Why male ear piercing of the left ear is cool and the right is not:

As I learned this morning from Tim Zimmermann's book "The Race", in the mid 1800's the world had just figured out that it made more sense to sail from Australia and China back to England (or to the eastern U.S.) by sailing the Southern Ocean in a route of circumnavigation. It became customary and dignified for sailors who had sailed around Cape Horn of South America to pierce the ear closest to the Cape as they blew past (and survived)...the left ear. And with this I presume that to pierce the right ear meant you were clearly headed in the wrong direction!