I just realized how high today’s number is… 225 days?! It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this map-a-day thing so long. I’m actually worried about what might happen when the year ends. I may end up grieving or something. Or perhaps I’ll revisit some of these daily maps and do them justice, I suppose. But enough thinking about the future; I have spent the last two weeks getting educated about mindfulness. So I will focus on the task at hand, which is…
Celebrating International Left-Handers Day!
What a day! It’s wonderful. I woke up this morning, and thought: I wonder what it’s like to be left-handed. So I tried to do everything with my left hand instead of my dominant right. And it went about as well as you’d suspect. It didn’t take too long of me banging about for my daughter, who is left-handed, to ask: “What the hell is wrong with you this morning?!”
I informed her that I was practicing solidarity with her. She essentially told me to piss off and stop making so much noise – in a much nicer and more subtle way.
I’ve always loved the fact that we have a single lefty in our family – no one else is left-handed on her mom’s or dad’s side either… she is a dexterous enigma. Where did these (recessive?) genes come from? Or how did her brain wire itself to prefer her left hand? (If so, it must have been very early on, as we noticed that she was going to be a lefty almost straight away. Every doctor, relative, and friend told us that you can’t tell until “age two”, but we were calling it around six months. It was obvious then, no matter what the experts say.)
Alas, “south paws” tend to go on and do fairly well in life. I mean, presumably a lot of them become na’er-do-wells and mess up their lives like right-handed people too, but if you want to become President of the United States, being left-handed seems to increase your odds. (Though, there could be an argument that being President doesn’t exclude you from being a na’er-do-well, I suppose.) And Rocky Balboa was a lefty – his license plate in Rocky IV was “South Paw”!
For those of you upset with term “South Paw”, I don’t really apologize. It isn’t a derogatory term at all, but a term of endearment coming from early 1900s baseball – I’ve been told. You see, baseball fields, at least the professional ones, are typically aligned so that home plate is west, the pitcher’s mound and outfield east. Left-handed pitchers – which are rarer and more difficult to hit for many batters – were therefore referred to as “south paws”, because their throwing hand was to the south. (At least, that’s what a baseball aficionado from Penn State once told me back in 2001 while attending a Pirates baseball game, so I’m just taking it as gospel to my grave, and if it is incorrect, spreading misinformation. Isn’t the first and won’t be the last time… I’m at peace with it. Lots of diaphragmatic breathing going on in this household these days.)
Alas… here is today’s map. I love my daughter, and I want left-handed people of the world to unite and usurp the hegemony of right-handed people like myself. The map is meant to inspire lefties to rise up… I guess.
One thing I will note: not all countries have equal reliability scores. This is noted on the map, and each country is given its own reliability score, but don’t forget that. I lived in Hungary for nearly three years. I never noticed more than one out of four people being lefties, and I played a lot of pool/billiards there too. (Though, in a weird twist of fate, I shoot pool left-handed, because i was taught to play by my childhood friend who was left-handed, and it came to feel normal. There’s probably a reason I really suck at pool to this day – I shoot with the wrong hand and I can’t see 3D… yeah, meet me at the billiards hall to make easy money!)
Spatial Data Maker GPT Prompt
Web Mapper GPT Prompt
Can you please design a simple, interactive map showing differences between left-and-right handedness, country by country. An information window should show useful information about each country when selected. Use an appropriate visualization technique and the attached style map.
Equal earth projection, please. Emphasis should be on Left-handedness. Which countries have more. The more the better, because this is to celebrate “Left-handed Day.” Pretend that left-handedness is a very valuable commodity – Soviet style! 🙂
Thanks! Please make sure the mobile-phone version works in portrait mode and that the info window is minimizable and opens from the bottom. Design the desktop app stylistically. Above the fold design no matter what, though. It should fit int he window. Thank you! 🙂