tall

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Dear Holly: Why I Think You Will Be 5 Feet 6.5 Inches Tall When You are an Adult

2 years.

Dear Holly,

Now that you turned two years old this week, I was finally able to officially discover your predicted adult height, by doubling the number of inches of your current height as a 2 year-old: 33.3 inches tall.

I predict you will be about 5 feet, 6 and a half inches tall when you are fully grown.

Not only did I measure you, with your brother’s help, but I also took you to the doctor for your 2 year-old check-up and her measurements showed the same results.

While to many people it sounds impossible that an adult’s height is double what it was when on their 2nd birthday, it has proved true for both me and your Aunt Dana; as Nonna knew about this back in the early 1980s when we turned two years old.

Proportionally, a 2 year-old human is half of their future adult height. A 2 year-old boy who is 3 feet tall will become a man who will be 6 foot tall.

How many inches long a baby is at their birth is irrelevant. What matters longtime is the child’s height on their 2nd birthday.

I was meant to be 5′ 9″. It was no surprise to Nonna when I stopped growing, at 69 inches tall, in 9th grade.

When your brother turned two years old, I measured his height. Doubled, it means he will be 5′ 8″ when he stops growing.

And that makes sense, that he would be about the same height as me; in a family where even the tallest men max out around 5′ 11″; on both my side and Mommy’s side of the family.

With Mommy being 5′ 6″, though, and with you having girl cousins on her side that are actually taller than I am or their own father, I sense that females can end up being relatively tall.

Perhaps this isn’t the kind of thing that most parents give much thought to, but I do; just like I’m really into DNA test results, knowing where our ancestors came from and therefore where we came from.

Okay, so it’s official: You’re going to be about 5 feet, 6.5 inches tall. Or at least we’ll find out in about 16 years!

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on Nostalgia, Recaps, Uncategorized

Super Mario Bros. from a Logical Perspective, Finally

There are moments in the pop culture highlights of our lives where we are so consumed by awesomeness and groundbreaking concepts that we never even think, “Man, that’s pretty weird now that I think about it…”

It’s been a long time coming, but after 25 years since its introduction to America, (1983 in Japan, 1985 in the US) I need to set aside some time to question the life-changing vice called Super Mario Bros. The first issue that I’ve been thinking about is Mario’s ability to jump.

Have you have really thought about how high he can jump? I would say he probably jumps the distance of about six of himself high. Mario looks like he’s about 5’ 8 (I would say Luigi is more like 6’ 1). Since I’m bad at math I’ll just do some rounding.

Mario can jump about 36 feet high. He can be standing still and just jump 3 stories high. And he never hurts his ankles or knees.

That is not normal!

And in case you haven’t noticed, every game is this way in the world of video games (unless the character doesn’t jump at all like in the original Legend of Zelda).

What does Mario do with all those coins? They are about the same size as him. Imagine seeing a coin the same size as you and putting it in your pocket. Then collecting 50 more of them within the next 20 seconds. That’s gottta be heavy!

And what’s so bad about touching an enemy? If you touch a wild creature in the woods, let’s say a mountain lion for example, do you instantly die? No, the mountain lion would have to at least bite you or something. But in Mario’s world, you die if you touch any other living creature. Unless it’s a mushroom or fire flower. And in that case, what is he doing with them? Eating them? Again, how do you eat a five foot tall mushroom instantly?

And what’s up with all the holes in the road? What’s at the bottom of those holes? I mean, I would think that at least some of the time when Mario falls down a hole, he could grab on to a branch or something and not lose his life. But there really shouldn’t be that many holes in the first place.

Lastly, why can Mario hit his head on all those bricks and never get a concussion?  Or if he’s using his first to break the bricks, why is Mario’s fist not a bloody pulp pretty much immediately?

Nevermind the fact the bricks are floating in the air. I’m willing to get past that. Mario isn’t even wearing a helmet when he busts the bricks with his head or gloves on his hands if he’s punching them!

We have overlooked so much ridiculousness because this game forever changed our lives for the better and for the weirder.  Without this American staple of growing up in the 1980’s, I imagine a world where people in their late 20’s and early 30’s would be more boring and less weird.