Good morning, it’s Wednesday – all day long.
These hot end-of-summer days seem to last forever, just crawling along at a snail’s pace. But I know that they will be gone too soon, replaced by the mad dash from back-to-school to the holidays. I’m trying to enjoy this time, truly, but sometimes I get too much up in my head to do it.
One of the ways I know I’m no longer young is that I still write checks. I take a lot of flack about this from my husband, who simply doesn’t understand why I insist on paying bills this way.
I do have some automatic withdrawal accounts set up, but I like to be able to see where my money is going. I also am sort of attached to the old-fashioned ritual of putting a stamp on an envelope and putting it in the mailbox, preferably at the actual Post Office – even if it is just to pay a bill.
Much like my father, I have a distinct but barely legible scrawl of a signature that seems to have gotten loopier and looser as the years go by. Writing my signature, writing birthday cards, and taking the occasional note or two is about the only practice I get anymore in the handwriting department.
Once upon a time, I actually wrote notes for a living – back in my early reporter days. Even once I acquired a voice-activated, hand-held tape recorder, I still kept a reporter’s notebook in my bag just in case.
I remember distinctly being taught penmanship in grade school. Interestingly, though schools got away from teaching cursive writing, it’s now coming back into vogue and was mandatory in at least 25 states as of 2024. I, like the majority of people, am a righty, and I recall being very jealous of my one friend who was left-handed, because the teachers seemed slightly less strict with her about the way she held her pencil.
Left handers are special because they’re relatively rare – about 10 to 12 percent of the entire WORLD’s population, according to some accounts, though that number has been slowly rising over the years. Even more rare are people who are ambidextrous, meaning they can use both hands equally well. Only about 1 percent of the population can do this.
Men are about 23 percent more likely than women to be left-handed, and apparently it’s possible to predict handedness while a baby is still in the womb. Even after reading a few articles about this, I still don’t understand exactly how it’s done. Interestingly, being able to predict this is about more than just handwriting. Brain hemisphere dominance is also an indication of potential development of things like autism, depression, and schizophrenia, among other things.
Today is International Left Handers Day, which, according to an website that claims to be the official site of this day, is “an annual event when left-handers everywhere can celebrate their sinistrality and increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed.”
Sinistrality, by the way, means “the state or condition of being left-handed or favoring the left side,” and can also be used in reference to other anatomical features, such as eye dominance.
Being left handed can be both a blessing and a curse.
While handedness has not be scientifically proven to have anything to do with intelligence, there are studies that have indicated a potential difference in cognitive abilities between lefties and righties. That said, a lot of very prominent people have been/are lefties, including such artistic greats as da Vinci and Michelangelo, as well as quite a few modern-day presidents.
Since the world is overrun with righties, though, pretty much everything in life is designed to benefit the majority. Using everything from scissors and vegetable peelers to measuring cups, can openers, and even cell phones can prove to be a challenge for southpaws.
It’s going to be just a hair less warm today, with temperatures topping out in the high 80s. Skies will be partly cloudy in the morning, with heavy thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. Oh, and you know what else might feel awkward to use as a lefty?
Umbrellas – especially those with the mechanical opening buttons. Sorry, southpaws. It’s a right-handed world and you just live in it.
In the headlines…
National Guard troops began to deploy in Washington yesterday evening as President Donald Trump’s plan to use the federal government to crack down on crime in the city started taking shape.
Trump said he needed to send in the Guard to secure the nation’s capital. But on Jan. 6, 2021 — the most lawless day in recent Washington history — he had a very different reaction.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed for the District’s statehood again amid Trump’s crackdown on the nation’s capital, calling his actions an “authoritarian push” and urging residents to take action, including ensuring that Democrats win the House in 2026.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb pushed back on claims made by the city’s police union head, saying his “facts are wrong” when it comes to crime in the nation’s capital.
The appointed interim federal commissioner of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department told Fox News that MPD Chief Pamela Smith has been “very accommodating” to him as he is now functionally in charge of the department.
Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for Washington, DC, continued to argue young criminals in DC need more accountability in a Washington Post op-ed, urging the city council to “immediately reconsider” three laws she says make it harder to fight crime.
Trump will meet President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on Friday, according to a White House official familiar with the planning.
Trump will approach his encounter with Putin as a “listening exercise,” the White House said, taming expectations that this week’s Alaska summit could yield a deal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump will virtually meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and leaders across Europe and Nato today in a call organized by German chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead the president’s summit with Putin.
Trump has used tariffs to pressure world leaders on a host of non-trade issues. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is one of the few who isn’t budging.
The Trump administration said that it would begin a wide-ranging review of current and planned exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, scouring wall text, websites and social media “to assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals.”
White House officials announced the review in a letter sent to Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian. Museums will be required to adjust any content that the administration finds problematic within 120 days.
Trump’s announcement on Truth Social that the 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors recipients would be announced today caught Kennedy Center staff off guard.
Gov. Kathy Hochul still has a sizable lead over the field of candidates expected to challenge her in 2026, but the Republican favorite in that race — Rep. Elise Stefanik — is rapidly gaining on the incumbent, according to a new Siena Research Institute poll.
Siena’s newest poll shows that although Hochul’s job approval and favorability ratings are actually up from June, her lead in a potential gubernatorial race against Stefanik fell to 14 points, 45-31 percent, down from a 23-point lead in June, 47-24 percent.
Hochul lost ground in the critical political battleground of the New York City suburbs, which are often a bellwether for closely divided contests.
A federal appeals court ruled that certain criteria used to award licenses to open cannabis businesses in New York State are likely to be unconstitutional, in a decision expected to ripple across the country.
Mayor Eric Adams and Hochul fended off Trump’s threats of a National Guard takeover in New York City, with the governor saying that she would do “everything in my power” to stop the feds from crossing that line.
Hochul didn’t say what exactly she might – or frankly could – do in order to prevent such a move, but she suggested that she would keep the state’s National Guard members busy to make it harder for Trump to federalize them.
Cannabis industry stakeholders have been negotiating with the governor’s office and Legislature to change the law that legalized marijuana in New York to allow retail shops to open as close as 200 feet to schools and houses of worship.
Employers in New York City significantly reduced hiring in the first half of the year, adding just 956 private-sector jobs, the city’s slowest growth in payrolls outside a recession in decades.
During the same period last year, companies in the city hired 66,000 additional workers, according to data from the city’s Office of Management and Budget.
Former New York Gov. David Paterson said he is set to endorse Adams in his reelection bid amid a heated race for Big Apple mayor after backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the June primary.
Former City Hall aide Mohamed Bahi pleaded guilty to conspiracy for organizing illegal straw donations to Adams’s 2021 mayoral campaign — the second person convicted with ties to the Adams public corruption case abandoned by the Trump administration.
In a plea hearing yesterday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, Bahi told Judge Dale E. Ho that he knew that his actions were wrong.
Adams’ $30 million plan to expand services for mentally ill New Yorkers is finally complete — with 13 large “clubhouses” now operating across the five boroughs, he announced.
A federal judge in Manhattan issued a TRO requiring the Trump administration to improve conditions for immigrants detained at 26 Federal Plaza, where people desperate for food, water and medication have allegedly been treated “as if they were animals.”
Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is calling on mayoral rival Cuomo to release a list of his consulting clients, even trying to tie Cuomo to Jeffery Epstein in a new video as mudslinging between the candidates ramps up.
Mamdani is trotting out elected officials from his party’s varied ideological factions this week in a not-so-subtle effort to ramp up pressure on New York’s top political leaders — who so far have refrained from throwing their weight behind his campaign.
A Siena poll found Mamdani continues to lead the crowded mayor’s race with 44% of the vote. However, that result was gleaned from a small New York City sample of 317 out of 813 registered Democratic voters polled statewide between Aug. 4-7, shows.
By personally challenging Mamdani on housing affordability, an issue that has been central to his campaign, Cuomo tapped a sensitive nerve for New Yorkers who routinely agonize over who pays what in rent, and what housing arrangements are fair.
A publicly funded grocery store in Missouri — similar to Mamdani’s Big Apple proposal — abruptly closed yesterday morning, leaving a note on the entrance stating it can no longer serve residents due to circumstances “beyond our control.”
A $3 million settlement will be divided among 452 underpaid subway cleaners employed at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the city comptroller’s office said.
Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse defended the city’s efforts to get the word out about the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Central Harlem, saying she and other staffers have deployed throughout the community to speak with residents.
Hundreds of mentally ill detainees who were found unfit to stand trial are languishing in New York City’s jails because the state has been too slow in moving them through its byzantine treatment system, a public defender organization said in a new lawsuit.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted yesterday to landmark five architecturally and historically significant buildings in Midtown, a few days after the City Council approved a plan to rezone the neighborhood.
A bill set to be introduced in the City Council this week would guarantee 10 days of bereavement leave for any private-sector worker in the five boroughs who loses a loved one to gun violence.
The nonprofit group that manages Central Park formally asked New York City officials to ban horse-drawn carriages from the park, for the first time taking a public stance on an issue that has been politically contentious for years.
The Central Park Conservancy, said it was throwing its support behind Ryder’s Law, a pending City Council bill that would prohibit horse carriages from operating in the city, and urged Mayor Adams and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to support such a ban.
Former New York Rangers talent, among others, are slated to teach young hockey players this fall at the Knickerbacker Ice Arena in Troy as part of a 10-week program.
A former city attorney filed a second lawsuit against his past employer, this time alleging discrimination against his Russian heritage and that Mayor Gary McCarthy caused him “humiliation, ostracism, and ridicule by the local legal community”.
Mufid Fawaz Alkhader, the man who fired two rounds from a shotgun outside the Temple Israel synagogue just before services on the first night of Hanukkah on Dec. 7, 2023, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
A group of residents in Saratoga County’s largest mobile home park, Malta Gardens, has claimed that a part-time code enforcement officer for the town is harassing them by recently issuing numerous code violations at several homes.
There’s a new home run king in Queens: Pete Alonso. Alonso hit the 253rd and 254th homers of his career last night against the Atlanta Braves, moving him past Darryl Strawberry to set the Mets‘ all-time record.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
