Left-handed Popes

[Alma]

I thought it was strange that PacoG would say that wondering if there have been left-handed Popes was sinister, until CB Catholic gave that sensible explanation .

In any case, and as an answer to ThimotyH who said he wondered what was the point of this thread, I must say that I posted it because a friend of mine and I, were commenting that even though left-handed people are only 10% of the world population, there have been extraordinary men and women who are lefties, like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, etc. so we wondered if there had ever been left-handed Popes.
I told him: I’ll post the question in the forums, those guys know everythin!!
And so I did.
There is nothing more to it.

As I said. Just wondering.

The question is still on. Any names?

Alma

 

[Skye_Ariel]

Yeah that question is gonna bug me now, I want to know!

 

[benjohnson]

I find this conversation to be very sinister.

It is a little bit gauche.

 

[Lux_de_Avicula]

Top 10 Lefties

Barack Obama
Bill Gates
Oprah Winfrey
Babe Ruth
Napoleon Bonaparte
Leonardo da Vinci
Marie Curie
Aristotle
Ned Flanders
Jimi Hendrix

Hahaha! What a credible source of information this is. Ned Flanders. That made my day! :whackadoo:
Logic says that if 10% of people are left handed.
then 10% of popes should be left handed.

Edit: also I’m not sure if they would have noted down their left handedness through all of these centuries…
But as someone mentioned before, people are likely to switch from left to right. My parents did to me that when I was a child.

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

I find this conversation to be very sinister.

So, you would prefer all Popes to be dexterous?

p)

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

It is a little bit gauche.

(you and Paco beat me to it!)

 

[Sarcelle]

That is a very interesting question! As a lefty myself, I always notice another left hander and there is a larger number of left handed American presidents compared to the number of left handers in the population, so it would be interesting if the same prevalence of left handedness happened with Popes. But it is true that sometimes it’s hard to tell because of some being forced to write right handed as kids. I’m interested in all things referring to left handedness.

Top 10 Lefties

In the past hundred years, the U.S. presidency has veered more and more to the left — not in policy, but in handedness. Barack Obama is the latest to join a long list of left-handed presidents from the 20th century: James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were all southpaws.

What makes lefties so electable? Some experts think left-handed people have a greater aptitude for language skills, which may help them craft the rhetoric necessary for political office. And as for the bout of recent left-handed presidents, some think it’s because teachers only recently stopped working to convert lefties to righties at an early age.

Top 10 Lefties

Barack Obama
Bill Gates
Oprah Winfrey
Babe Ruth
Napoleon Bonaparte
Leonardo da Vinci
Marie Curie
Aristotle
Ned Flanders
Jimi Hendrix

There also seems to be a lot of left handed actors and stars compared to the ratio of the number of left handers in the population. I think it’s all interesting.

I like my father am also a lefty. I noticed that a lot of engineers I work with are also left-handed.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

Hahaha! What a credible source of information this is. Ned Flanders. That made my day! :whackadoo:
Logic says that if 10% of people are left handed.
then 10% of popes should be left handed.

Edit: also I’m not sure if they would have noted down their left handedness through all of these centuries…
But as someone mentioned before, people are likely to switch from left to right. My parents did to me that when I was a child.

LOL! Yeah I thought that was funny too! Yes logic says if 10% of people are left handed then 10% of popes should be too, but the thing is, it doesn’t work out that way. There are certain fields of work and certain things that have a disproportionate amount of left handers, larger than the number of left handers in the population, which makes the whole thing interesting, like with the recent presidents. That’s why I want to know if being a Pope is one of those things with a large number of left handers compared to amount of left handers born in the population.

Yeah the further back you go, the fewer left handers you see and among the older population you see fewer left handers, but that’s because people in the past, when older people were growing up would switch left handers and make them do things right handed, that’s why you see more right handers among the older population, not because left handers don’t live as long, but because many of them might have been left handers made to do things right handedly. In the past, many schools would not even allow a child to learn to write left handed. Period. They HAD to write right handed or keep failing a grade. You see more and more left handers today because parents and schools don’t switch left handed kids as much as in the past.

I like my father am also a lefty. I noticed that a lot of engineers I work with are also left-handed.

That’s interesting.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

Left Handed Fascinating Facts

Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right.

There is a high tendency in twins for one to be left-handed

Stuttering and dyslexia occur more often in left-handers (particularly if they are forced to change their writing hand as a child, like King of England George VI).
*

Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater.

Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing

Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers

4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed

1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed - 250% more than the normal level.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

I noticed Gordon Ramsay is a lefty too.

 

[George_Arackal]

Cool I never noticed that! Yes I like to think he was left handed too!

Good I’m glad you didn’t try to switch her. Yeah I sucked my left thumb from birth too. They don’t try to force lefties to be right handed anymore because they found out now that switching left handers and making them write right handed can cause stuttering and other things because handedness is how the brain is wired and switching it messes with the whole wiring.

So that’s the reason why I stutter

 

[ProVobis]

Talk about discrimination.

google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://darienps.org/neirad/issues/1110/images/1110chair.jpg&imgrefurl=http://darienps.org/neirad/1110leftie.php&h=400&w=400&sz=25&tbnid=t9SHKCoJ0dnKLM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=90&zoom=1&usg=__P7NYQPygRZrIrIt4qM_pTwbZC5I=&docid=ULQoN1C8v8aW-M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SbUBUv3DLIrIyAHh-4D4CA&ved=0CE8Q9QEwAg&dur=11297

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

Talk about discrimination.

google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://darienps.org/neirad/issues/1110/images/1110chair.jpg&imgrefurl=http://darienps.org/neirad/1110leftie.php&h=400&w=400&sz=25&tbnid=t9SHKCoJ0dnKLM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=90&zoom=1&usg=__P7NYQPygRZrIrIt4qM_pTwbZC5I=&docid=ULQoN1C8v8aW-M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SbUBUv3DLIrIyAHh-4D4CA&ved=0CE8Q9QEwAg&dur=11297

Very aggravating, as I recall.

I get bosses all upset, because I keep switching my mouse to the left side of the keyboard.

 

[ProVobis]

Left Handed Fascinating Facts

Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right.

Don’t they also write “hooked” (from the top) when they write?

Interesting video:

youtube.com/watch?v=2i4CRw3DG-s

Also, I have yet to see a left-handed violinist although left-handed guitarists are more common.

I also think left-handers have an advantage on keyboard instruments. I forget my reasons.

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

Don’t they also write “hooked” (from the top) when they write?

Interesting video:

youtube.com/watch?v=2i4CRw3DG-s

Also, I have yet to see a left-handed violinist although left-handed guitarists are more common.

I also think left-handers have an advantage on keyboard instruments. I forget my reasons.

Me and my lefty kids don’t write hooked, but it is awkward, especially for fountain pens!

I found that I could play chords really well on the piano, but had trouble with the right hand parts.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

Very aggravating, as I recall.

I get bosses all upset, because I keep switching my mouse to the left side of the keyboard.

Oh I hated those desks! And I always laugh whenever someone uses my mouse and gets confused bcause I have it on the left hand side and I have the clickers reversed.

Don’t they also write “hooked” (from the top) when they write?

Interesting video:

youtube.com/watch?v=2i4CRw3DG-s

Also, I have yet to see a left-handed violinist although left-handed guitarists are more common.

I also think left-handers have an advantage on keyboard instruments. I forget my reasons.

Very good video! I don’t write hooked or with the paper in weird positions like some do, I write the exact mirror image of right handers. I don’t know if I used to write backwards but I can read words forwards and upside down just as easily as the right way and also I notice that sometimes I will reverse numbers or letters. Like somehting, instead of something or ti, instead of it and if someone tells me numbers I may write 86 instead of 68 even though I heard 68. And I think with visuals which I think a lot of left handers do without even realizing. And I think about things looking at the whole picture where most right handers look at each individual part of a problem. Right handers think more analytically and left handers think holistically in general.

Me and my lefty kids don’t write hooked, but it is awkward, especially for fountain pens!

I found that I could play chords really well on the piano, but had trouble with the right hand parts.

Yeah those kinds of pens do smear and I was always much better with chords too on the piano.

 

[Domnall]

Don’t they also write “hooked” (from the top) when they write?

Also, I have yet to see a left-handed violinist although left-handed guitarists are more common.

Canadian fiddle player Ashley MacIsaac (cousin of other famous Canadian fiddle player Natalie MacMaster) is left handed!

Here’s a vide of him playing
youtube.com/watch?v=QhS6OsdBxLI

But yes, I did in fact know that information!

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

Oh I hated those desks! And I always laugh whenever someone uses my mouse and gets confused bcause I have it on the left hand side and I have the clickers reversed.

Very good video! I don’t write hooked or with the paper in weird positions like some do, I write the exact mirror image of right handers. I don’t know if I used to write backwards but I can read words forwards and upside down just as easily as the right way and also I notice that sometimes I will reverse numbers or letters. Like somehting, instead of something or ti, instead of it and if someone tells me numbers I may write 86 instead of 68 even though I heard 68. And I think with visuals which I think a lot of left handers do without even realizing. And I think about things looking at the whole picture where most right handers look at each individual part of a problem. Right handers think more analytically and left handers think holistically in general.

Yeah those kinds of pens do smear and I was always much better with chords too on the piano.

Sounds like you might have some of the dyslexia that I do.

 

[Joe_5859]

Left Handed Fascinating Facts

There is a high tendency in twins for one to be left-handed

Instead of being one of each, my brother and I are both kind of split. We both write right-handed, but we hold our writing utensils like lefties (him more so than me). I probably do most things right-handed but then I do certain things (like opening jars) left-handed. I guess when we were in utero, we must have flip-flopped between who was going to be the righty and who was going to be the lefty.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

Sounds like you might have some of the dyslexia that I do.

Instead of being one of each, my brother and I are both kind of split. We both write right-handed, but we hold our writing utensils like lefties (him more so than me). I probably do most things right-handed but then I do certain things (like opening jars) left-handed. I guess when we were in utero, we must have flip-flopped between who was going to be the righty and who was going to be the lefty.

Interesting.