Remember Randy Newman´s "Short People?"

I am almost always struck by the thought, when I´m out and about in São Paulo, that I am considerably taller than the average man here, and I find that curious. In the U.S., I hardly ever have occasion to think about my own height in comparison to others.


I´ve never discussed this with any of my Brasilean friends because I can´t think of an inoffensive way to ask "how come you´re all so short?" My first thought (and my last, too, for that matter) is that it must be a matter of national nutrition and infant health care, the quality of which, it is admitted everywhere, reflects the economic inequality in Brasil.

I believe I read somewhere recently (probably one of those factoids on Yahoo) that the average national height is the greatest in the Netherlands. The U.S. is a little too market oriented to be number one. How is that data gathered, by the way?

Now I must go study some Português. Tchau.