Fiction Heavenly Flame by Tatyana Tolstaya. Korobeinikov is recuperating from an ulcer operation at a sanatorium in the Russian countryside. He often visits the dacha of Olga Mikhailovna and her husband, a couple kilometres away. Olga is charmed by his stories of strange phenomena, such as the one about a South American peasant who was kidnapped...

Reflections THE OLD WAY by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. REFLECTIONS about lions. In the 50s writer lived for some years among the Juwa and Gikwe Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. She went there with her parents & brother to record the Bushmen's way of life. Her own interest was in the lions. In the mid-80s she returned &...

Books by Arlene Croce.

Comment by Allan Nairn. One side effect of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait has been a rediscovery of the principle that political leaders ought to be accountable under international law. An international order based on respect for the rule of law can exist only if those who use international law to accuse others are...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Profiles THE LAST BUCCANEER by A. Alvarez. PROFILE of Torquil Norman, a British aviator and toy manufacturer. Tells how he was fired by the board of Berwick Timpo, a toy company he bought and built up. A collegue, Bill Dowle, who buys toys for Woolworths in Britain, called the Berwick vote, "the making of Torquil and also...

Fiction The Way Things Will Be by Judy Troy. The narrator, Jean, recalls the winter of 1965, when she was 12, and her family moved from South Bend, Indiana, to Key West, Florida. While passing through Nashville, her brother Eddie, 10, has an appendicitis attack. Relations are strained between Jean's parents; when Eddie has his attack they argue about...

The Talk of the Town The Last Monzu by Lis Harris. Talk story about Mario Lo Menzo, the last monzu. Monzu is a Neapolitan corruption of the French "monsieur," and is an honorific title bestowed on a small number of master chefs in Southern Italy and Sicily; the first monzu was Monsieur Robert, the chef of Joachim Murat, King of Naples...

The Talk of the Town Fuel Efficiency by Caroline Fraser. Talk story about Jim Gary, who creates huge sculptures of dinosaurs out of old automobile parts. It takes 8 cars to make a dinosaur. Gary's sculptures were on display this summer at the National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C., and are now at the Rochester Museum & Science...

The Talk of the Town State of the Art by Mark Danner. Talk story about SICO, a robot created by International Robotics, Inc., a New York-based company. Tells about SICO's visit to an office building, and the reactions of various people to his fluent and idiomatic speech. His speech is controlled by Robert Doornick, president of International Robotics, through a tiny...

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. Valid or not, the feeling grew here in the past couple of weeks that was with Iraq was becoming more likely. This feeling stemmed from the President's own adding to the list of what might constitute a casus belli, from Saddam Hussein's behavior, and, most important, from the fact that...

Poetry Judas-Kiss by Galway Kinnell. Those who lie waiting know time...

Poetry (After Wislawa Szymborska) by Edward Hirsch. The hollow, unearthly hour of night...

Poetry Two Poems by Sherod Santos. Early morning, a woman sits up in bed...