[***] Long Shorts: Much better than short shorts. But the ones for guys are a bit fratty.
[**] Sun Hats: Tans are out. Stay pale with these, but larger models can get out of hand.
[****] Pucci Prints: Neon leggings are great. Leave the cat suits to Linda Evangelista.
[**] Bras Only: If you want to be a Valkyrie, fine. Otherwise, it looks silly even on Madonna.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-01” author: “Tasha Lawing”
An updated version of last year’s cool Velcro paddles. Great for tykes too young for real mitts. Or clumsy grown-ups. Willie Mays, eat your heart out.
Getting tired of handling Fido’s slimy, gnawed tennis ball? Scoop it up and let that baby fly, jai alai style, with this nifty British import.
Skateboard with a flexible bar in the middle. Flashier, but too tricky for beginners. Suburban equivalent of the Snowboard.
Lights briquettes without smog-inducing lighter fluid. Not new, but ecoconsciousness makes them trendy.
Kadima paddles were just fine. Who’d prefer a cheap plastic version that makes a wretched gong noise?
Can give Pedro Garcia’s batting average. But not today’s stats.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-13” author: “Betty Turner”
Wool baseball caps, plain or with obscure lettering African caps Malcolm X caps
“Shampoo Planet,” by Douglas Coupland, author of “Generation X” “The Pelican Brief” and “The Firm” by John Grisham “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” by Hunter S. Thompson “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac
Recycling Mantel-jumping, in which one dives into a crowd from atop a mantel at a party Fax machines in dorm rooms Espresso bars
“The Ren & Stimpy Show” “Seinfeld” “Northern Exposure” “Beverly Hills, 90210”
Samuel Adams beer Obscure German beers Cappuccino Cheesecake
Seamless jeans Anything by Girbaud Patagonia jackets Pajama tops Billabong shorts Plain white V-neck T shirts (for women) African beads
Clogs Colored hiking boots Doc Martens Air Ballistic Force basketball sneakers Tevas Birkenstocks High-top Nikes
Arrested Development Sonic Youth Soundgarden Pearl Jam Nirvana Remixed ’70s disco Red Hot Chile Peppers
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-21” author: “Catherine Mcfee”
Gigantic, supercharged engine and great looks. Cooper and Gable loved them. The pick of the American litter.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-20” author: “Casey Thomas”
For those sick of cartoon characters. Harrison handles Alec’s “Red October” role. But test audiences didn’t like the ending.
Made for those too young to watch Mel with a babe. But Rick Moranis-mania is unlikely to sweep the nation.
It’s even more of a Tim Burton movie than the first-meaning weirder. But can Danny DeVito fill Jack’s shoes?
Production problems sent it back to the shop for some returning. Sigourney looks cool bald, but this ship could crash.
Big hit for Mel and Danny. Lotta slapstick. Great exploding building. Increasingly seen as a Joe Pesci vehicle.
Stephen King’s wedding video would probably earn millions these days. May open well but fade fast.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-15” author: “Rosario Sykes”
Neotraditionalist. A very Soho kind of look.
Never tried it? This won’t persuade you.
An eye-catcher for obscure S.F. brew.
The latest from the master of Beach Chic. Will be a dorm staple for years.
More traditional than icky Corona. It doesn’t need to look trendy.
Cool, rugged, earthy. For those partial to dingoes and dirt bikes.
Blue-collar style for blue-collar suds.
You gotta love the Bullwinkle motif.
Classy. For the pinstripe-and-Beamer crowd.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-20” author: “Mike Locher”
Some guys shouldn’t wear jeans, no matter how much they need blue-collar votes. But the shiny shirt will pull in the ABBA constituency.
Strange but true: she somehow looks good in these goofy Tex specs. But let’s hope she doesn’t try the same look in California.
Comfy earth tones for a tree-hugging kinda guy. If he loses, he can always earn some extra bucks modeling for the Eddie Bauer catalog.
Will clearly wear anything-even this Mondrian-style number–to display the red, white and blue. Harry Truman would never have worn this.
See George. But in this case, the Summer Sanders look signals a certain robustness. Too bad horseshoes isn’t an Olympic sport.
Scores big with a cool Levi’s-and-plaid combo. (Note to Bill and Al: quit jogging. Try golf.) And you gotta dig the leather belt and jumbo buckle.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-17” author: “Louise Stanley”
Well, they’re healthier than Doritos. But virtually tasteless, except for the salt. Don’t skip the hip low-cal dip.
Photo: Gutless chips and dips (CASHIN-NEWSWEEK)
Slide around on a mat while wearing bootees. Promotes lateral movement. Great if you’re a linebacker.
Photo: Kneespeed (CASHIN-NEWSWEEK)
Claim to better “isolate” muscles. Easy to use, even if these do look like something out of “Blade Runner.”
Photo: Strongput weights (CASHIN-NEWSWEEK)
This year’s Thighmaster. Bonus: it’s used by movie stars at a grueIing California health spa called the Ashram.
Photo: V-Tonner (CASHIN-NEWSWEEK)
Sure, the above may look a lot cooler. But for those who really need to strengthen that flexor carpi radialis, the buck stops here. Plus, it’s a big hit with domesticated animals.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-27” author: “Loretta Curry”
In this early-rising town, breakfast is the power meal. The elegant Hay-Adams Motel, near the White House, is where the heavies eat their omelets. Later, while sightseeing, you’ll barely have to break stride for lunch at one of the eateries at the sprawling
(budget tip: the subsidized underground cafeteria is best for the kids). Washington ii; no New York or L.A. when it comes to restaurant turnover, which is all the more reason to try to get into the city’s ultra-trendy Red Sage, which serves up Santa Fe-style fare in a glitzy cowboy setting.
Bonus: White House biggies tend to drop by. Beltway types looking for privacy head to the cozy Tabard Inn, with its fireplaces and lack of prying eyes. Younger travelers should visit Adams-Morgan, which passes for a funky neighborhood in D.C., and try Cities, an eatery that changes its ethnic theme every few months. Too bushed to eat out? Try Rocklands near Georgetown, whose carryout barbecue goes well with an evening of “Washington Week in Review.”
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-22” author: “Michael Sanders”
Instant Steven Seagal! Big in Hollywood, where people are way too busy to grow their own hair.
Just stick ’em on, then scrape ’em off. The look for today’s models, who don’t really want grinning panthers on their arms forever.
Old reliable is back with a vengeance. It’s a simple way to transform yourself, Cher style. But the really nice ones will cost you.
Talk about eliminating that awful ouch-factor. Here’s a helpful fashion tip: go for the double ring to really rattle Aunt Eunice.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-30” author: “Aaron Villa”
Nice front-and-back pix. But rear photos leave room for only five years of stats.
Good action pic on front, mug shot on back. Stats include current contract status.
Boring as a rainout. Washed-out pix and a chunk of stats. Offer the most cards, though: 17.
Decent stats and career analysis. Dull picture selection: players all look the same.
Stadium Club cards sport glossy photos and unusual stats. But $2.50 a pack.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-26” author: “Stefan Taylor”
He’s the definite heir apparent to David Letterman-if he bolts from NBC. Granted, he’s a very funny guy. But really, isn’t this a little like bringing in a younger Rich Little?
An entire hour of pratfalls, smirks and boob jokes? And have you ever heard the man hold a serious conversation? Then again, this format would work perfectly on Fox.
Former pro-choice leader goes Hollywood. But Hollywood has been cool to the idea. If she succeeds, will squeeze Bernstein be trotted out to s “Heeeeere’s Faye!”?
The networks are drooling over the prospect. And it’s the ideal soapbox for the Great Pontificator: a big audience, no meddlesome journalists and he doesn’t have to pay for it.
For some reason, he hopes to come back for more abuse. Even though he doesn’t play in Peoria, the guy’s easily the best of the lot. But please, quit playing with your hair, babe.
Recently joked to Barbara Walters that his only showbiz goal is to host a talk show. It’s a pretty compelling idea. Quick: picture him pumping his fist and woofing while interviewing Tori Spelling.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-22” author: “Edith Mullinax”
If you have time to see only one tourist site, make it the Shedd Aquarium’s _B_Oceanarium,b with its beluga whales and ersatz tropical rain forest. This will get you a bit thirsty, but skip trendy B_Bub City_b (way too cute for comfort) and toss one back at B_Whiskey River_b-if you’re into the Clint Black-style atmosphere.
Now it’s time to strap on the feedbag. Try a spicy Cajun feast at _B_Heaven on Seven,b where you can bloat yourself with soft-shell crabs or Po’ Boy sandwiches for under $10. Families and conventioneer types cant miss at _B_Gene & Georgetti’s,b a steakhouse just west of the Loop where cholesterol is king.
If you’re a Beautiful Person, deposit yourself-and your wallet-at _B_Ambria,b a pretty French place in Lincoln Park. Fat cats could also try _B_Charlie Trotter’s.b But order the 14-course meal only if you have a crane to haul you out afterward.
Can’t get Bulls tickets? You can hear some of the world’s best blues at the ramshackle B_Checkerboard Lounge_b on the gritty South Side. There’s great jazz at the B_Gold Star Sardine Bar_b and a club called B_Green Mill_b offers live music and poetry readings. Plus, you won’t see Mike Ditka at any of these places.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-12” author: “Christina Powell”
Unlikable lug started anti-Magic backlash. But gets credit for honesty.
Air-ogant star gambled with a criminal, then lied about it. Please, kids: don’t always be like Mike.
Whispers say the GQ model is too soft. But he’s been playing well-and his hair looks great.
Once spit on a little girl, but on best behavior these days. Give him a week.
Wouldn’t practice because of marital problems. Tends to break down and cry; somebody get this man a nanny.
Has used crack, been shot and figured in UNLV scandals. But can he score!
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-04” author: “Jordan Faulkner”
Tom Schulman got $2.5 million for this tedious rain-forest romp. It’s earned an unspectacular $34.6 million.
Big-budget Willis romp has performed only so-so, considering Shane Black’s script sold for $1.75 million.
Columbia sank about $40 million into this bomb about child abuse, including $1.1 million to writer David Mickey Evans.
Joe Eszterhas’s $3 million script outraged gays and feminists. With a $49 million budget, it’ll be hard to break even.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-03” author: “Kim Saulnier”
Tom Schulman got $2.5 million for this tedious rain-forest romp. It’s earned an unspectacular $34.6 million.
Big-budget Willis romp has performed only so-so, considering Shane Black’s script sold for $1.75 million.
Columbia sank about $40 million into this bomb about child abuse, including $1.1 million to writer David Mickey Evans.
Joe Eszterhas’s $3 million script outraged gays and feminists. With a $49 million budget, it’ll be hard to break even.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-18” author: “Juanita Yu”
Start with the presidential perks. Chelsea can invite pals to the White House, which has its own bowling alley, a private screening room and Lincoln’s ghost. Or take them to the President’s Box at the Kennedy Center for plays and the ballet-plus, the private refrigerator stocked with soda and peanuts. (Choice rock concerts are held at the Capital Centre in suburban Landover, Md.)
Wanna-be space scientists like Chelsea can head for the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall. If John Glenn’s Mercury capsule seems a little stale to a child of the ’80s, try the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. It has learning-game areas like the Energy Place-where a girl can find out how many volts that, say, a few spinning Secret Service agents can generate–and a five-story-screen IMAX Theater.
Need exercise? The D.C. area has four indoor soccer arenas now forming youth leagues. Practice your plie at the Washington Ballet School ($850 for 34 weeks of lessons). They’re used to presidential kids: Caroline Kennedy is an alum. Back on the Mall, you can glide to pop hits on two ice-skating rinks.
For a more familiar (i.e., shopping) mall experience, go to Union Station, chocked with stores for CDs, clothes and books, and eateries like Mexican Delights and McDonald’s. When fashion begins to matter, there’s Commander Salamander in ever-trendy Georgetown for an Elvis vest or a pair of shiny Doc Marten shoes. Hip dining for the underage? Try the Hard Rock Cafe, decorated with treasures like a Bo Diddley guitar and a Stevie Wonder harmonica. Relax, Chelsea–Dad can’t show off his famous musical talents here: there’s no saxophone. Yet.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-17” author: “Jerry Patten”
Crowds pack the Piazza Navona-not for the Bernini fountain (art you can see any day) but for rides, slot machines and bric-a-brac stalls. Santa is a popular new import.
Japan knows there’s more to Christmas than religion. Omotesando Street, the Champs-Elysees of Tokyo, is lit with 400,000 tiny lights, kind of like… Paris’s Champs-Elysees.
Even construction cranes get into the act here with festive lights. Liberty’s store windows feature puppets of celebs playing fairy-tale characters. A strange but cool Yule.
This year’s Hotel de Ville Nativity scene has an Andes theme: 250 dolls, amid palms and mountains, surround a creche where Mary wears native dress and Jesus an Andean cap.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-19” author: “Homer Seay”
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-13” author: “Clifford Cotton”
With one moist eye on tradition and the other on profits, four teams traded for new looks this season, and two expansion clubs got on the board. A PERI peek at diamond chic:
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-26” author: “Nicholas Gooding”
So what if adults find the sugary goop-filled noses (full name: Super Nauseating Obnoxious Treat) repellent? Kids say they’re “cool” and funny.
Forget to study for that math test? Chew up one of these and claim you’re “rabid.” With five flavors and froth colors to choose from, kids give Mad Dawg top marks.
Sour raspberry lozenges turn mouths a hideous shade of blue. More annoyance: container lids double as flying discs.
The Sherwin-Williams of gum, in colors like “slime green” and “slurpin’ purple.” Kids’ reaction to vivid spit: “That’s cool!”
Ten innocentlooking gum balls: seven fruity, three “way hot.” A prankster’s joy, or a game Russian roulette. Kids call it “awesome.”
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-10” author: “Jeff Rutski”
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-15” author: “Jennifer Burnett”
Covered-wagon ride, pioneer show and food-research lab visit are included in Maupin-tour’s 14-day Kansas City-to-Portland trip ($2,198).
Features English double-deckers converted to sleeper-cafes. A three-week loop from L.A. to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas: $905.
Dan Dipert Tours’ 21-day, 4,000-mile trip: stops at Yellowstone and Mount McKinley, a ride on a glacier and a salmon bake ($2,975).
A swanky nine days from Tauck Tours includes stays in 19th-century hotels and a helicopter ride to a mountaintop barbecue ($2,035).
Economy travelers can cross America in 19 days ($1,187) or see Vancouver totem poles on a nine-day Pacific Northwest tour for $688.
New Age San Francisco line’s cheap, exotic tours follow “flexible” routes. Next stop? Sauna or mud yoga. 16-day Mardi Gras trip: $349.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-09” author: “David Clay”
Geezer garb-Sansabelt polyblends, white shoes–is out. Pivot’s new all-cotton golfwear stylishly updates designs in traditional loud colors.
No one admits it, but looks matter here,too. The boat-like Tuttle putter by Callaway (left) is a top seller. The Thing (right) has a heavy, football-shaped head for putt control. Weird oval heads supposedly give the new Cleveland VAS irons a bigger sweet spot.
Forget file-cabinet-size bags. Belding’s small canvas number, based on a 1904 design, holds everything you need.
Spalding says its new bigger (but legal) Magna balls fly longer, straighter. They’re harder to miss, at least. Drive them off Evir-O-Tees, from the Jireh Co. of Winnipeg, Canada-tees made of corn and potato starch. No more broken-tee-strewn fairways: these melt when watered.
Take a Golflix batterypowered film viewer on the course and watch a pro swing before you do. At home, settle back with the best-selling “Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book”–practical links advice and sage wisdom that soothes the pain of even the worst rounds.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-04” author: “Richard Guthrie”
From Idaho, a homey seed-potato catalog offers almost poetic descriptions of spuds and surprisingly interesting history.
The Nevada toy company describes vintage windup racers as precisely as fullsize cars. In a word: neat-o.
How did a friedchicken-stand statue beget an L.A. mail-order kitsch empire? The catalog tells the story and lots of good jokes.
Some are annoyed by the Kentucky company’s cloying, Hemingwayesque descriptions of clothes. Others find them artful lessons in style.
The Ventura, Calif, outdoor-wear catalog doubles as an environmental mag. Latest issue: in-depth articles on salmon.
The reader takes a loopy trip through a cat-centered universe, meeting the felines that supposedly designed many of the products offered. Yes, it’s from L.A.
title: “Peri Picks” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-13” author: “Lois Leroy”
Caribbean sands, cheap cerveza and $400 air/hotel packages have made the Mexican resort this year’s top destination.
The low-cost Continental landfall. Most will see only the rail station en route to the Rhine Valley and Eastern Europe.
Port of call for gobs of California students. Nononsense hoteliers keep them laid back. (Best deal: $500 Honolulu packages.)
Last month it was cheaper for a Stanford student to fly here than to New York. Hostels cost $10, but the bargains end there.
“Red-neck Riviera” expects half a million. Top draw: corporate-sponsored “bikini” contests at Spinnaker.
The eco-minded can visit the Manuel Antonio National Park rain forest and get in Pacific Coast beach time.
