Musical Events Summer Sampling by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Ground Cover by William McKibben. Talk story about the reopening, after 20 years of neglect, of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Local Flora Section. At the top of the Garden's administration building, an official greeted the writer with the news that the entire breakfast they were about to eat had been grown in soil within 100 miles...

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL - ON THE ROAD by Andy Logan. For all Cuomo's air of enlightened benevolence, there are indications he has not forgotten a syllable of the words uttered against him in last year's campaign. Comptroller Goldin and City Council President Bellamy gave Koch their strong support, in spite of their differences with him, and now that Cuomo is...

The Talk of the Town Tied Up by William McKibben. Talk story about Captain Joe Schechter, a 63-year-old member of the first class to graduate from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. He's now the nightmate on the midnight-to-8 shift for a ship called the American Rapid, in Bayonne, N.H. The writer came to help him "stand...

Comment by Joseph Morgenstern. At House hearings in Washington recently, news executives for the nation's three major networks discussed Election Night projections, in which exit polls of voters are used to make guesses about who the next President will be. In 1980, Reagan was projected the winner before the polls had closed on the...

Fiction Architecture by Saul Steinberg. Four drawings, captioned Architecture...

A Reporter at Large AMERICAN ROYAL by Calvin Trillin. REPORTER AT LARGE about writer's visit last fall to Kansas City, his home town, to see the American Royal livestock show. A Grand Champion steer is selected and then it is auctioned off. Tells about the auction which was handled by George Moore, a noted cattle auctioneer. Tom Williams bought...

A Political Journal by Elizabeth Drew. There were expressions of shock, dismay, and concern over the news, which broke on Thursday, Sept. 1, of the shooting down by the Soviet Union of the Korean passenger airliner, and the fatalities suffered by the American Marines in Lebanon. Congress preferred these new subjects to the one on their...

The Talk of the Town Swept Away by William McKibben. Talk story about the opening of Jack Carter's broom exhibit and show at the Jim Diaz gallery on W. 16th Street. Carter collected about 50 brooms that were hanging from the walls and ceiling of the gallery. He moved to N.Y. a year ago and noticed many brooms being thrown...

Fiction Glimpse Into Another Country by Wright Morris. Hazlitt is an elderly man who lives with his wife in California. After seeing his doctor, he decides to see a specialist in N.Y. for some kind of "life assurance." Hazlitt is reluctant to fly, but his wife makes a considerable fuss to reserve him a seat. Hazlitt sits next...

Poetry Leafless Trees, Chickahominy Swamp by Dave Smith. Humorless, hundreds of trunks gray in the blue expanse...