From: esz001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Will Overington)
Subject: Re: Another listing of newsgroups in the "alt" Usenet hierarchy
Followup-To: alt.sigma2.height
Organization: Coventry University
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 12:38:34 GMT

In article <1992Nov7.232235.28514@becker.GTS.ORG> news@becker.GTS.ORG (The Society for Reviling ATnT) writes:
>Archive-name: alt-newsgroups
>Last-modified: 7 Nov 1992 by news@becker.gts.org
>
>
>Here's another listing of newsgroups in the "alt" news hierarchy,
>as it appears from one site.  Note that this listing may well be
>quite different if prepared on your system.  No attempt to make any
>recommendations is implied by this list; it is for informational
>purposes only.
>
>
>There are 659 groups shown, as well as 225 aliases (indicated
>by "=" beginning the text field).  The count of articles received
>here so far is in the second field, if the line describes an actual
>"active" file entry.
>
>Where the text field is merely ".", no description is known
>(creative suggestions are welcomed).
>
>
>If there are actual "alt" newsgroups on your system but not in
>this list, email to that effect would be appreciated - please
>send to "news@becker.gts.org".
>
>Thanks to all who have sent updates, suggestions and comments -
>your help is appreciated.
>

[many lines here deleted]

>
>alt.sigma2.height	0000022	Big or small, come one come all.

Actually, alt.sigma2.height is intended for discussions of problems
experienced by people who are very short or very tall.

Although I do not deny that a very tall person is big, a big person
is usually thought of as maybe average height but wider.
Some problems, such as getting clothes, are common to short, tall and big,
with interesting similarities and differences.

So maybe,

Very short or very tall, come one come all.

would be a better entry in your list.

Big people have alt.support.big-folks, which occassionally has items
relevant to tall people, but does not tend to deal with long beds and
the like.

The group does not get a lot of traffic, but is valuable to have
near the top of one's .newsrc file if one is either very short or
very tall. After all, the name sigma2 is based on two standard
deviations from the mean, so that it caters for people who have
problems caused largely by being discriminated against by the
mainstream manufacturers. Most of us are, fortunately, healthy
people happy with our sizes, its just the interface with society
and the industrial manufacturer that is the problem!

Thank you for your efforts in providing the list.

----

Recently, I got a catalogue from an American company, Lands End,
now in UK. They do tall versions of some things, an inch longer!
Yes a whole inch! :-) A Scottish company advertising in 6ft+,
the magazine of the Tall Persons Club GB, with a preprinted insert,
actually showed that they cater for tall people with an extra two
inches on sleeves and body of their jumpers and cardigans.
Two whole inches! :-)

The point being that many of us in the club need about eight to
ten inches longer, with the armholes made that much larger.

Some years ago, in a Marks and Spencer (a well known British
chain store selling clothes for very, very average sized people,
as well as lots of other things, like food) I noticed that they
were actually selling jackets in short and long fittings as well!
I saw these rather nice light blue cordurouy jackets and would have
liked one of them. The sales lady happily measured the back length
of a tall fitting jacket of the correct chest size. Wow! It was long
enough. I tried it on. The sleeves were literally four inches up my
arms and the armholes were very tight. I think that they had just
taken a design for an average length jacket and added some extra
length on the body! They didn't make a sale. I wonder if they stopped
having "tall fitting" (or "tall non-fitting?") clothes and wonder
if they thought that this was due to lack of demand from the public?

Actually, I can get jackets, even suits, that fit me, straight
"off the peg" from High & Mighty Limited, where they have got the
sleeves and armholes correct.

----

High & Mighty Limited has shops throughout the UK. I have suggested
to them that they consider adding a "very short" range.
They have a UK freephone 0800 521 542 for a free catalogue, details
of where the shops are and details of mail order.

The Tall Persons Club GB is at 29 Stanhope Street, Hereford.
I don't have the telephone number but will post it if anyone wants it.
Newsgroups: alt.config