All our preparation and PR paid off on August 13th with a record number of TV, Radio and other Media interviews during the day and record numbers of visits to our web site. Lauren and Keith did more than 50 live radio interviews for UK stations during the day and we were featured on lots of news websites around the world, including the BBC UK site. We hope a few more left-handers have been enlightened by it all!

In previous years, we have had around 8,000 unique visitors to the www.lefthandersday.com website during the day but this year we were getting 10,000 PER HOUR just after lunch and the unusually high traffic overloaded our web host's server and stopped other sites working so they "pulled the plug" and closed down our site - great! It took Keith 3 hours of phone calls and emails to get it up again so many apologies if you tried to visit and could net see the site during that time. We have now moved the site to a much bigger and faster dedicated server so it should not happen again.

We finished the day with over 50,000 visits to the site and a similar number visiting the Anything Left-Handed site for further information.

The two prize quizzes on the site are open until Thursday 27 September so, if you have not entered yet, this is your last chance. Left-Handers Day quiz (10 questions, multiple choice) Famous Lefties quiz (10 photos to identify, multiple choice)

There has been a flurry of newspaper articles and requests for us to do radio interviews following an article in the Sunday Times last week saying that the number of left-handers had increased more than threefold over the past 100 years, from 3% to 11%.

There is really nothing new here as we all know the number of "open" left-handers has increased dramatically as the social and educational pressure to change hands has reduced.

The article was loosely based on some research by Professor Chris McManus of London University looking at old film taken around 1900 and analysing which hand people were using to wave with. Chris tells us the article did not really reflect his results and we are persuading him to give us the full story for the next newsletter.

There was a follow up story in the Daily Telegraph on Monday including the results of an interview with Keith and Lauren has done about 10 local radio interviews on the same subject - all helps to raise awareness we guess!

The left-handed desk diary and block diary for 2008 are now in stock. The good news is that the publishers have bowed to our members requests and reversed the printing of the desk diary so it opens from left to right - the proper direction for us lefties.

The publisher only prints a fixed run of these each year so when they are gone, they are gone!

2008 Left-Handers Block Calendar Celebrate what it means to be a southpaw with trivia, facts, quotes, anecdotes, legends and more about left-handers and handedness as well as famous left-handers birthdays. Block design with a tear-off page for each day. 365 pages. Size:4.5 x 4.5 x 1.7 inches; 114 x 114 x 43mm. GBP 9.99 (USD 19.48) Use this link to order yours while stock last

2008 Left-Handers Desk Diary Tailor-made for us lefties and now printed in reverse to open left to right. It features planning pages on the left side of each weekly spread and ample space for notes. The right side features an interesting fact about left-handedness and the calendar includes the birthdays of famous left-handed people. 52 double-page spreads, one for each week of the year. Size: 7 x 9 x 0.5 inches; 178 x 229 x 13 mm Use this link to order yours while stock last

We selected our team and went for an audition in the Soho studios of producers 12 Yard and we must have performed well as we have now been invited to film an episode of the quiz show at the BBC in London on Thursday 20th September.

Members in the UK will know that we had a last minute hitch as one of our team could not make the filming date and my email to UK Club members asking for a replacement resulted in replies from literally hundreds of genius left-handers offering their services. Many thanks to all of you but we could only select one for the team.

Chris, Daphne, CJ, Kevin and Judith - The Eggheads

Our final team of Keith, Bill, Mary, Richard and Graham with Danielle as standby will be doing battle with the Eggheads on Thursday and the show should be screened some time before Christmas - we will let you know as soon as we have the date.

Find out more about the Eggheads quiz show format at Wikipedia

We have kept the details of everyone who wanted to be on the team and we will apply to some other quiz programmes and see if we can get a lefties team on anywhere else. If you have any contacts for suitable shows, please let us know.

These Tough-Cut shears were very popular when we first obtained them in a left-handed version and we have now got a better supplier who have made a higher quality version for us with a range of handle colours. They are made by a medical manufacturer for paramedics and others and are used, among other things, for cutting through car seat belts after accidents. They have heady duty steel blades with a serrated edge to grip whatever you are cutting and they are also great for thick card, plastic and thin, soft metals.

Overall length is 7.5 inches/ 190mm and the handles are big enough for the largest fingers and thumbs. Normally GBP 4.95 per pair we are making 100 pairs available at only GBP 2.95 (USD 5.75) for Club members. Use this link to order your pair - if you can see the Add to Cart button, you are guaranteed to get a pair.

As always, delivery cost is only GBP 3.50 (USD 6.80) anywhere in the world, or add other items to make your order over GBP 30.00 (USD 58.50 and get free delivery worldwide) and the normal guarantee applies - if you try any of the products and are not absolutely delighted, you can return them for a full refund including postage. Click here to visit the Anything Left-Handed online store

That's all for this month - we will be in touch again soon

Best wishes

Keith & Lauren Milsom 
and all at the Left Handers Club

www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk
keith@anythingleft-handed.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 8770 3722
Fax: +44 (0)20 8715 1220

P. S. If you like what we are doing at the Left- Handers Club, please tell your family and friends about us so they can benefit as well
www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/recommend.html