Anniversary by James Stevenson. Illustrated Talk story about aikido, the gentlest, most spiritual form of Japanese martial arts. A two-day event celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the dojo (the place where aikido students study on W. 18th Street) was held at the Hunter College Gymnasium. Writer watched as the 450 students dropped to...

Television Comment by Ian Frazier. When writer moved from New York to a place 2,100 miles across the country, he left his television behind. Since then all his TV viewing has been at the house of his neighbors, who have an antenna for local stations, cable TV, and a fifteen-foot satellite disc in the...

Fiction Homework by Peter Cameron. An 18-year-old high school senior misses a week of school because his dog, Keds, got killed outside of the A& P. He watches his sister wash her hair with beer, mayonnaise & eggs. Then he tries to solve complicated algerbraic problems he has set for himself...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Comment by Whitney Balliett. Obituary of Mabel Mercer, who died late in April, at the age of 84. She was born in Staffordshire of an English vaudeville performer and a black American musician who either died or disappeared. She was raised by her grandmother & attended a convent school. Tells about her early...

Comment by Ian Frazier. Fourth part of a four-part Comment. Writer talks to Nancy DeSalvo, of the Farmington, Conn., Library Council, who originated the idea of a TV Turnoff. Many studies have shown that extended television watching can produce a decline in several types of mental ability. Mrs. DeSalvo has noticed this herself...

The Sporting Scene MY SUMMER VACATION by Roger Angell. THE SPORTING SCENE about baseball spring training. Writer says that most major-league ballplayers stay in terrific shape all year round now so spring training is really for the pitchers, and for the writers who need this slow, sleepy time to sweeten their characters and enlarge their perceptions. Tells about...

The Art World (The Art Galleries) by Sanford Schwartz.

Comment by William McKibben. From time to time, people complain that the papers don't print any good news. It isn't entirely true. But good news is not a newspaper's job. Psychologically, there is something reassuring about the newspaper because it is full of bad news. On any given morning, the front page of the...

Books by Mollie Panter-Downes.

The Theatre DOWN FROM HEAVEN by Brendan Gill.

A Reporter at Home Storm by Berton Roueche. A REPORTER AT HOME about a winter storm that struck most of the east coast at the end of March, and which brought a tree top down onto the writer's power lines, leaving him and his wife with no electricity. They lived in an all-electric house about a mile...

Poetry My Donkey by Ted Hughes. Is an ancient color. He's the color/Of a prehistoric desert...

Poetry The First Year by W. S. Merwin. When the words had all been used...

Poetry Near Pala by Norman Rush. 2 English couples were riding in a Land-Rover in Botswana Africa. Gareth & Tom...