In 2005, when Jamie Neely and I did "Zagquest" at the Big Dance in Tucson, we marveled over the way the basketball players looked "like long and thin creatures from another dimension." You can't adequately describe what athletes of their ilk look like close-up.

At the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, it's just the reverse. Most of the skaters, who look average-size on camera, are indescribably small when you see them close-up. Small, compact, fit like "creatures from another dimension."

Realized today, the basketball players and the skaters stand out in our culture because the rest of us live and work with people who are generally average in size.

My niece Gretchen, who lives in Los Angeles, says when you see movie stars in person, it's a similar disconnect. The women often have large heads and teeny, tiny bodies (a formula that looks great on camera). And the men? Most are short, very short.

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