Was talking with Mom tonight about everything under the sun. After discussing the comparative environmental merits of coal versus nuclear power, I mentioned Gray Davis's handling of the CA energy crisis.

Mom (she's a Democrat, mostly) mentioned she couldn't wait for Arnold to take office. Said it would be entertaining. I remarked he was unlikely to be Jesse-Ventura-like.

(I hope she's wrong. It worries me sometimes that she considers entertainment value of candidates as a positive thing. This doesn't seem like a healthy criteria to desire in a politician. "Interesting" is a key word in a proverbial Chinese curse. But I digress. Of course.)

Anyway, Mom mentioned that a friend of hers had gotten back from Hawaii, where she'd heard a familliar-sounding Austrian accent, turned around and -- lo and/or behold -- there was Ahnold, Maria, and the kids on the beach. And Mom's friend, who is 5'11", said Arnold, barefoot, couldn't have been taller than her shoulders!

So, a little googling turns up this article, which has most people agreeing Arnold isn't anywhere over 5'10" tall, and probably shorter than I, at about 5'9 1/2".

But a few report him around 6'2", so the best thing we could guess was that he wears some kind of height-enhancing footwear (not that those are the actual critters).

UPDATE: Here's another article which repeats the same allegation, and says Sylvester Stallone might be hedging on his height as well.