The Talk of the Town Sir Rudolf by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about Rudolf Bing, who is retiring after 22 years as the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. When writer asked him what artistic achievements gave him the most pleasure, he said that he was proud of bringing back Bruno Walter and Kirsten Flagstad, and named several artists he...

Fiction As We Have Learnt From Freud, There Are No Jokes by Penelope Gilliatt. A Scottish girl in New York, Emm McKechnie, asks about an apartment in an unfinished building, but the landlord refuses to rent to her, saying unmarried girls get raped on the way to the laundromat. She describes her employer, Simpson Aird, who works at home, and his family. She returns...

A Reporter at Large II-THE CLOSING CIRCLE by Barry Commoner. REPORTER AT LARGE about pollution. Exploitation of the ecosystem is what generates economic growth, but the rate of the exploitation cannot increase indefinitely without overdriving the system & pushing it to the point of collapse. However, the chief reason for the environmental crisis that has engulfed the U.S. in recent...

The Talk of the Town Mailer Opening by Geoffrey T. Hellman. Talk story about the showing of Norman Mailer's film, "Maidstone", and the party that followed, at the Whitney Museum. Among the performers in the film is Jean Campbell, one of Mailer's three ex-wives, who "provided lively eye-rolling & a most eye-compelling decolletage...

The Sporting Scene TENNIS TROUBLES by Herbert Warren Wind. THE SPORTING SCENE about the current dissension in the world of tennis tournaments. Professional tennis is centered currently in Texas. The Women's Pro Tour has its hq. in Houston and the World Championship Tennis has its hq. in Dallas...

The Current Cinema A Movie Classic Is Not Nothing by Pauline Kael. Review of John Schlesinger's film "Sunday Bloody Sunday", written by Penelope Gilliatt...

Fiction U.S. Still on Top, Says Rest of World by Garrison Keillor. America today is No. 1 in the world..." --Pres. Nixon The White House is very, but unofficially elated over America's top finish in the 1971 Earth standings announced yesterday in Geneva. For the 28th straight year, the U.S. was named No. 1 country by a jury of more than 300...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. The Attica massacre followed a script that has governed many other recent American tragedies. In an article in the "Times", Tom Wicker has described this pattern. Writer gives this description, and says that as Wicker notes, the entire Indo-China war has followed this pattern...

The Talk of the Town Travelling Office by Wallace White. Talk story about Edward I. Koch, the Representative of N.Y.'s 17th Congressional District. He talks with his constituents every Friday morning through a "travelling office" that he sets up in various churches, synagogues, & other buildings in his district. The writer went with him one week to the office...

Musical Events by Winthrop Sargeant.

The Race Track A Few Ladies by G. F. T. Ryall. At Belmont Park last Saturday, the Matron Stakes was won by Ogden Phipps's Numbered Account...

Poetry Trying To Remember A Town by William Stafford. After our trip one town was lost...

Poetry October Ghosts by James Wright. Jenny cold, Jenny darkness...

Poetry Person To Person by William H. Matchett. Though I'm much too busy to bother...