I'm tall and skinny and most clothes manufacturers assume that Americans are more wide than long. I spent the past couple of weeks scouring Macy, Bloomingdales, Robinsons-May, JC Penneys, Nordstroms, Nordstroms Rack, and Sears for clothes.

Out of sheer disgust and utter desperation I bought at Sears three pair of pants size 30x32. Two of the pair were Sears brand and they fit OK. The waist wasn't too distorted and the length was a shade under flood embarrassing. The third pair was Dockers and the 30 waist was too big. I shouldn't have bought them.

Yesterday I remembered that the last time I shopped for pants I had great success at a western wear store in Bakersfield. Since this place catered to rodeo types they had a tremendous selection of skinny-ass pants and I found a plethora of pants to choose. I went online and sure enough they had business casual pants in my size. But I didn't want to go to Bakersfield just for pants.

The pants I found were Wranglers and further investigation showed that there may be a couple of places in the San Fernando Valley that carry the Wrangler bsuiness casual line. I hope so because this is ridiculous. Pants makers need to realize that not all Americans are fat tubs of lard, especially those of us with blast-furnace metabolisms.