Word: dwarf
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Stanley Berent was born with his armless hands growing directly out of his shoulders, and he is known, in the cruel world of the carnival, as "Sealo the Sealboy." Norbert P. Terhune is a dwarf, 3 ft. 6 in. tall, billed as "Poo-Bah the Pygmy." Both of them worked for World Fair Freaks and Attractions, a sideshow that toured various Southern county fairs. In the summer of 1969 World Fair was preparing to open in North Bay Village, near Miami, when the local police threatened to prosecute under a 1921 state law against freak shows, which calls...
...certain malformations, perhaps those relating to private areas of the body or some which may be repulsive or vulgar in nature, would so affect the morals and general welfare as to lend themselves to a prohibition." But this was not so, said the court, in the case of a dwarf and a "sealboy." Declaring the law unconstitutionally broad and imprecise, Justice Hal Dekle ruled that "one who is handicapped must be allowed a reasonable chance within his capacities to earn a livelihood." For Terhune, 46, who was appearing last week in Beaumont, Texas, this meant he could work again without...
...phony Rolls hood is attracting attention elsewhere: the executive offices of Rolls-Royce of America. "Our attitude," says a company spokesman, "is one of total contempt. The Rolls hood on a VW is like a giant's robe on the wizened body of a dwarf...
...juxtaposes anachronistic speech with Brooklyn slang. and intersperses flowery phrasings with punchy and often vile lines. The comedy is similar to the Firesign Theatre's Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers. Like the Firesign Theatre, the best of Allen's humor comes down to playing with words...
Ellsberg, the antiwar activist, must be taken seriously. The issues he has raised about Viet Nam dwarf him as an intellectual celebrity. To view him as a potential martyr, or simply as a burglar, offers a too convenient way of avoiding the moral questions implicit in all wars. To avoid such questions goes beyond "the need not to know" to the need not to feel...