Bigger

Recently, a few disconnected threads of information intersected in my addled mind and caused me to reflect on all things big, and our seemingly insatiable addiction to bigger. One was the interesting pairing at the World Series between Texas ("everything's bigger in Texas!") and the only logical team that could trump them - the Giants! Another had to do with two new monumental structures built this year...

In January 2010, Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure ever built (at 2,717 feet, it's over half a mile high) was opened for business. It can't help but get attention - the structure adds a new dimension to the word "big". In the picture below with the Teddy Bear, you can get a sense of perspective, looking down from the top.

Big.

In January 2010, Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure ever built (at 2,717 feet, it's over half a mile high) was opened for business. It can't help but get attention - the structure adds a new dimension to the word "big". In the picture to the right with the Teddy Bear, you can get a sense of perspective, looking down from the top. Big.

We like big. We're fascinated by big. Much more interesting than small. Except for that really little guy from Nepal who just made the Guinness Book for being only 26.4 inches tall. Look at this picture, "Yay, I'm little!"

Cute. Okay. So, our collective attention now goes back to big, right? Would you shop at Small Lots? Small 5?

I think not.

So what possesses someone to spend $1.5 billion on a building that's half a mile high? I'll bet you could easily build two quarter mile high buildings for a fraction of that. Or a whole bunch of 100-story buildings. But collectively, they wouldn't be nearly as "big" in ego terms. Or as impactful. I mean, how cool it must be for the builder to say, "you think yours is big? Have I got something to show you..."

That's got to be worth half a bill to be able to say that, right?

It may not look like it at first, but the lego-looking building to the right is the biggest, most expensive private home ever built - in Mumbai, India. The structure, named Antilla, is 570 tall, cost $1.9 billion, has 27 floors and 400,000 square feet. Big. Really big.

No, I don't think you're quite getting it yet. Big is too small of a word.

B. I. G.

You are getting the concept it's quite sizable, right?

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani plans to move his wife, three children and mother into his home. And presumably will employ a significant part of the population of Mumbai to clean and dust all of the unused square footage. Quick math says 400K divided by 5 people equals 80,000 square feet per person. Okay. A really nice-sized home is 4,000 square feet. Each person gets the equivalent of 20 of those. How to put this into perspective? I can't. It's just big.

Three helipads, nine lifts, a cinema, a health club and 168 parking spaces.

I remember my first lego house. It was a little bit smaller that this one. I thought it was big. Evidently, I don't think big enough. I didn't realize our Erector Sets and Lincoln Logs were supposed to inspire us to build structures to exceed the size of our egos. Honestly, I just wanted to build a house - quickly, before my attention went on to something else. Like eating Oreos, chasing my dog or playing imaginary war with my friends and making the machine gun noise while yelling "you're dead!" before they did...

And I digress.

This of course naturally led me down a path of looking at other things big that seem to fascinate us. There are some who seem to know no bounds of extremes when it comes to body styles, shapes and ... ah .... parts, such as those that email spam purports to make bigger, longer and - supposedly better.

Is there such a thing as too big? Too much?

Let's take the example of Mr. Biceps - pictured to the right. In the film, "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" (which apparently I need to see to further prove my point), bodybuilder Gregg Valentino demonstrates biceps which reportedly have a circumference of 28 inches. Pretty damned big. Apparently he can curl 300 pounds and has been working on them for 20 years. It's good to have an aspiration...

Okay then.

I did briefly date a woman who was, lets say, ample, but who was convinced she wasn't big enough and wanted to go larger. Perhaps she's like the famous surgery-addicted "cat lady" on the upper torso arena.

But beyond that are the genetic anomalies found in the Guinness Book of World Records, which always fascinate, like Mr. Schnoz to the right. Or the man who reportedly has the biggest man-boobs (why I even clicked on this, I don't know). As far as overall bigness, Manuel Uribe of Mexico tipped the scale at about 1200 pounds a few years ago (though I don't get the sense he tried), and Leonid Stadnyk of Ukraine is the tallest living person at 8 feet 5 inches (with size 64 feet!)

So just to satiate our desire for a few more big examples, here's a mix:

• Big Mac: Twoallbeefpatties specialsaucelettucecheese picklesonionsona sesameseedbun.
• The Big Lebowski
• The Biggest Loser
• Big fish in a small pond
• Bigfoot! ------->
• Monster Trucks (because they're so big, the word "big" isn't big enough!)
• Big Bird
• Big Ben
• "I like big BUTTS and I cannot lie, no othabrutha can deny ..."
• South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
• Big Brother (is watching you...)
• The Notorious B.I.G. (aka the late Biggie Smalls)
• Big, the movie starring Tom Hanks
• Mr. Big - Carrie's boyfriend on Sex and the City.
• The Big Ten

Let's face it - David might have won the battle, but we seem to be far more fixated on Goliath; more interested in the Green Giant than Little Sprout. So why is bigger better? How big is our capacity for big?

I'm not sure. Perhaps the answer to that is bigger than all of us.

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"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." ~ Robert Brault