Thanks Emma for taking on your new role as site expert. I hope it will be as rewarding for you as it will be for the Members of WriteWords.

The interview you gave WriteWords was excellent and I was able to get to know you better.

Good luck with the sale of your book "The Mathematics of Love", I think I will enjoy it. It's on my list of possible reads for the new year.

I'll follow your progress with interest.

Di2

Hi Emma,

Congratulations and all that. Now with your elevation to the Peerage, the fact that you are not keen on short men, your success in the publishing field and the (well deserved) adulation of fellow Members your are now a little more distant from an 'umble person like wot I am.

But again I offer my sincere congrats.

Len

<Added>

please do excuse the 'your are'. Typing through tears of happiness is not easy for me... well, general typing is not easy for me.

Listen can we address this reference to the vertically challenged as introduced by Old Friend. What has Emma D got against dwarves!

Grumpy

Great stuff, Emma.

Ashlinn

Dearest Grumpy

I have nothing against short men except that kissing them gives me a crick in my neck. I am humbly aware that this is a problem that the majority of men have had to suffer for millenia, but feel that the health of my cervical vertebrae has to be my overriding consideration.

Best wishes
Snow White

No problem. I have a ladder in the shed. Don't eat any apples till I get back.

Best

Happy

Big congratulations Emma. But I think I must be going a bit gaga - I was convinced you already WERE a site expert??
Where did I get that from?
Anyway, great news. Well done again.

Well done Emma. A posistion well deserved, I feel. I'm looking forward to reading 'The Mathematics of Love'.

JB

I'd like to add my congratulations, too, Emma.

And never mind vertically-challenged men - what about shortarse women (sorry, petite ladies)? Do they have to wait till Cassanunda arrives?


Alex

My daughter (aged just 12) has just failed to get the Christmas solo in the concert, because they wanted someone short. In between mopping her eyes and patting her shoulder I felt like saying, 'welcome to the world of being too tall, sweetheart!'

Emma

Oh the poor wee soul, how unfair is that! And how bloody insensitive, I some time wonder if we don't just go to school to have all our illusions shattered and our personalities crushed. I suppose their are caring teachers out there but in my experience they seem few and far between. Just as a matter of interest Emma how tall are you? I'm 6'1" or 185cm in new money, but (and forgive me, I intend no offence) I'm a man so apparently it's O.K.

Best

John

To be fair to the school, it was something that she overheard, it wasn't said directly to her.

I'm 5ft9" and it's never really been an issue, except in the matter of boyfriends, but my sister is 6ft (though she'll only admit to 5ft11") which is a real problem with clothes as well. But these days I'll often see a group of women taller than me, and they're always in their early 20s - it's something that's changed noticeably. Don't know if it's better nutrition (hooray) or growth hormones in the meat (boo, hiss!)

Emma

Well if what I read in the papers is true (yeah, right) job interviewers generally select taller candidates over shorter ones, therefore taller people are perceived as more Equally, we are led to believe that taller men are more 'attactive' to women than shorter men. Now if women are generally pre-disposed toward taller more succesful partners we are presumambly collectively altering the gene pool to bring about a predominance of taller people.

Darwin was right!

<Added>

Oops, what happened to 'successful.' between 'more' and 'Equally'

I hates computers, I do Snarl.

Emma, I'm glad it wasn't me doing the consoling. I can see myself saying exactly the wrong thing. ("But Darling, people look up to you." "Waaaaaa!")


Alex

There's a human tendency to take the 'norm' and insist that it's the 'natural'. The norm is that men are taller than women, just as they're stronger, and it's scary how easy it is to slide into assuming that it's therefore the way things are supposed to be, and that any couple who deviate from that are in some way slightly odd.

Besides, is it natural or nurtural (is that a word?)? Ironically, I think most of my tall genes are the Darwin ones. My father was 6ft 5", and uncles and cousins no shorter. It was a shock when I grew up to discover that I'm on an eye-level with most men, and maybe I've never fully recovered. On the other hand I have a female friend who's at least 6ft, and simply doesn't think of it as an issue. Mind you, she's very slim and most of it is leg, which maybe helps, plus she's 10yrs younger than me so has more tall friends. I must remind my daughter about her, in a cheering way.

Emma