jbtubman@water.UUCP (Jim Tubman [LPAIG]) (09/16/85)
[Taken from the Globe and Mail, Toronto's National Newspaper, Sept. 14, 1985. Reprinted without permission.] DWARF-TOSSING CONDEMNED STRASBOURG, France (AP) -- An Italian Communist deputy yesterday asked the European Parliament to condemn dwarf-tossing competitions. Vera Squarcialupi said the assembly must "condemn most strongly the commercial exploitation of dwarfs." She said that the competitions involve "throwing a person of restricted growth, i.e. a dwarf, as far as possible, and that this is done by particularly robust men." She said in a draft resolution that Australian organizers of such competitions are recruiting dwarfs in Europe for an upcoming international championship. The Australian Government, she said, must "be urged to ban it." Jim Tubman University of Waterloo
judith@proper.UUCP (Judith Abrahms) (09/19/85)
From The Realist (ed. Paul Krassner), San Francisco, CA, Sept.-Oct. 1985: Twice a week at a Canadian hotel this summer, Little Brutus, a dwarf wearing red knee and elbow pads, a collar brace and a yellow hockey helmet, was tossed through the air by competitors, landing on special air mattresses. On opening night, the top prize of $75 went to a longshoreman who tossed him 11 feet, 4 inches. There was angry reaction from the local branch of the Little People of Canada, who labeled the event "barbaric and insulting." Replied Little Brutus, who earned $200: "Everybody's got a way to earn a buck. Some people shine shoes, some sell Kool-Aid. I do this. It's no big deal." [Excerpted without permission.]