Friday, September 22, 2006

Tall Dutchmen


I'm tall. Not monstrously tall, but tall enough that I used to be acutely aware of whether or not I should wear heels when I went out with a guy shorter than five nine (my height). I come by my height naturally, since my father is six-five.

But I have just read in the paper that the Dutch have become the tallest people on earth--take a bow, Robert Elmer, friend and fellow novelist who happens to also be Dutch (and yes, Bob is tall). According to the Associated Press, the average Dutchman stands just over six feet, while women average nearly five feet seven inches. "Many Dutch," says the AP, "are much taller than average. So many, in fact, that four years ago the government adjusted building codes to raise the standards for door frames and ceilings. Doors must now be seven feet, six and one-half inches high.

Which leads me to wonder . . . why are the Dutch not noted for basketball?

~~Angie

5 comments:

Nat said...

Hi Angela

I tried posting a comment on your blog before and for some reason it didn't seem to work. Which is a pain, because it took me a while to write it! Anyway, I just discovered your novel "The Truth Teller" by chance at my local library. I enjoyed it, and was especially pleased to see that it is possible to write fiction with appropriate "Christian" content (i.e. no swearing, no immoral sex or vouyerism, no crude jokes, etc) and still get published. Congratulations to you, and keep up the good work. I will go back to the library and see if I can find any of your other books there too. Thank you for what you do.

Nat said...

Oh, OK, now I see that posting my comments is working, so I'll attempt to restate some of what I tried to say earlier. Aside from enjoying your novel and being encouraged by the fact that there actually IS "Christian fiction" out there, even in a small community library in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, I'm also finding it a novelty to be posting a comment on a REAL AUTHOR'S blog! I knew it was possible to do such a thing in theory, but never thought I'd actually try it myself. But I stumbled upon your blog after looking up your website on a whim, and noticed that your blog is on a blogger account. And since mine is too, I figured I simply had to post a comment! Anyway, if you've read to this point, thanks for putting up with my rambling, and keep up the good work and service you are providing to the Christian fiction-loving community!

Nat said...

I'm tall too, by the way (5'10"), and it wasn't until just last year when my husband said to me "You know, I really don't mind if you wear big shoes" that I was liberated from my self-imposed hiatus on wearing high heels when we were together in public! It's great, because now I can wear my boots or my strappy sandals to church without feeling stupid. So wear those big heels with pride! :-) OK, now I really will shut up...

Anonymous said...

Hi Angie. Just stopping by to say hello to one of my favorite writers. Would love you to visit my writerly blog sometime.

Anonymous said...

Well, I guess that explains it. My brother and sister are both over six feet tall. I'm only about 5'8" and always complaining about being the short one of the family. Until I see my sister's problems with finding clothes and shoes that fit, then I'm glad for my height!