Coming Up Short

I’m so much taller than my parents that people laughed when they walked me down the aisle during my wedding. My mom always answered questions about my height by explaining that the milkman was quite tall. I’ve never seen my height (6’4) as an advantage. Height limits which cars you can fit into, your legroom on flights, seems to cause increased back and neck problems, and for what it’s worth, I don’t see a lot of really tall, really old people walking around. And of course, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Which brings us to America, the once worldwide leader in height that seems to be shrinking. WaPo (Gift Article) examined this very clear trend and discovered it’s connected to factors such as aging, obesity, immigration, modern medicine, inequality, school lunches, and more. Why are Americans getting shorter? (Oddly, the article omits any mention of the retirement of my childhood milkman.)