Low Blow

Short people got no reason, Short people got no reason to live.

Singer-Writer Randy Newman's hit single Short People has hit the Top Ten on the pop charts almost overnight. But along the way it has burned a lot of Americans who stand well under average height (reckoned at 5 ft. 9 in. for men and just under 5 ft. 4 in. for women). Among other slurs, the song says that smaller folks have "little hands/ And little eyes/ And they walk around/ Tellin' great big lies." The Little People of America, a national outfit boasting 2,000 members who are 4 ft. 11 in. or under, has denounced the record. Irate callers in several cities have persuaded radio stations to stop playing it. At first, Newman, who is 12 in. too tall to qualify for the Little People, laughed off the criticism. Now he's not talking at all, leaving his agent to insist that the lyrics are intended merely to ridicule prejudice of all kinds. If so, Newman seems to have fallen short of the mark.

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