In Latin the left hand side is sinister and the right hand side is dexter. My advice is not to make a Latin joke and say that she's sinister when you find out that your infant niece is left handed.
Anyway there are lots of superstitions about left and right hand sides. I had a cooked breakfast at the weekend and ended up with some salt in my hand (there was more in the sachet than I wanted to distribute between the eggs and hash browns) and I naturally threw it over my left shoulder – so it goes in the devil's eye. Apparently the devil is speaking in to your left ear and angels into your right. It's not clear to me how antagonising the devil by throwing salt in his eye is going to have a positive effect, but this is what I've always done.
It got me thinking about right and left had drive cars. Whenever I've been driving and somebody in the rear seat wanted to talk to me they leaned forwards between the front seats. In a right hand drive car they'd be speaking in to my left ear, in a left hand drive car they'd be speaking in to my right ear. It seams to me that in the UK (and Japan and Australia) The devil has prime position to influence drivers. And that rear seat passengers are more likely to get salt thrown at them.
Richard "Thirteen month old baby broke the lookin’ glass" B
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