In a crowd over here I feel really good but when in Germany in a crowded subway I feel like a school kid again.

Mind you, today’s younger generations are taller than my generation as our generation are much taller than our parents.

Sorry for the late comment! I am still catching up.

@ John Schembri – Meat and other high protein food are extremely important to reach maximum height according to your genotype. High protein is the fuel for growth (meat/eggs being some of the most important).

Arguing that like produces like is mistaken. It is true that it is more likely that, for eg, tall men/women produce same but it is NO guarantee, whatsoever.

Are you thinking of the Village People of YMCA fame by any chance?

We do not have to go far to see racial differences; the male immigrants in Malta are always thin, never fat, are never bald and do not wear glasses.

You got your nickname when you were twelve probably.

Ok “slitty” is more appropriate . I made a literal translation for “T’ghajnejhom imgebbda”.

Racist white people refer to the Chinese as Chinks, but this is a derogatory racist term.

[Daphne – Do we call the Chinese ‘stretched eyes’? I don’t think so. When Prince Philip mentioned something along those lines (slitty eyes?) it made the international headlines, like that Berlusconi describing Obama as tanned.]

I have my doubts about meat’s effect on the height of a person, I think it’s more a question of genetics. Tall persons ‘produce tall(er) persons and short persons ‘produce’ less shorter persons (my theory).

I know of a butcher’s son who ate a lot of meat since childhood – he is short and really strong, and I also know of other butchers’ sons who are well built but different from each other in height and frame.

A young workmate of mine ate only packet snacks for lunch at work and even at home, and really small quantities of nourishing food, and he was medium-sized, skinny and his skull was like too big for his body. I suppose it was because of his bad diet.

Once I met a doctor/dietician on a long haul trip and he explained to me at length that diet is not the only thing in the formula for healthy living.

One of his arguments was that Eskimos eat only meat and no vegetables and some Indios tribe in Latin America eat only vegetables and beans; both of them were found to be living healthily, he explained.

Aren’t Eskimos short, and don’t Pygmies eat meat?

[Daphne – Here we go again: survival of the fittest, John. Meat will help you fulfil your genetic potential for height, and over time, the society which eats meat evolves into a taller society than societies which eat mainly vegetables, grains and pulses. BUT if height does not favour survival, then survival will favour short people. In extreme hardship situations like those endured by the Inuit (not Eskimos), small people have a better chance of survival. They need less food, keep warm more easily, and do better in cramped living conditions. Pygmies are also the result of survival-evolution. They wouldn’t have been able to live in wooded conditions if they were the size of the plains-living Masai.]