
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995                   TAG: 9502240049
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER (4'10 1/2'')
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

THINK SMALL

OK, so short people can't slam dunk and may have to sit closer to the steering wheel to reach the pedals, but, according to author Thomas T. Samaras (5'10''), tall people are a bigger burden on the planet.

Big people require more food and water, more energy for heating and cooling, and more space in airplanes and theaters.

Smaller people are more efficient, require less space and are stronger, pound for pound. They use fewer resources and produce less waste. It took less material to make clothes and shoes for Toulouse-Lautrec than for Abraham Lincoln.

People have been getting taller on average. Unless this trend is halted, this could be trouble, Samaras wrote in The Futurist magazine.

If this upward trend in people stops, there will be less waste of resources and pollution. More people will fit into less space (leaving more room for parks with lowered basketball hoops; we all dream of slam dunking, don't we?).

No more rooms with 10-foot-high ceilings wasting building materials, heat and square footage. Smaller cars would burn less fuel, take fewer resources to make and fit into smaller garages.

The world could turn into Munchkin Land.

Maybe, someday, a player of Charlotte Hornets' Muggsy Bogues' stature (5'3'') would be one of the tallest hoopsters in the NBA, and 6-footers and up would be banned from the sport.

Enjoy it while you can, Shaquille! And don't bother willing your sneakers to your grandchildren.

by CNB