# Things You Should Avoid Saying To Your Vertically Challenged Neighbors **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 16, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661 "2005-04-16T19:51:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/1 "2005-04-16T19:51:26Z")
[A story from Brooklyn, NY](http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/44649.htm), land of politeness, acceptance and social grace: > [@](#): > > (Joseph Izzo’s) harassed a midget mother and her equally diminutive daughter, mocking them relentlessly with chants like “ **Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go**.” (His)campaign of hate culminated with his arrest Thursday after he spray-painted a yellow line outside the Brighton Beach home of 3-foot-8 Debra Shea and her 3-foot-6 daughter, Concelean Pegues — before telling them to “ **follow the yellow brick road** ,” according to court documents…The criminal complaint said Izzo went on to call her a “welfare bitch,” before yelling: “Look at the midgets! They are bringing in the f - - -ing n - - - - -s here! Here comes the circus!”… [Cindy Adams] Only In NY kids, Only in NY [/Cindy Adams] ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/2 "2005-04-16T20:06:39Z")
You didn’t post this because you think it’s funny, right? Because it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/3 "2005-04-16T20:19:43Z")
Wow. You know, we say “Get a life” all the time, but this is possibly the best/worst example of someone actually needing one that I’ve ever heard of. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/4 "2005-04-17T01:12:01Z")
Seems more like Pit material than MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/5 "2005-04-17T02:08:32Z")
Totally pit material. Because that’s akin to spray-painting a swastika on a synagogue, IMO as the close relative of a dwarf. Not funny in this universe or any other. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/6 "2005-04-17T04:02:08Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > [A story from Brooklyn, NY](http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/44649.htm), land of politeness, acceptance and social grace:[Cindy Adams] > Only In NY kids, Only in NY > [/Cindy Adams] Yeah, because everywhere else in the world people bend over backwards to help each other. Why don’t you just say it’s easy to pick on NYC? That one guy is \*certainly \* representative of all New Yorkers. Can’t use the putz smiley here, so :rolleyes: . And this is incredibly mean and traumatizing for the mother & daughter. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/7 "2005-04-17T04:40:16Z")
I grew up in Brighton Beach. Idiots are everywhere. Someone should inform this moron that since the average man is 5"9 and he’s a mere 5"8 he’s a bit vertically challenged himself. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_griffin-kentzel/32/14787_2.png) [@Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Griffin-Kentzel)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/8 "2005-04-17T05:30:25Z")
This thread is better suited for [**The Pit**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=5). I’ll move it for you. **Cajun Man** for the SDMB ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/9 "2005-04-17T06:15:09Z")
Don’t trust any newspaper that still uses the term “midget.” It has nothing to do with being PC. The term itself is misleading. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/10 "2005-04-17T06:31:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Why don’t you just say it’s easy to pick on NYC? That one guy is certainly representative of all New Yorkers. Just earlier this week **Manhattan** was ridiculing my neighborhood for having a man living in a closet in another man’s house, cheating with his wife and then killing him. I thought it was only Southerners that were ridiculed and stereotyped. Meanwhile, I seem to recall some crosses that were burned a few months ago on Long Island. I don’t think _any_ area should be singled out for its virtues or its mean-spiritedness anymore. It becomes a stupid game of geographic bigotry. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/11 "2005-04-17T06:39:38Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Don’t trust any newspaper that still uses the term “midget.” The punny caption is galling, too. Why not tag a storyabout a gaybashing with “Queer commotion?” Haw, haw, haw! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/12 "2005-04-17T11:52:03Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Don’t trust any newspaper that still uses the term “midget.” To be fair, they did use the term “dwarves” to describe six mayoral candidates at a recent education forum. That’s the Post for ya. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/13 "2005-04-17T13:08:38Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Just earlier this week **Manhattan** was ridiculing my neighborhood for having a man living in a closet in another man’s house, cheating with his wife and then killing him. I thought it was only Southerners that were ridiculed and stereotyped. People are always saying how mean NYC is, but they don’ t think about the fact that millions and millions of \*completely different \* people live practically on top of each other all the time. There’re bound to be some incidents. Do we wish there were less? Of course, and I’m not even a NYC resident, but Upstate NY. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/14 "2005-04-17T13:45:52Z")
> [@lavenderlemon](#): > > Someone should inform this moron that since the average man is 5"9 and he’s a mere 5"8 he’s a bit vertically challenged himself. Do you think we have a little projection of his own issues going on here, maybe? Jeez, what is it with some people? And we’ve finally arrived, so I’d like to officially welcome this asshat with a :wally. He can share it with the reporter :wally and the editor of the Post :wally . ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/15 "2005-04-17T14:36:28Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Why not tag a storyabout a gaybashing with “Queer commotion?” Haw, haw, haw! :rolleyes: The NY Post _topped_ back in May of 2003: [Fairy Godfather](http://www.taintedbill.com/archives/000203.html), with the story caption reading: Mobster Sleeps With The Swishes. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/16 "2005-04-17T15:17:42Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Don’t trust any newspaper that still uses the term “midget.” It has nothing to do with being PC. The term itself is misleading. True, but more than misleading (concerning the old usage, which is completely outdated) it’s flat-out mean. Not that I’m too fond of any of the current PC terms out there, but in my world, midget is pretty much on the same level as nigger. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/17 "2005-04-17T15:38:07Z")
Just the other day my 17 year old daughter and her dad were having a loud discussion about. . . sports. Anyway, Dad tries to prove a point by mentioning he read something in The NY Post. My daughter answered, “The Post? _The Post_?! I’ll believe The Onion before I’ll believe The Post!” ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/18 "2005-04-17T15:51:14Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > My daughter answered, “The Post? _The Post_?! I’ll believe The Onion before I’ll believe The Post!” I don’t even know your daughter, but tell her that I admire her greatly! 🆒 Regarding the thread topic: My wife is a bit vertically challenged (about nipple-high to 6’4" yours truely). When we are both in the kitchen together, I’m enormously amused by opening one of the high kitchen cabinets and saying, “Careful! Don’t bump your head on this cabinet door… oh! Nevermind!” Perhaps I should reconsider my amusements… **begins to bite nails nervously** ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/19 "2005-04-17T16:13:50Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > People are always saying how mean NYC is, but they don’ t think about the fact that millions and millions of \*completely different \* people live practically on top of each other all the time. [Crocodile Dundee] Imagine 7 million people all wantin’ to live together. Yep, New York must be the friendliest place on earth. [/CD] ---
**Author:** ![gaucho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@gaucho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaucho)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661/20 "2005-04-17T20:22:12Z")
> [@Mama Tiger](#): > > Totally pit material. Because that’s akin to spray-painting a swastika on a synagogue, IMO as the close relative of a dwarf. > > Not funny in this universe or any other. Because Judy Garland systematically murdered 8 million small people, all but eliminating their culture, language and religion from the world. It’s offensive hate speech, but it is not fucking akin to spray painting a swatika on a synagogue. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-should-avoid-saying-to-your-vertically-challenged-neighbors/299661.md?page=2)