European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 20, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pages stars and stripes tuesday March 20 2007 Allen j Angeles times Short entertainment co owner Melvin shorty Rossi second from left rehearses a performance of Village people material with entertainers from left Ronald Clark Frankie Gieb Julio Mamorno and Sebastian Saraceno Rossis Talent Agency features Little people who Are hired to perform at parties and other events Little people big business Man turns genetics into financial gain but who exploiting whom by David Colker los Angeles times Melvin Rossi ii sat on a sofa in a Las vegas hotel suite Blackberry in hand talking Deal Points hiring Talent and checking on rehearsals but Rossi 38 is not a typical entertainment company executive for one thing he was wearing a Leprechaun outfit and Hes 4 feet tall Rossi is co owner of Short entertainment a company that books dwarfs for live events nationwide business has never been bigger weve got so Many bookings for St Patricks Day were running out of Little peo ple Rossi said the company had More 60 performers working for the Holiday think but year round Short entertainment has been experiencing a Boom in booking party greeters ring bearers bartenders who stand on the celebrity impersonators and Dunk tank Sitters Treyve even been hired to show up at corporate events As Minic eos its part of what Robert Thompson a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University Calls a wave of Little person Chic but it makes some uneasy when people grew up in this culture they were taught things about acceptance said Gary Arnold spokesman for Little people of America the leading support organization for dwarfs but it seems like its of to treat some people differently like a Novelty for some performers of Small stature who have limited opportunities to get mainstream work Novelty equates to making a living Short entertainment had five Little people working at private parties As bartenders or greeters on the night of the Las vegas Bache Lor party where Rossi who lives in san fran Cisco and uses the stage name shorty was hired As a Surprise for the Groom Tobe my Job is just to party along with them like any other person Rossi said grabbing his Green velour hat As he got off the sofa except that in wearing this Damn outfit still Rossi who grew up in a South los an Geles housing project Doest protest too much in 2006 Short entertainment brought in and is on track to More than Dou ble that this year its become a hip thing said his business partner Allison Queal to hire a Little per son Rossi went downstairs to meet one of the organizers of the party Joel Samuels of mis Sion Viejo at the doorway of an expensive restaurant they walked inside to the bar and up to the prospective Groom Mike Hamm who had his Back to the door heres your Date for the evening Sam urls said Hamm turned around and broke into a laugh you got me you got me he said to his friends High iving As a broadly smiling Rossi Shook hands and introduced himself an increase i Job opportunities for dwarfs was sparked several performers said by the 1999 release of Austin Powers the spy who shagged me which introduced the character Minim Dwarf clone of or evil Minim is a sort of lovable cuddly Little character said actor Mark Povinelli a Dwarf who was recently in a highly touted touring production of a dolls House Why not have him at your party celebrities have jumped on the Dwarf bandwagon at a party Britney Spears threw last year a cake was brought out by two dwarfs Short entertainment provided them on television and film there have been serious treatments of Dwarf life including the widely praised Cable reality series Little people big world but More widely distributed were Seg ments featuring dwarfs that were roundly criticized including bits on the Howard Stern and Jimmy Kinmel talk shows we want to get Over stereotypes created in the Days of the Freak show when we were put on display said Arnold of the Little peo Ples organization but Arnold Doest criticize Rossi and Queal for creating a business and Povinelli put the onus More on the buyer than the seller Melvin is no fool he said Hes got a business to run and Hes exploiting them As much As they Are exploiting him no Sale target shifts muslims who wont scan pork off registers by Steve Karnowski the associated press Minneapolis Muslim Cashiers at some local target stores who object to ringing up products that contain pork Are being shifted to other positions the National re Tailer said saturday some Muslim Cashiers had declined to scan products such As Bacon because doing so would conflict with their religious beliefs they would ask other Cashiers to ring up such purchases or some customers scanned the items themselves Minneapolis based target corp has offered the Cashiers the option of wearing gloves shifting to other positions or transferring to other stores we Are confident that this is a reasonable solution for our guests and team members target spokeswoman Paula Thorn to Greear said in an emailed statement islam teaches that eating pork is forbidden and some muslims feel Selling or handling pork is also forbidden because it would make them complicit in the sins of others Greear said the situation was a local problem Only it is not an Issue in most of our stores in the twin cities she said in separate comments via email there is also no Indica Tion that this is an Issue in the Minnesota Market Overall or nation wide As the local Muslim population grows fuelled by immigration from East african countries such As Somalia efforts by muslims to live by the rules of their Faith often conflict with american realities in one dispute some Muslim cab Drivers who serve Minne Apo list Paul International Airport refuse to take passengers who Are carrying alcohol the metropolitan airports commission is expected to vote in april on a propos Al that would hand out 30day License suspensions to cabbies who refuse service for any reason lose stuff nyc transit gives you a hand or leg by Jayna Desai the associated press new transit supervisor Eulette Stewar Graham received a letter from the Parent of a distressed child it want the boys lost bag that was important it was the contents his goldfish slurry the boys pet never turned up but Stewar Graham responded to the letter anyway As station supervisor of new York City Tran sits lost property unit she and her staff Are used to questions that Range from the mundane to the Quirky and even bizarre take for instance the woman who called to say she lost her daughter she was serious Stew Art Graham says she  get off the phone countless items from subways and buses Are brought in weekly the commonplace include Back packs books cell phones and other electronic devices then there Are the not Ocon vent ional articles dentures and a denture maker bibles a Bowling Ball an amplifier a computer Monitor bicycles Luggage under garments and even a prosthetic leg last year the lost property unit took i More than 11000 items it helps of course if the items contain a name or number in those cases transit employees con tact the owners other item seekers in new York City head directly to the units office located in the Mezza nine of the 34th Street and eighth Avenue subway station where they fill out a detailed form losing an item such As an umbrella or a stuffed animal is easy to understand but what about the Man who left an envelope contain ing in Cash on a subway car in new York City the gentle Man called me hysterical that he had lost an envelope on the train said Lostan found agent Eller Quinn the Money never showed up but in los Angeles a woman did retrieve a lost item just As significant As a Large sum of Cash there was a woman who left a suitcase on one of our buses and that suitcase contained the urn with her mothers ashes manager Helen Gilstrap said the urn was returned to her that to me has got to be one of the strangest things Beneto lost property of All varieties like this prosthetic leg is kept at the Meta new York transit main storage area