Comment William Shawn by Hendrik Hertzberg. Comment about late editor of "The New Yorker", William Shawn, after he died in his sleep on December 3, 1992. He died in his apartment on Fifth Avenue and 96th Streets, where he had lived with his wife, Cecille, since 1950, and where he had raised his children, sons Wallace...

The Talk of the Town Future Shock by Luke Jennings. Talk story is about Mrs. Betty Palko, who is fifty-five years old-Irish clairvoyant living in the West London suburb of Surbition, who has been Princess Diana's spiritual consultant since 1987. Mrs. Palko says "I was recommended-I never advertise. My clients, you see, are higher-as well as...

The Talk of the Town Royal Trump by Mark Lawson. Talk story about Princess Diana and her recent amicable separation from her husband Prince Charles. The Princess of Wales will now live in Kensington Palace, with Charles residing with his grandmother in Clarence House. The question arises that if Charles succeeds the thrown, will Diana become Queen, and will they...

The Talk of the Town Sacred and Profane by Jeffrey Toobin. Talk story about radio talk-show host Don Imus and his popular talk-show called "Imus in the Morning" which is broadcast every weekday on the local sports radio station WFAN, carrying a million listeners a week. Hartman and Raggi Marc Gellman were seen by Imus at a fund-raising...

The Talk of the Town Moonstruck by Richard Cohen. Talk story about SuzyChippindale, an astronomer on the staff of the Hayden Planetarium. She appeared to have decided the moon needed a public-relations officer so she was acting more like a publicist at a movie premiere as she watched the recent eclipse with a couple of dozen people including...

The Talk of the Town Charm Kills by Veronica Geng. Talk story about how charming Mayor David Dinkins was at a party held at the Century Association for the New York "Observer". The party was, more specifically, in honor of Susan Morrison, the "Observer's" editor, and Joe Conason, its executive editor... There are constraints on describing the Mayor with a...

Our Local Correspondents WAITING FOR THE APOCALYPSE IN CROWN HEIGHTS by David Remnick. OUR LOCAL CORRESPONDENTS about the Lubavitcher Hasidim of Crown Heights, and racial tensions with their black neighbors. Tells about Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the 90-year-old man the Hasidim are confident is the Moshiach--the Messiah of this fallen world. As many as 20,000 Lubavitcher Hasidim live in Crown...

Annals of Surveillance TO CATCH A JUDGE: HOW THE F.B.I. TRACKED SOL WACHTLER by Lucinda Franks. ANNALS OF SURVEILLANCE about the capture of Judge Sol Wachtler. Tells about his vicious harassment of former girlfriend Joy Silverman, including threats against her child. Writer reconstructed the story from a series of interviews with members of federal law enforcement. "The scheme is stunningly elaborate," Garey Chin, the F.B.I. case...

Onward and Upward with the Arts DEREK WALCOTT'S ODYSSEY by Jervis Anderson. ONWARD AND UPWARD WITH THE ARTS about Trinidadian poet Derek Walcott, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize. His tenth and most ambitious book of verse, "Omeros" appeared in 1990. It is a retelling of the "Odyssey," set in the Carbbean.... His publisher, Robert Strauss of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, tells...

Artist at Large Kringle On The Beach by Danny Shanahan. In ARTIST AT LARGE...a color spread showing Santa Claus sitting in a red swimming suit on a Lifeguard's chair with a line of children waiting below to sit on his lap, Santa Claus has a green and red umbrella over his head and is wearing sun glasses...

Double Take The New York Supper Club Hockey League 1937-38 by Bruce McCall. In DOUBLE TAKE...color spread with text (also by Bruce McCall) showing Sig Horvath's Hockienda supper club. The text talks about the history of the supper club, and the problems that came up when eating dinner on the ice during a hockey game. The supper club only lasted one year...

Artist's Notebook The First Security Check by Ronald Searle. In ARTIST'S NOTEBOOK...color spread showing the Three Wisemen being bodysearched by the animals in the manger that Jesus Christ was born in. The sheep are frisking the wisemen, there is a goat with a metal detector, and another goat has a rifle and a two-way radio...

Tables for Two CHILD OF CABARET by Whitney Balliett. TABLES FOR TWO about singer and actress Andrea Marcovicci, or simply Marcovicci, as she has come to be known, in the noble, surnames-only tradition of Paif and Dietrich and Garbo. She is back in the Oak Room of the Algonquin, in the middle of a four-month stand. She...

Fiction Were the Ornaments Lovely? by Julie Hecht. Short story about encounters between a woman photographer in her early forties and two odd, elderly brothers in Nantucket...

The Theatre THE LONE WOLF AND THE RUSSIAN BEAR by John Lahr.

The Air (On Television) PSEUDO VERITE by James Wolcott.

Books by Edward Hirsch.

Shouts & Murmurs The Twelve Terrors of Christmas by John Updike. SHOUTS AND MURMURS is about the twelve terrors of Christmas. They are: 1) Santa: The Man. Describes his loose-fitting beard, his alcoholic smell, and compares him to one of Steven King's clowns. 2) Santa: The Concept. Questions why anyone would live at the North Pole. 3) Santa's Helpers. Asks...

Poetry Rascasse by Mona Van Duyn. In off-season chill, berthed yachts are spiking stems...

Poetry Boreal Owl by Eva Salzman. You could call it an outing, father style...

Poetry The Systems by Albert Goldbarth. Sleeping away from the primacy. Sleeping, you might say...