VIVA LA DIFFERANCE!

By Dan Miller
December 14, 2006

Today, some examples of how members of the same species can sometimes be so different.
For example, that's not a dog in this picture.... it's the world's smallest horse.
Her name is Thumbelina, and she stands just 17 inches tall.
She's 5 years old and was born and bred on a farm in St. Louis.

The next photo shows Leonid Stadnyk standing near his mother in a remote village in Ukraine.
Leonid, who's in his mid-30's, stands 8'4".

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And there's Bao Xishun, who lives in Mongolia.
Bao is 55 years old and stands 7'9" and -- coincidentally -- made worldwide news this week when he helped save two dolphins in Beijing by using his long arms to remove plastic from their stomachs.

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I don't know much about the world's tallest woman in the next photo.
All I know is she comes from Holland.... measures a little over 7'4".... and weighs about 320 pounds.

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And then, of course, there's the strange pairing that everyone's been asking me about in recent weeks.
That's Demetria and me standing in Kroger, talking on TV about the Angel Tree campaign.
"Is Demetria really short, or are you really tall?", folks ask me.
Actually, we're not drastically different, it's just that we seldom appear on television standing next to each other (unless she's on a box).
For whatever it's worth, she's slightly under 5'6", while I stand about 7'4"....
I'm sorry.... did I say 7'4"?.... I meant 6'4".
Every time that commercial came on during a newscast, I would say to Demetria, "For some reason, I keep thinking about how much I used to enjoy Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy"!

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