Master Tusks



These carved elephant tusks made up a window display in San Francisco's Chinatown.
Isn't this illegal???


I included this picture of exquisitely carved elephant tusks because I recently learned that elephants often favor one tusk over the other, much like we do our right hand or left hand. The favored tusk is called the master tusk. But leave it to humans to overanalyze what this preference means.

For instance, we celebrate a Left Handers' Day on August 13th. (You probably only know this if you're left-handed. August 13th is also my grandmother's birthday, but she's right-handed, so we'll confine ourselves to a birthday celebration on that day.)

There are college scholarships for left-handed people. Hhhmm...I can slowly write my name with my left hand. Do I qualify?

Other fascinating facts:

• Left-handers often draw faces facing right.
• Stuttering and dyslexia occur more often in left-handed people.
• Left-handers adjust more easily to seeing underwater.
• 4 of the 5 original designers of Macintosh computers were left-handed.

And strangely, 4 of the last 6 presidents have been left-handed! Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.

Can left-tusked elephants beat that?