News with sinister implications

I am of a sinister disposition, not to say gauche.

In other words, I am left-handed (I don't like the term 'lefty', though 'southpaw' isn't too bad). If you use the word the word sinister to mean left, you are simply using the correct Latin term for left. Of course it is not a neutral term, having connotations that have nothing to do with the left side or with being left-handed. (I mention this because it seems to be the main point of Gene Wolfe's use of antique and Latinate vocabulary in his Shadow of the Torturer series).

Anyway, since I am left-handed, I am charmed to find that studies in both the US and Britain show that for males with a college education, lefties make 10-15% more money on average. Why is that? In Slate magazine the article detailing these studies explains that,

Psychologist Stanley Coren defines "convergent" thinking as "a fairly focused application of existing knowledge and rules to the task of isolating a single correct answer." "Divergent" thinking, by contrast, "moves outward from conventional knowledge into unexplored association." There may be an outsize number of lefty geniuses because lefties are more likely to engage in divergent thinking.

So there.

By the way, did I mention that Nicole Kidman is also left-handed?


Latin vocabulary word for next time: Carnifex