Comment by Wolcott Gibbs. If tribulation builds character, then surely the past five weeks of strike-constricted travel have built a modest surplus of character in the commuters who customarily used the N.Y., Connecticut, and New Jersey rail lines. The irritations of getting to work were at least slightly spiced by the attentions of...

Jazz by Whitney Balliett. Entire column devoted to trumpeter Warren Vache. He tells about his childhood in Rahway, New Jersey, and studying trumpeter Pee Wee Irwin. Says he prefers to gig around New York than to travel. Says the best trumpeter walking is Ruby Braff. A concert at the Church of Heavenly Rest is...

Fiction Swan Song by Laurie Colwin. James Clemens, a cheerful middle-aged man, was having an affair with Freddie Delielle, an unsmiling young woman whose real name was Fredrica. She was married to Grey, a rich Wall Street banker. He was married to Vera, a decorator who was a great cook and hostess. It was just...

The Talk of the Town Clarifier by Alastair Reid. Talk story about British philosopher A.J. Ayer. His first and crucial book, "Language, Truth, and Logic," was published in 1936, when he was just 25. When the writer learned that he was a visiting Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College, he went to the Montgomery House in Hanover, N.H., to speak...

A Reporter at Large II-A STATE OF WAR by Lawrence Weschler. REPORTER AT LARGE about Poland. After sixteen months, Solidarity's official existence ended with the coup on Dec. 13, 1981, which established martial law. Tells about events leading to the coup. Solidarity was trapped by a number of myths, said a Polish emigre scholar. One was the myth of national unity...

Books Autocrats by Naomi Bliven.

The Theatre BELLYACHER by Brendan Gill.

The Talk of the Town Cowboy by Lincoln Caplan. Talk story about a party at the Library of Congress in Washington to celebrate the opening of an exhibit called "The American Cowboy." The writer saw Teddy Roosevelt's chaps and bandanna, Gene Autry's rodeo saddle and Will Roger's Stetson, and met Louis L'Amour. L'Amour's books about the West have sold...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. Every now and then we get the feeling that the government has lost interest in the subject of governing and has turned instead to the manufacture and manipulation of images, as if it were some gigantic public-relations firm. Two recent examples of this were when the President asked Peter...

Dept. of Amplification DEPARTMENT OF AMPLIFICATION by John McPhee. After his piece on New Jersey bears appeared, on Dec. 27, 1982, writer was invited to visit bears in their den in Pennsylvania. On Mar. 14 he is taken by Keystone State biologist Buck Alt and his son Gary Alt to an area of the Poconos on posted property of...

Poetry Surprise by Carol Muske-Dukes. The mind dislikes surprises...

Poetry Sempiternal by James Galvin. Out to sea the sun...

Poetry Henry Purcell in Japan by Mary Jo Salter. Here death does not confine itself...

Poetry L.A. by John Updike. Yea, at its center one can find oneself...