What Tall People Hear All the Time

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi there, I’m Ken.

Where are you calling from, Ken?

Ruidoso, New Mexico.

So what can we help you with?

We don’t get your show in this part of New Mexico, and the first I’d heard of it, I was driving back from Dallas after picking my daughter up at a camp a couple of weeks ago, and I heard you all heard your show on, I think it’s KERA, and you were talking about the different words and terms and experiences with baldness.

Oh, yes, I remember that very well.

Yeah, Grant’s experience.

When you have no hair, somebody always has something to say about it, don’t they?

Well, it got me thinking.

I have similar experiences with my height.

Are you very tall or very short?

Well, if it weren’t for short people, I wouldn’t be tall.

I’m 6’8″.

Oh, hello.

Wow.

So you get people saying the same stuff over and over to you.

Yes.

Yeah, I’m trying not to say any of them right now, but maybe you can tell us about it.

No, no, it’s okay.

Me too.

My tongue is muddy.

Well, very often it’s just a matter of, how tall are you?

And sometimes I’ll just tell them.

Sometimes I will say 5’20”, and they look at me.

You can see the hard drive spinning.

Yeah.

Trying to figure out just what that is.

I bet.

I even had one person say, no, you’ve got to be over 6 feet tall.

What?

5’20”, that’s a good one.

I haven’t heard that, but you probably get how the weather’s up, how is the weather up there, right?

Yes, I do.

And what do you tell them?

I just say the same as it is where you are.

We all look like ants to you.

They probably say stuff like that.

Yeah, or sometimes, I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.

You have to speak up.

Oh, that’s good.

Speak up.

Yeah, or they’ll say, well, did you play basketball?

Right.

Yeah.

Well, do you play miniature golf?

That’s very good.

That’s good.

What else do you have here?

One time my wife and I were at a movie, and before the show started, a lady two rows back reaches forward, taps me on the shoulder, and says, how tall are you?

And I turned around and said, what are your measurements?

And it completely shut her up.

I figured, you know, it’s an exchange of information.

Trading data.

Yeah, right.

That’s great.

A little anthropology in the movie theater.

Well, but when you think about it, it’s no big deal, or socially acceptable, I guess, to ask how tall you are.

You’re a tall person.

But does anybody ever go up to a short person and ask them how tall they are?

Peter Dinklage, who was in the Game of Thrones, I know that he’s talked about this in interviews about his height, because he’s a little person, and he’s like, it always comes up.

So I guess they always get that too.

Whatever annoyance you have from hearing the same thing over and over, you’ve managed to deal with and come up with some humor.

That’s a great response.

It is what it is, and you may as well have fun with it, because you can’t run away from it.

You can’t change human nature, not in bulk.

Or you’re white.

Watch that term.

Thank you so much, Ken.

And if you’ve got any more of these, we’d love to hear them.

Ken, thanks a lot.

This was lots of fun.

Hey, have a good day.

Take care now. Bye-bye.

Take care. Bye-bye.

It’s clear he said this stuff over and over, but it’s new to us.

And can you imagine being 6’8″ and having every single time you meet new people, this has to be talked about?

Yeah, exactly.

But he’s got such a great attitude.

It sounds like he’s having fun with it.

Yeah, yeah.

That’s the only way.

Otherwise, life is miserable if you can’t make fun out of the rough stuff, right?

Yeah, exactly.

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