🚀 go-pugleaf

I wonder if anyone knows how to answer the following two questions about TeX.

1. How does one specify multiple line output in a given column of a table,
i.e., the TeX equivalent of troff-tbl's "T{" and "T}"?
I tried what I found in example 22.8 of the TeXbook (not really knowing
what I was doing):
	
	\vtop{\hsize6in\strut#\hfil\strut}

to no avail.

2. I want to create a mailing list with fixed vertical separations
between the top of each entry (so as to be able to xerox the processed
output onto label-paper).
I tried the following preamble:

\baselineskip=13pt plus 0pt minus 0pt
\def \mifour {\vskip 20.04pt}
\def \mifive {\vskip 7.04pt}
\vsize 648.36pt
\obeylines

I used \mifour after a four-line entry, and \mifive after a five-line entry.
But the output did not come out right. I compared pages 1 and 2 of my
output and saw that the top of the entries did not match.

What should I do?

Gary A. Mamon ---> Astrophysics Group, New York University Physics Department
(212) 598-3627 +++++++ 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
USENET: {allegra|ihnp4|seismo|princeton|topaz}!cmcl2!acf4!mamon
ARPANET: mamon@nyu-acf4.arpa
BITNET: ARPA%"MAMON@NYU-ACF4.ARPA"

Obviously, a TeX novice!