No worries, dear reader. Although we are entering into an interminably long presidential season, this column is most decidedly not about political bents. Instead, Jane would like to comment on some recent articles she's read about the virtues of going right.
But before she gets to that, Jane, as a natural born southpaw, must express her dismay over the derogatory nature of the way the word "left" is bandied about. To wit, consider, mon amis, the words droit and gauche. Of course, those two words come from our French friends. A droit, in French, means to the right, while gauche means left. In old French, gauche also meant awkward, while in new French, adroit means dexterous and clever. What do said words mean in English? Adroit means skillful, ingenious and deft (which coincidentally happen to be among Jane's many wonderful attributes). Gauche means tacky and lacking in social polish. Nice. In idiomatic English, a left-handed compliment means a well-disguised insult. Meantime, the political meaning of the word, if said with the right intonation, has become debased to mean a free-spending, free-loving, UFO-sighting wack-job.
But Jane digresses. For this is a travel column and Jane has a point to make. You see, Jane recently heard of a handy airport travel tip she had never stumbled upon before. The tip: If there's a long line at security, and you have a choice of going to the right or going to the left, go left. According to the study cited, most people, except for contrarians like Jane, veer to the right. Therefore, if you choose to go left, the line will theoretically be shorter and you will whisk through security quite adroitly (ahem).
Now, Jane recognizes that many of you ladies are happily ensconced in a loving relationship. In said case, you should keep your lips to yourself when traveling (unless you are going to a country where those little one-two-three air kisses are the standard form of greeting). But for you single ladies, whether on the road or at home, Jane has picked up another piece of advice which, once again, is biased against the left. According to a story she read on MSN.com, when a woman is swooping in for a peck on the lips with her hunky man du jour, she should direct her face to the right. This way, the maladroit first kiss nose crash is avoided. Apparently, this is commonly-known information among men, but it is the first that Jane, quite an expert in the art of allurement, has heard of it.
Jane really doesn't know if all of this information on kissing and line selection is right or wrong. But it has left her pondering. So, in the name of good journalism, Jane will do some experimenting in both areas and will report back to you, dear reader, at a later date.
