Glad You Asked:
I know it takes a lefty to notice other lefties and I wonder how many people know Obama and McCain are both left-handed. My question to you is how many presidents and presidential candidates have been left handed?

BY JOURNAL TIMES STAFF

Monday, May 19, 2008 11:53 PM CDT

Gary Rotstein of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote about this issue in February.

Yes, Obama and McCain are lefties. Or, more to the point, we should say left-handed. “Lefty” is a loaded term in the political realm.

“The country has not been faced with such predetermination of presidential handedness since the three-way race of 1992, when George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and H. Ross Perot all favored the same side used by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci to create great art,” Rotstein wrote.

“Other than the first Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton, the left-handed presidents everyone seems to agree on were James Garfield, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. Some lists include Herbert Hoover, but he’s omitted from others created by left-handed advocates, perhaps because they want no part of someone on whose watch the Great Depression began.”

Rotstein points out Ronald Reagan wrote with his right hand, but was dissuaded from his natural tendencies by stern schoolmasters, and slapped Angie Dickinson with his left hand in the 1964 film “The Killers,” his final film before focusing on politics.

The last time America faced a choice between a left-handed and right-handed candidate was in 2000, and the candidate from the right — George W. Bush — beat the candidate from the left — Al Gore.

Is there a Web site anywhere that tells you whether a charity is any good at using your donation?

We answered this question May 13 and told you about http://www.charitywatch.org, the home page of The American Institute of Philanthropy. The AIP is a nonpartisan organization that reports on how efficiently charities use their funds.

We heard Sandra Miniutti after running that answer. She’s the vice president of marketing for Charity Navigator. Read on …

“After reading your response to the question, ‘Is there a Web site to check the validity of charities,’ I thought you’d be interested to know that Charity Navigator is America’s largest and most utilized evaluator of charities. At Charity Navigator — http://www.CharityNavigator.org — we help donors make informed giving decisions by evaluating the financial health of more than 5,300 of America’s largest charities. Furthermore, our site is completely free.”

Do you know where I can buy plain, canvas grocery bags in Racine?

We also answered this question May 13. We heard from another source.

“The Elegant Pauper, 433 Main St., in Downtown Racine has a fine selection of “canvas” shopping bags that can be used many times over, for various shopping purposes,” said Dana and Regan Goodsell of the Elegant Pauper.

What are those purple things hanging in trees around Racine?

We can tell you that they are traps for the Emerald Ash Borer, a mean little beetle that lays waste to ash trees. We’ll get more information and address the question in greater detail in a future column.

When is Steve & Barry’s at Regency Mall going to reopen?

We answered this question last month. Here’s the abbreviated version.

Steve & Barry’s closed in late February for some mall remodeling and to make room for the Burlington Coat Factory, which will make its Regency Mall debut later this summer. Steve & Barry’s is tentatively scheduled to reopen June 18 on the west end of the mall, next to J.C. Penney.

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