The Art World (The Art Galleries) by Adam Gopnik.

Profiles PLAY AGENT by Mel Gussow. PROFILE of London play agent Margaret Ramsay. From a playwright's point of view play agents are deal-makers, or matchmakers-pairing playwrights and producers. Presumably they can arrange the most rewarding contract for one's services (while always assuring themselves of their proper percentage). She is the doyenne, in both age...

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. In this unusual election year the two parties have in effect decided upon their nominees at an uncommonly early stage of the nominating process, and the general election has begun at an uncommonly early point. Both George Bush (the Republican) and Michael Dukakis (the Democrat), through a combination of superior...

Comment by Mark Hertsgaard. Comment about SDI... President Reagan walked away from a deal at the Reykjavik summit, in 1986, to eliminate all nuclear weapons, because it also prohibited testing & deployment of space weapons for 10 years... A 2-year study completed last summer by the Office of Technology Assessment, a non-partisan...

A Reporter at Large YUCCA MOUNTAIN by Fred C. Shapiro. A REPORTER AT LARGE about nuclear power-plant waste & the establishment of a repository at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, near an atomic weapons range test site... Radioactive material can be neutralized & solidified & stored in massive steel tanks, but, like the spent fuel assemblies that have been accumulating...

Fiction When He Reemerges by Randy Cohen. Satirical story about Richard Nixon's reappearance into the social life of America. Writer imagines various situations, such as sitting on a bus across from Nixon -- and you're about to sneeze -- do you still cover your mouth? Other examples combine Nixon's unethical actions with harmless, playful acts: Build a Play-Doh...

The Talk of the Town Crossings by Anthony Hiss. Talk story about new ferry service on the East River, a ride on a brand-new Australian-designed catamaran, & Bay Ridge-Manhattan ferry service, as well as a walk across the Williamsburg Bridge, closed to all but bicycles & pedestrians... More than a dozen crew boats-low-slung, powerful...

Books by Clive James.

The Talk of the Town Winning Colors by Lisa Miller. Talk story about a young woman who went with a friend to Off-Track Betting to place a bet on the filly Winning Colors (who won the Kentucky Derby). She saw a Times article about Winning Colors, and knew right away that she was a winner. They went to the...

The Theatre BLOODY AWFUL by Mimi Kramer.

The Talk of the Town Buttons by Susan Orlean. Talk story about Diana Epstein, founder of Tender Buttons, on East Sixty-Second Street, which is the only buttons-only store in America. She and her partner, Millicent Safro, have travelled to Egypt, Russia, Finland and Italy in search of buttons. Ms. Epstein recently bought 17,000 buttons, sight unseen, from...

Fiction The Journey to the Dead by John Updike. Martin Fredericks was divorced after nearly 30 married years. His former wife, Harriet, still lived in the suburbs and had remarried. Marty moved to the city and ran into Arlene, an old friend of Harriet's, at a party. She, too, lived in town and had been divorced. Marty wasn't interested...

Poetry The Clover Cross by Mary Kinzie. Below my hand what do I see...

Poetry The Wars in New Jersey by W. S. Merwin. This is the way we were all brought up now we imagine...