Comment by Adam Gopnik. Comment on a book called "The New Joy of Sex: A Gourmet Guide to Lovemaking for the Nineties," by Dr. Alex Comfort (M.D., D.Sc.). What has changed since the old "Joy" appeared nearly twenty years ago is not so much the nature of sex as the nature of joy. The...

The Talk of the Town The Sweep of Time by Bryan Di Salvatore. Talk story about the American Computer Museum, on Babcock Street in Bozeman, Montana, founded by George Keremedjiev in 1990. The Computer Museum in Boston is the only other museum devoted exclusively to computers and their forebears. George, 38, is a factory-automation consultant for metal forming, and writes for Metal...

The Talk of the Town Extensions by Susan Orlean. Talk story about Barbara Terry, who invented extension hair braiding. Tells about a dream she had and about how she then rushed over to her sister's house, cut up an old wig, braided the wig hairs into her sister's hair so that it was styled into eight braids and realized...

Fiction A Kingdom if Sadness by Harold Brodkey. In 1939, the nine-year-old Wiley's adoptive father, S.L., leaves home. Wiley's adoptive mother, Lila, and older sister, Nonie, bicker and try to make ends meet during S.L.'s absence. Nonie gets a job as an insurance agent, and tries unsuccessfully to find a rich husband. Lila also dreams...

Our Far-Flung Correspondents IN THE SULTAN'S PALACE by Mary Anne Weaver. OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS about Brunei. Brunei Darussalam, a name meaning Brunei, Abode of Peace--is a melancholy place. Once a great empire, it is now hardly bigger than Delaware--a dot on the map, perched uneasily on the northwest coast of the island of Borneo. For 3 centuries Brunei...

The Theatre SOLO by Edith Oliver.

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Current Cinema STREET THEATRE by Terrence Rafferty.

A Reporter at Large LADYBUGS by Sue Hubbell. A REPORTER AT LARGE about ladybugs, mainly havesting and selling them. Writer interviews a harvester of ladybugs, Mike Lake; and the owners of Unique Insect Control, owned by Jeanne Houston and Peter and Mary Foley. The use of ladybugs in pest control is about a hundred years old in California...

Books by Claudia Roth Pierpont.

Poetry Garter Snake by Eric Ormsby. The stately ripple of the garter snake...

Poetry Zorah by Sherod Santos. She is seated somewhere--I can't recall where...

Poetry Stones by Adelaida Lopez Mejia. These same seven stones...