John H. Ritter - Choosing Up Sides - The Story behind the Story

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Notorious Lefties

John Ritter's List of Notorious
Left-Handers

Presidents and Leaders

Alexander the Great, George H.W. Bush, Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, Harry Truman

Actors

Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Matt Dillon, Richard Dreyfus, Morgan Freeman, Marilyn Monroe, Demi Moore, Julia Roberts, Emma Thompson, Bruce Willis

Comedians

Dan Ackroyd, Jason Alexander, Tim Allen, Lenny Bruce, Carol Burnett, George Burns, Drew Carry, Charlie Chaplin, Fran Drescher, W.C. Fields, Whoopi Goldberg, Goldie Hawn, Lisa Kudrow, Harpo Marx, Richard Pryor, Jerry Seinfeld

Talk Show Hosts

Ellen DeGeneres, Jay Leno, David Letterman, John Stewart, Oprah Winfrey

Musicians

Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Kurt Cobain, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, Jimi Hendrix, David Hildago, Paul McCartney, Chuck McPherson, Prince, Paul Simon, Ringo Starr, Tiny Tim

Artists, Scientists and Thinkers

Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Michaelangelo, Pablo Picasso, Albert Schweitzer, Mark Twain, Casey Stengal

Baseball Players

Whitey Ford, Lefty Grove, Ron Guidry, Steve Howe, Bruce Hurst, Carl Hubbell, Randy Johnson, Tommy John, Brady Anderson, Harold Baines, Barry Bonds, Lou Brock, Brett Butler, Will Clark, Tye Cobb, Tom Glavine, Ken Griffey, Jr., Tony Gwynn, Rickey Henderson, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Reggie Jackson, David Justice, Wally Joyner, Sandy Koufax, John Kruk, Fred McGriff, Stan Musial, Paul O'Neil, John Olerud, Mel Ott, Rafael Palmeiro, Babe Ruth, Deion Sanders, Warren Spahn, Casey Stengel, Darryl Strawberry, Ted Williams, Fernando Valenzuela

John Ritter's Quirky and Intriguing Info about Lefties

In the human population, left-handers comprise about 10%. In the animal world, the ratio of righties to lefties is about 50/50.

Since lefties tend to be right-brain dominant, left-handers are represented in the creative arts at over twice their ratio as in the general population.

Some professions which have a far higher representation of left-handers include: architecture, music, art, law, mathematics, wait staffing, acting, and comedy.

Communication between both sides of the brain tends to be higher among lefties. This results in a thicker corpus callosum, the link between the right and left hemispheres.

Left-handers have a greater tendency toward dyslexia.

The term "ambidextrous," which describes a person who is equally capable with either hand, literally means "one who is right-handed with both hands."

In the middle ages left-handers were burned at the stake as witches.

There are significantly more left-handed men than lefty women.

Handedness, like speech, is not apparent at birth but appears gradually as the child grows.

Baseball parks were built so the setting sun shone into the right fielder's eyes. Thus lefty pitchers threw toward the west with their "south paws."

Lefty Albert Einstein once said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge."