Daily TWiP Archives
Something interesting has happened on (just about) every day of the year, and Daily TWiP provides the proof. An offshoot of my local events column The Week in Preview (affectionately known as TWiP), Daily TWiP was published April 2008-Aug. 2011 and is still giving readers reasons to celebrate.More in "Daily TWiP"
- Daily TWiP - Oct. 23: National Mole Day
- Daily TWiP - June 18: International Picnic Day
- Daily TWiP - June 30, 1859: The Great Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope
- Daily TWiP - Dec. 1, 1761: Famed wax sculptor Madame Tussaud born
- Daily TWiP - Dec. 4: National Cookie Day
- Daily TWiP - Oct. 8: National Fluffernutter Day
- Daily TWiP - Sept. 7, 1936: "Benjamin," the last thylacine, dies
- Daily TWiP - Nov. 12, 1933: First photograph of the Loch Ness Monster taken
- Daily TWiP - April 1, 1957: The BBC pulls off its infamous spaghetti tree hoax
- Daily TWiP - April 11, 1954: The most boring day of the 20th century
- Daily TWiP - May 3, 1978: The first spam email is sent
- Daily TWiP - Feb. 28, 1939: The non-word “dord” is discovered in Webster’s New International Dictionary
- Daily TWiP - March 3, 1931: "The Star-Spangled Banner," set to the tune of an English drinking song, becomes the U.S. national anthem
- Daily TWiP - May 16, 1777: The American with the most valuable autograph is fatally wounded in a duel
- Daily TWiP - May 25: Towel Day and Geek Pride Day
- Daily TWiP - June 30: National Ice Cream Soda Day
- Daily TWiP - July 22: Spoonerism Day
- Daily TWiP - Aug. 13: International Left-Handers' Day
- Daily TWiP - Aug. 23, 1784: The short-lived state of Franklin declares its independence from North Carolina
- Daily TWiP - Feb. 5, 1897: The Indiana General Assembly unanimously votes to change the value of pi
- Daily TWiP - March 10: International Day of Awesomeness and Chuck Norris' birthday
- Daily TWiP - Jan. 25: National Irish Coffee Day
- Daily TWiP - Nov. 30, 1954: Ann Hodges becomes the first person hit by a meteorite
- Daily TWiP - Oct. 6, 1582 does not happen in certain countries
- Daily TWiP - Sept. 17, 1859: Joshua A. Norton declares himself Emperor of the United States
- Daily TWiP - Sept. 30, 2004: First images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat are taken
- Daily TWiP - Aug. 27, 1896: The shortest war in recorded history is fought
- Daily TWiP - July 30, 1419: Czechs chuck politicians (literally) during the First Defenestration of Prague
- Daily TWiP - July 21, 356 B.C.: Herostratus destroys one of the Seven Wonders of the World to ensure his own fame
- Daily TWiP - May 14: National Dance Like A Chicken Day
- Daily TWiP - Jan. 26, 2004: Dead whale unexpectedly explodes in Tainan, Taiwan
- Daily TWiP - Jan. 8, 1835: U.S. national debt hits zero for the first and only time
Daily TWiP – Aug. 13: International Left-Handers’ Day
Today (Aug. 13), we would like to remind you that there are two ways to do things – not a right way and a wrong way, but a right way and a left way. On International Left-Handers’ Day, we celebrate those who determinedly fumble their way through a world in which nothing is where it should be.
Approximately seven to ten percent of the population is left-handed, with more left-handed men than women. Younger people are more likely to be left-handed than their older counterparts, as left-handedness was strongly discouraged in schools up until a few decades ago, a combination of the tendency of lefties to smudge their writing and a misplaced cultural belief that left-handedness was evil.
In Western culture, this belief has been traced back to ancient Mesopotamia, where the hand was considered a symbol of power. The left hand was associated with the power to shame society and represented misfortune, divine punishment and natural evil, associations which later carried over into modern Judeo-Christian culture.
Granted, there are several notorious left-handed criminals, (Billy the Kid, Jack the Ripper, John Dillinger, and the Boston Strangler all come to mind), but there are far more right-handed criminals than left-handed ones. Given how many lefties there are in the world, if it was true that all left-handed individuals are evil and villainous, the term “prison overcrowding” would never have found its way into our vocabulary.
Other famous lefties include Napoleon Bonaparte (and his wife, Josephine), Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Ramses II, Aristotle, Prince William, Benjamin Franklin, Norman Schwarzkopf, Mahatma Gandhi, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Joan of Arc and M.C. Escher.
Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy, is also left-handed. So lefties, you may have a tough time finding a pair of scissors you can use, but when it comes to Jedi lightsabers, you’d be right (or left) at home.
For more information on International Left-Handers’ Day, visit www.lefthandersday.com.
– Teresa Santoski
Originally published Aug. 13, 2009.
Browse the compendium
Compendium (noun): a summary or abridgment.
Click the icons to the right to check out a sampling of my work.
