Personal History FAMILY MATTERS I-SAM AND JENNIE by Burton Bernstein. PERSONAL HISTORY about the writer's family. He treasures a 1962 photo showing him & his immediate family. It was taken at a testimonial dinner honoring his father, Samuel Joseph Bernstein, Boston merchant & civic leader, on his 70th birthday. In the middle, flanked by two sons, a daughter...

Comment by Donald Barthelme. An author writes to tell of his surprise at learning that Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" is among books banned from the library of a small, neat city somewhere in the geographical middle of the country. It was done to protect the children. He cannot understand protecting children from intelligence...

Fiction The Laughter of Zeus by James McConkey. Writer, who is sixty, lives in a Greek Revival farmhouse near Ithaca, New York, where he is a professor at Cornell. Tells how his section of the Finger Lakes region has place names from Greek and Latin. Describes a trip to Greece which he and his wife and son took...

The Talk of the Town H.B. by Mark Singer. Talk story about the food served at the second annual Firefighters Ball, held at Pier 92--the passengership terminal at the foot of West 53 St. Walter Porr of H.B. Catering supplied the food. 1,250 people showed up; it was a benefit for the Uniformed Firefighters Association's widows' and children's...

The Current Cinema by Pauline Kael. Full-column review of Rosi's film "Three Brothers" with comments about his other films...

The Talk of the Town Rescue by William Franzen. Talk story about a Chevrolet Suburban (a recreational truck) which was caught on Lake Erie on an ice floe last winter, and rescued by a salvager. Last Feb. a floe about 5 miles long and 2 miles wide broke off from the western shore of Lake Erie, just east of...

A Reporter at Large THE DEMOCRATS by Elizabeth Drew. REPORTER AT LARGE about the two challenges facing the Democratic Party: to offer "an alternative" to the Reagan program, and to show that they have "new ideas." Several myths have plagued the Party since the 1980 Reagan victory. One is that the congressional opposition party should coalesce around a single...

Fiction High Ground by John McGahern. Moran was drifting in a boat on the riverNfeeling tired from having had no sleep the night before, and working all day on a roof with his father. Eddie Reegan, a local politician, called out to him from the bank. He was hearty and friendly but Moran was suspicious. Reegan...

Musical Events Youthful Splendor by Andrew Porter.

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL YONDER PEASANT, WHO IS HE? by Andy Logan. Mayor Koch did not really recommend last month that the United Nations get out of town, although this was the impression that a too-fast reader might have received from a headline in the excitable N.Y. Post on February 11th: "UN TELLS KOCH: 'WE'LL QUIT': KOCH TO UN: 'SO GET...

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

The Talk of the Town Rescue by William Franzen. Talk story about a Chevrolet Suburban (a recreational truck) which was caught on a Lake Erie ice floe last winter and rescued by Bob Rajner and two assistants. Last February a floe about 5 miles long and 2 miles wide broke off from the western shore of Lake Erie, just...

The Talk of the Town Hyde Park by James Stevenson. Illustrated talk story about a visit to the Roosevelt library and museum at Hyde Park here writer looked at some of the items on display while thinking about F.D.R.'s centennial. (The actual Roosevelt home was closed, because of the recent fire). First, writer tells about a letter written in...

Poetry Love Poem: The Dispossessed by T. R. Hummer. In March, the small river...