Letter from Washington by Richard H. Rovere. In late Nov. Pres. Carter will take an 11-day trip to 8 countries. For Presidents travel is often a means of escape from a bad scene or a boring one - and at the same time an almost foolproof way of setting up a series of media events to generate...

Musical Events Promenade by Andrew Porter.

The Theatre IN THE ANTEROOM by Brendan Gill.

Letter from New Delhi by Ved Mehta. Like the Congress government, the Janata government is right of center but awash with socialist rhetoric. In one respect, however, the Janata government intends to depart from the policies of the Congress government: to deemphasize the socialist concept of central planning for Western-type industrialization in favor of Mahatma Gandhi's...

Comment by Jamaica Kincaid. A young woman we know writes: I grew up on an island in the West Indies which has an area of 108 square miles. There were sugarcane, cotton, tobacco and arrowroot fields. Some of the 54,000 people on the island grew bananas, mangoes, and many other varieties of produce that...

The Current Cinema Heart/Soul by Pauline Kael. Review of "The American Friend", a film which is the work of the young German writer-director Wim Wenders, adapated from Patricia Highsmith's crime thriller "Ripley's Game...

Books Police Story by Robert Coles.

Cartoon Seven Wonders by Douglas Florian. Seven cartoons depicting wonders. Some of them are: "Bert Hink's flying dog, Sparky, shown here at Boone Flats, Kansas." "The leaning garage of Harvey Gellerman, Little Neck, Queens." "Petrified cow, owned by Zeke Moony, Teelso, Arkansas" "Hiram Sneed's iron beard...

Fiction The Boy Knows the Truth by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Rabbi Gabriel Klintower was in constant battle with his strong erotic impulses. His wife, Menucha Alta, was scrawny and often seriously ill. When they had sexual intercourse, which was very infrequently, she would complain. One day, an attractive female relative of Rabbi Gabriel, Binele, who was recently widowed, comes to...

Profiles Communists' Capitalist~II by E. J. Kahn. PROFILE of industrialist Cyrus S. Eaton, who will be 94 two days after Christmas. He was born in the coastal village of Pugwash, Nova Scotia, of English ancestry. In 1901 his uncle Charles Eaton, a Baptist minister, was assigned to a church in Cleveland, & he invited his nephew down...

The Talk of the Town Potatoes Redux by E. J. Kahn. Talk story about a press conference to promote potatoes. It was held at the Marriott Hotels' Essex House. The m.c. Robert C. Greiner, Marriott's vice-president for the hotels' food & beverages, said that the Marriott chain and the Potato Board, a Denver institution, had banded together to embark on...

Fiction The Christmas Bush by Berry Morgan. An old black woman, Miss Araminta, Thomas, has lived on Mercy Seat Plantation since her birth, 80 years ago. She has the distinction of being the last black person residing on Mercy Seat. Mr. Isaac, the owner of the plantation, sends her bread, soup, and kindling. Miss Araminta, whose loved...

The Talk of the Town Anniversary Present by Mark Singer. Talk story about a new Muzak recording of the song "Fascination", written in 1904 by F.D. Marchetti. It is the favorite song of Carl Hensel and his wife Marnie. The Hensels and some of their children and a friend came to town from Minneapolis for a few hours to be...

The Air (On Television) Happy Families by Michael J. Arlen.

The Talk of the Town Parade by Mark Singer. Talk story about dancer Joan Avril's parade on 181st St. Last year, Avril choreographed a dance in the George Washington Bridge bus station for Isaiah Smalls and Loretta Abbott...

The Race Track Runners on the Grass by G. F. T. Ryall. American-bred Alleged won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in Paris the other Sunday. It was a big score for Vincent O'Brien, the Wizard of Tipperary, who trains both Alleged and The Minstrel...

Poetry Ride by Daniel Jacobs. When I ride the Staten Island Ferry...

Poetry On Time by Heather McHugh. Up here, I love light, travel...

Poetry The Possessive Case by Lisel Mueller. Your father's mustache...

Poetry Lair by Robert Pinsky. Inexhaustible, delicate, as if...