New leaders looking to consolidate their power often appropriate the symbols of their forebearers. For Stuff editor in chief Dan Bova, that means little people.
At the magazine's "Toys for Bigger Tots" holiday party, ten gentlemen of small stature were on hand, dressed as elves, to pose for pictures, promote items in the charity auction, and generally assist with the making of merry. "It was a Christmas thing," explains Bova. "It wasn't like, 'Let's have a bunch of little folk running around.' The Christmas spirit was alive and well. There was also a reindeer that somebody fed a hot dog. That didn't go over well. But the little people bring cheer everywhere they go."
(Well, perhaps not everywhere. "I thought it was mean," says one partygoer. "It made me sad, actually.")
Time was when a Stuff editor didn't need a seasonally-appropriate excuse to hire a bunch of wee ones. Greg Gutfeld, who ran the mag from 2000 to 2003, was a well-known little-person aficionado. He famously hired a bunch of dwarfs to disrupt a publishing industry seminar on "how magazines can create buzz."
"This is just further proof that I was far ahead of my time when it came to understanding the joy little people have to offer," says Gutfeld. "I have three of them with me right now and we're spooning."
Photos: NickyDigital