Friday Five: Lord Love a Lefty

Today is not only Friday 13th, but also International Left-Handers Day. Him Outdoors is a left-hander. He tells me that the world is set up for right-handers and that he faces challenges using everyday implements such as scissors, corkscrews and can openers. He is of the generation who were rapped across the knuckles when they wrote with their left hand, so he tried to write with his right. He is also of the generation that used fountain pens, and they are notoriously difficult to manage for those of the sinister persuasion (not my word; it's Latin!).

Barack Obama is left-handed

I admit I have not always been sympathetic, but maybe this is a case of my unconscious bias. Apparently anywhere between 7-17% of the global population is left-handed (depending on what you read) and their struggles are real. Take that comment above: the Latin for left is sinister and the French is gauche. Not very nice, is it? Especially when the relative words for right are dexter and droit, from which we get dexterity and adroit. Linguistics tells us it's right to be right. 

In their effort to counter the negative connotations, left-handedness has often been suggested to denote intelligence and creativity. Sadly there is absolutely no scientific proof for this and there is no difference in IQ levels after studies have been completed. There may be a link between a left-handed dominance and verbal skills, but this is not fully explored or understood. With Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey all being left-handed, there may also be a link between left-handedness and being rich, or maybe that's just a determination to overcome adversity and make the world conform to you, rather than the other way around.

5 Facts About Left-Handedness

1. There is a town in West Virginia, USA called Left Hand. Apparently it was named after the nearby Lefthand Run Creek. And in a 'take that' moment, there is no equivalent town called Right Hand.
2. The Australian children's entertainment group, Hi-5 uses a left hand in their emblem - one of the cast, Tim Maddren, is a left-handed musician who plays the guitar, piano, trumpet and 'a bit of drums'.Other famous left-handed guitarists include Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Courtney Barnett, and David Bowie, although the latter taught himself to play right-handed due to the fact that there weren't enough left-handed guitars in shops in post-war Britain.
3. Maybe it's because Australia is down under, but kangaroos are left-hand dominant, and all Australian sulphur-crested which cockatoos are left-handed (clawed)? I read this fact but I have yet to test it out - I'll note which talon the cockatoos use to throw tree debris at me next time I'm passing. 

4. This year the Dutch Reach method was introduced to the Highway Code in the UK. It is a method of opening a vehicle door that sees the driver use their hand furthest from the handle to open the door (in the UK this would be the left hand), therefore turning their body and allowing them to see oncoming cyclists before opening the door. The Dutch have been using this method for many years, but they just call it 'opening the car door'. Last year there were 140 cycling fatalities in the UK, and in 2007 (the last year for which I can find the figures for this) 8% of serious injuries to cyclists were caused by dooring (opening a motor vehicle door into the path of another road user). 
5. It is illegal to play polo left-handed - this is to do with reasons of safety, apparently for both horse and rider. Even princes are not exempt; the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge are both left-handed.

Left-hander Prince Charles playing polo with his right

Century Cockatoo

Fred is 100!

Fred, the sulphur-crested cockatoo turned one hundred years old this week, which was cause for celebration at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary just outside Hobart in Tasmania. In the wild these cockatoos live to about forty, while in captivity their life expectancy doubles. The old bird received a letter of congratulations from the Queen, and the wildlife sanctuary threw him a party attended by children (and adults) in costume. 

I had no idea they could live that long, and I'm sure the diet of plums, apples, pine cones and peaches from the trees in our back garden is good for them. Many happy returns, Fred!

Friday Five: Feathered Fruit Felons

Nearly all the fruit from our garden has been devoured by the birds. I don't really mind as we have more than enough for our own use (I managed to save sufficient peaches for the wheat beer), and I like being visited by our feathered friends.

5 Birds that eat our fruit:

1. Cockatoos eat the pine cones
2. Rainbow lorikeets eat the plums
3. Eastern rosellas eat the peaches
4. King parrots eat the apples
5. Wattlebirds eat the grapes

Getting cocky

If you’ve ever wondered who

Would win in a fight

Between a sulphur-crested cockatoo

And a trio of Bratz dolls,

I could tell you.

On the roof

Are three mini macabre mannequins

With tatty clothes and tangled hair

Tossed there by the girls next door

Who find it hard to differentiate

Between torture and play;

Sugar and spice.

The cockatoo attacks;

It holds the dolls with a gripping claw,

Gouges their vacuous eyes,

And tears off their heads with

Its creatively curved beak.

Darwin’s design never envisaged

Such scenes of savagery.

The pompous image is punctured;

The tarnished attire is tattered;

The big-headed idols are vanquished.

A victory for the sulphur-crested suffragette

As she rips apart the ridiculous facade,

Exposing the ‘reclaim your inner slut’ mantra

As offensive, puerile hokum.

But the bird is a boy

And the violence feeds baser needs.

Some would say they asked for it,

Dressed like that.

Friday Five: Crazy Birds

I've been trying to find my way around the district without a car; I've got a bus timetable and a pair of legs, so I have been going for short exploratory forays to find my bearings. As I jog through the streets and parks, forests and scrubland, I am accompanied by a variety of avian Australians, which serve as a constant reminder that I am in a new continent.

5 Birds That Accompany My Runs:

1. Galahs
2. Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos
3. Rosellas
4. Australian White Ibis
5. Laughing Kookaburra