The Talk of the Town Sanctified by Susan Thomsen. Talk story about the Winans brothers, a gospel quarte from Detroit, who performed at the Apollo Theatre. The quartet consists of Marvin, Carvin, Ronald and Michael Winans, but the rest of the family is involved in gospel, too. Lists their names. Benjamin and Priscilla Winans ate up this year's gospel...

The Theatre TRAVELLING MAN AND HESITATING WOMAN by Mimi Kramer.

A Reporter at Large CANAL STREET by Ian Frazier. A REPORTER AT LARGE about Canal Street. Westbound traffic on Canal Street does not soar but instead descends slowly three blocks from the river into the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. Few tunnel-bound cars have any passengers besides the driver. In 1919, partly to relieve traffic congestion downtown, a...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Profiles WALKING TO THE PAVILION by David Blum. PROFILE of English conductor Jeffrey Tate. When he was 11, he had been accepted by the Farnham Grammar School, where he studied until he was 18. He thus came under the influence of the school's director of music, Alan Fluck. "All of my slightly mad musical education came from Alan's...

The Talk of the Town Next-Door Neighbors by Anthony Hiss. Talk story about the new playground sounds in the neighborhood of the writer's office. The noise comes from the French school, Lyceum Kennedy which inhabits the top five floors of the building next door, and uses the roof as a playground. The noise annoys many of the writer's colleagues, as...

Fiction Cocktail Hour by Beth Nugent. Susan has moved with her parents to Virginia. They live in a suburb like all the others she has lived in. Her parents start hosting cocktail parties as they have always done. Everything is the same, except for a friend Susan makes when she borrows a Pepsi from a neighbor...

In Fashion by Holly Brubach.

Comment by Garrison Keillor. Comment about the impatience of adulthood. Writer tells about racing to catch the 9:30 a.m. shuttle flight to Washington on Pan Am: This race was the culmination of years of trying for the ultimate...finally, last Sunday, he arrived at the last second: as late as you can be and...

The Talk of the Town Ogling by Wallace White. A talk story about the ninetieth New York International Automobile Show. The neat thing about the New York International Automobile Show is the way it brings people together. Take Kato Kaelin. How could he have known, when he was playing improv clubs in L.A. two years ago, that he would...

Books by Brad Leithauser.

Poetry Into the Open by Susan Prospere. How forlorn and lost...

Poetry A Sparrow by Stephen Stepanchev. The street lamps flower and blacken away...

Poetry Empires by Charles Simic. My grandmother prophesied the end...