Our manager at the restaurant where I worked was a much beloved, jovial¹ man. But there was one subject you didn't dare discuss in front of him -- his height. or, should I say, his lack of it.

One day, he stormed through the door and announced angrily, "Someone just picked my pocket!"

Most of my fellow waitresses and I were speechless, except for the one who blurted² out, "How could anyone stoop so low?"