Stature

Some of the NFL's tallest timber this season are mere bonsais in comparison to their football counterparts. The league leaders in touchdowns (Maurice Jones-Drew), yards rushing (Chris Johnson), receptions (Steve Smith) and sacks (Elvis Dumervil) are all sub-6-footers. And at 6 feet, New Orleans star Drew Brees, a most-valuable-player candidate, is the NFL's shortest starting quarterback. From 5-foot-6 Darren Sproles in San Diego to 5-8 Ray Rice in Baltimore, from 175-pound DeSean Jackson in Philadelphia to 185-pound Wes Welker in New England, pros all around the country are proving there's a place for the little man in America's biggest game.

Wendy Lawrence's shortness is no longer a shortcoming. The NASA astronaut will go aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1997. She had been dropped from the crew lineup because, at 5-foot-3, she was 1 1/2 inches below the Russian height standards. But Russian space officials have agreed to modify the seats in the cramped Soyuz capsules used for emergency escape from Mir, NASA spokesman Rob Navias said at Kennedy Space Center.

If young girls are worried about not growing up to be tall like a supermodel, that anxiety could of itself keep them shorter by stunting growth, according to researchers. In fact, anxious girls may grow up to be as much as 2 inches shorter than non-anxious girls, Dr. Daniel Pine, a psychiatrist with the New York State Psychiatric Institute, reported in the June issue of Pediatrics.

Is it the height of vanity to obsess about one's stature? In American folklore, heroes tend to be tall, dark and handsome. And there are discernible advantages to being tall in affairs of the heart, business and politics. But like everything, lofty stature has its price. While there isn't nearly as much pressure for women to be tall, our images of beautiful women--mainly conveyed through ads and television--strongly encourage it.

This town of chest-thumpers had every right to be on top of the world this week as its beloved Bulls set a record for the most wins in a single basketball season. There was, however, one small problem. The top of the world has shifted somewhere else. In a decision that many here consider the height of ignorance, the Sears Tower--for 22 years the undisputed tallest building in the world--has been stripped of its title by twin skyscrapers in Malaysia.

New studies from Rhode Island and Germany found that shorter men face a greater risk of heart trouble and high blood pressure. The study of 6,589 Rhode Islanders looked at how other men compared with those who stood between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 8 inches. Those under 5 feet 5 inches had a risk of heart disease that was double that of the moderate-size men, while men over 5 feet 10 inches had a risk that was 60% lower.

"Alice in Wonderland." "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." "Thumbelina." "The BFG (Big Friendly Giant)." "Gulliver's Travels." All these favorites take us on a kind of size-travel to universes where things are far beyond, or beneath, everyday human scale. Luckily, one doesn't need fictional devices to visit such fascinating realms.

He can be the best of fighters and the worst of men, the object of scorn or pity or reverence or whatever the mood strikes. Mike Tyson? He's back, if you haven't heard, a flawed and fallen titan in a revival of the fittest. Tune in (pay-per-view, card starts at 6 p.m.) at your own risk. During his raging years, he was the most famous fighting man in the world, the perfect quick-hit bully in an age of short attention spans.

W\o7 eight gain during pregnancy has shocked many a new mother into asking, "Doc, what do you mean my baby weighs eight pounds? What about the other 27 pounds?!" As writer Layne Steinhelper is discovering these days while pregnant with her first child, Gregory, increased poundage is inevitable. Here, she details how she evolved into a Twinkies-eating mountain range in just nine short months. Six weeks postpartum, she'll chronicle how the voyage to her former self is going.

Are there no truth-in-advertising laws? The Cal State Northridge men's basketball roster lists Mike Dorsey as a junior, a forward, 6-foot-6, 205 pounds. Right, right, wrong, wrong. The year is right, and the position, too. But size? Wishful thinking. Dorsey is 6-4--not even the "short 6-5" estimated by Pete Cassidy, Northridge's coach. The 205 pounds also is an exaggeration, although one that can be explained. Since the start of Northridge's basketball season Dorsey has shed 10 pounds.