I was a cashier, I had my money from one dollar bills on my left to twenty dollar bills on my right.  Same with coins, pennies on left, then nickels, dimes, and quarters. 

My husband is left handed.  For a while and although getting more rare, my two youngest chlidren, ages 3 and 5 (soon to be six) and both autisitic, have used their left hands for crayons and pencils.  They both use rights for eating (with utensils) but both for finger food such as fries.

My mother used to be able to write with either hand and her signatures would be identical.  I can print with my left, but I want to write backwards with my left if I am scripting.  (I rarely script anymore, due to problems with my hands).

I also wonder if more people in the UK are lefties, especially after beginning to drive.  Their steering wheel is on the right, so they must shift with their lefts, and since they drive on the opposite side of the road, would that make them think more 'left-sided'?

For sure!

So many interesting tidbits here.  Keep those famous lefties coming!

Hugh Jackman the aussie hunk from the X-man is a southpaw.

I did not know that Harpo was a leftie too. You made my day

S

Iggy Pop (Iggy and The Stooges)
Tim Armstrong (Rancid/The Transplants) plays left handed, often using an upside-down right handed guitar.
Paul Gray (Bass guitar, Slipknot)

Gary Moore (Thin Lizzy, + solo) is quite well known in rock circles for being left handed, although he plays a regular right handed guitar as if he were right handed.

Apparently there are quite a few guitarists who do this. Hard to verify some of these, but I've heard that B.B King, Albert King, David Bowie, David Byrne (Talking Heads) Paul Simon, Robert Fripp (King Crimson) Noel Galagher (Oasis) Mark Knopfler (Dire Straights) Nick Lowe, Duane Allman and... Keanu Reeves (!) are among them.

According to a Ronnie Wood (The Faces and The Rolling Stones) interview I heard recently, Jimi Hendrix could play guitar equally well (i.e. outstandingly!) with either hand. Ronnie used to share a flat with Jimi in the sixties, and like Hendrix he favoured the Fender Stratocaster. Apparently Jimi would often pick up one of Rons regular right handed guitars, playing it right handed for impromptu jam sessions, and Ron asserts (somewhat enviously!) that he was equally at home with it as with one of his own converted guitars.

There are actually two left handers in the beatles. Ringo, being a drummer, is far less obviously a southpaw than Paul on bass guitar, but he is definitely left handed.

  Carol Burnett not left handed?  I don't know...she's on a lot of internet left handers lists...

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, left handed guitarist and ex-member of the now defunct post-hardcore band 'At The Drive In', currently a member of 'The Mars Volta'.