How Many Presidents Are Left-Handed?

Often at work a person will come to my desk and ask a random trivia question: “Do you know how many stories the Empire State Building is?”, or “Do you know how many presidents are left-handed?”.  Though I am flattered that these people think I’m smart enough to know all this stuff (or they figure since I’m so nerdy I probably read encyclopedias in my spare time), I usually don’t have the answer and we look it up on Wikipedia.  Every now and then I will crack the same joke: “Because you know that nothing in Wikipedia is wrong.”  You’re smiling, because you’ve looked up stuff on Wikipedia, too.  Come on, admit it.  It’s OK. You’re amongst friends.

Earlier this week I was thinking about the internet.  We all know that the internet is an incredibly useful tool, but we also know that since anyone can put anything up on it that a lot of the stuff is B.S.  Was I contemplating going onto Wikipedia and changing some facts around?  No, though that actually sounds like fun.  Was I planning on putting anything on the internet that was pure B.S?  Well, I was thinking about the internet because I was worrying that I already had.

Let me explain.  A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog about how I realized I needed a goal to stay motivated, so I had decided to do a half marathon at the end of March.  For that race, my training plan started this past Monday.  The first week consisted of 4 runs, nice short ones ranging from 2 miles to 4.  Now it’s the end of training week 1 and I’ve run – 0.  Zero runs, zero miles.

This isn’t entirely my fault. At the start of the week I came down with the flu.  Though it’s a fantastic way to lose any holiday weight since the last thing you want to do is eat, it’s not so good for exercising and training for a half marathon since the second to last thing you want to do is work out.  I don’t even think I was vertical long enough at any point to go for a run.

One day when I was lying on the couch like a lox, buried under 2 blankets and 1 cat, I thought about that half marathon.  I wasn’t working out.  I wasn’t training for it.  And I didn’t want to train for it.  Since I hadn’t started training for it, I was thinking that maybe I should bag it.  After being unaware that I had fractured my foot during a race last year because it was so cold that my feet were numb, I’ve been a bit gun shy about running in the cold.  This was going to make training through January and February difficult enough, and now I was a week behind on my training plan.  As I drifted off into what was probably my 3^rd nap of the day (and it was probably only about 2:30 in the afternoon), I had decided I wasn’t going to do the half marathon.  Done.

When I woke up from that nap (which probably about 5:00 in the evening), I remembered my blog from a couple of weeks ago.  I had told my tens of thousands of readers (oh, just let me have my little fantasy; I was sick for a week) that I would train for and run a half marathon at the end of March.  I made myself accountable to all of you.  Some of you know me personally, and you know that I’m pretty reliable; if I say I’m going to do something, it usually gets done.  The week I was sick my kids were absolute rock stars, finding ways to entertain themselves, offering me stuffed animals to snuggle with and even making me tea (and yes, when your 9 year old has just recently started trying to cook things, the cup of tea she makes is awful, and yes, you have to drink the entire thing and keep it down even though you were already nauseous to begin with).  They knew I had a half marathon to train for.  Should I tell them that I know I said I’d do it, but I got a late start so I’m just going to bail on it?  No, not a good lesson for 2 kids who have been absolute rock stars.

White dot near the building is the moon.

Next week is going to be weird: Monday it should almost hit 50 degrees but will be pouring all day. Tuesday the predicted high is 8. Fahrenheit.  Neither of those are conditions I run in, meaning I’ll be spending a lot of time on the “dreadmill”.  But that’s OK.  I had already committed on the internet that I would run a half marathon in late March, and nothing on the internet is ever
wrong.

By the way, the Empire State Building is 103 stories high, and of the last 15 presidents 7 have been left handed (they’re not counting any president prior to Calvin Coolidge because before his time most lefties were forced to write with their right hand).  It’s true.  I read it on Wikipedia.