It was Fall 1999, the West Village, New York. My friend Liza was having a party and my date and I arrived as the party was in full swing. She greeted me at the door with, “Holy shit, Taye Diggs is at my party.” You know, the actor from ‘Stella Got her Groove Back’? At least that was his biggest role back then.

That was my first party with a famous person and so I had to get a look at him.

My impression: very handsome, very fit, very short. Seriously. Not an inch over 5′4″ and that might be generous.  How do I know this? I’m 5′6″ without a slouch and when he walked right past me I had to look down a little bit to meet his eyes.

So I was surprised to see this bit of biography information on Mr. Diggs today. Seriously, I need an agent - I’ve always wanted to be 5′10″ too!

When I let this stuff percolate in my brain alongside some of the other things in there  like this, this, and this I start to think about perception.

What is perception? A simple definition from dictionary.com

immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition; discernment: an artist of rare perception. 

If Taye Diggs says that he’s 5′10″ and I say that he’s 5′4″ why does the difference exist? Let’s ignore the simple explanation that all actors want to seem taller than they are. Instead let’s turn to a more nuanced discussion of difference. Oh wait, nuance schmuance.

Maybe it is just a case of me being an unreliable witness, an issue being discussed at length by the judicial community.

But I’m confident in my ability to discern the difference of 6 inches in the height of a man. What then?