Robert Cross

In Michigan, more than in most states, you are what you drive. Residents celebrate their Big Three heritage with great enthusiasm, so Dodge vans tend to outnumber VW campers by...

Clothiers to the shorter man believe their customers could wear almost any fashion if it is made with the correct proportions. ''What`s inappropriate is for a real heavy-set person, be...

They stand at the racks all through lunch hour, flipping through long rows of jeans, not one pair of which has less than a 34-inch inseam. They enter some of...

As the gourmet-tourist set begins trickling back to mainland China, members may want to carry a big yellow book, ''China`s Food'' (HarperPerennial, $19.95). Food journalist Nina Simonds, author of ''Classic...

Bad news for those who like to flaunt their portable telephones: The devices keep getting smaller. A new one recently introduced by Fujitsu measures a fraction over 5 inches in...

Standard-size closets may seem too small for much more than a row of hangers, but interior designers see potential lurking behind those coats and galoshes. ''You can do a whole...

Playboy magazine and the trend-spotting Roper Organization announced recently the results of a new survey on male attitudes and behavior-with the rather unsurprising news that men are entering into a...

Christmas trees swathed in elegance and whimsey for a charity auction at Chicago Place enchanted the bidders so much they plunked down $15,000 for the Easter Seal Society. In the...

The idea popped into Willi Wagener`s head two years ago, when somebody told him that the Butterball Turkey folks had a hotline for customers. ''I heard about a man who...

Fifties fanatics and deco demons have been heading for a shop in the Lincoln-Diversey area devoted to the best from those periods. ''Response has been really good. The `50s is...