Angelina Jolie: An Heroic Southpaw?

Angelina Jolie has been in the news lately since announcing that she has undergone a prophylactic double mastectomy. This does not diminish her left-handedness.

Leftie Angelina Jolie

Ms. Jolie carries the BRCA1 gene, which predisposes people to high risks of breast cancer (men, too). She took the difficult decision to undergo major surgery to reduce that high risk. Fortunately she is wealthy, so this option was open to her. (More about this issue at this Harvard Medical School site.)

She remains an acclaimed actor, film director, and screenwriter. Indeed, her decision may have avoided cancer that might have shortened her career. (Her mother died at 56 of ovarian cancer, and Ms. Jolie is already 38.) She also remains a Great Leftie.

(Brad Pitt is right handed. So are Ms. Jolie's previous husbands Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.)

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Photo from http://www.autographstore.com/celebItems.cfm. Thanks.

Few U.S. Governors Are Left Handed

The votes are in: Just four of the governors of U.S. states are left handed. (This is the same proportion that is female. Just four out of fifty. Eight percent.)

The four left-handed governors are:

• Steve Beshear of Kentucky, Democratic Party
• Rick Snyder of Michigan, Republican Party
• Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party
• Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Democratic Party

Governor Hassan has the rare distinction of being both left handed and a woman, unique among U.S. state governors.

Three of the four left-handed governors are from the Democratic side of the political spectrum. Just 19 of the 50 governors are from the parties of the left (38%--and one is an independent). If Republicans are disproportionately right handed that might account for the low count of lefthanders among governors over all.

(Alejandro García Padilla, Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, is right handed. Vincent C. Gray, Mayor of the District of Columbia, a Democrat, is also right handed.)

Future President?

Is one of these leaders destined to be President of the United States? On past form, left handedness seems to be common in the Oval Office. And many of our presidents have been former governors. Another problem for the Republican Party?

Mark Dayton of Minnesota: A great leftie?

Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota is a prominent left-hander. Here he is signing into law the state's same-sex marriage act:

Governor Dayton is a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, a party of the left.

How many U.S. governors are left handed? Let me know if your governor is a southpaw. I'll try to research this for a future post.

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Photo from KSTP news. Thanks.