Comment by William McKibben. Ten years ago, writer was in a John Birch Society book shop in Seattle, killing time, and bought a green cake of soap inscribed, "U.S. out of the U.N. and U.N. out of the U.S." Musty quaintness filled the book shop, but that sentiment is not such a relic as...

The Talk of the Town Three Parades by William McKibben. Talk story about three parades in two days which writer watched. They were celebrations of religion, ethnic descent, and place of residence. The first was the Rathayatra Parade, put on by devotees of the Hare Krishna religion. Its name is Sanskrit for "Festival of the Chariots." Two oxen were on...

Fiction The Colonel's Child by Mavis Gallant. Edouard B. was born in Paris and at 23 goes to London to join the Free French and General de Gaulle during the Second World War. Before leaving Paris, he married a Jewish-born actress to save her when France was occupied. The Free French tried to teach Edouard how...

The Theatre An Actor's Life by Edith Oliver.

Fiction Columbus In Chains by Jamaica Kincaid. Writer remembers her childhood in Antigua, in the West Indies. She won the first prize in a class contest and was made the prefect of her class, sitting in the first seat of the first row. The minister's daughter, Ruth, sat in the last row reserved for the dunce girls...

Annals of Diplomacy I-ALLIANCE by Richard J. Barnet. ANNALS OF DIPLOMACY about postwar German-American relations. General Lucius Clay was appointed Deputy Military Governor for Germany in April, 1945. He was unaware of a secret directive JCS 1067 (the Morgenthau Plan), which called for reducing Germany to a "pastoral state to keep it from making war a third...

Books Something Old, Something New by Naomi Bliven.

Musical Events Swan of Pesaro by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Atrium by Natacha Stewart. Talk story about visiting Trump Tower on two different occasions. The first time, a few months ago, the writer saw the unfinished tower and noted seeing the two guards she had heard so much about. They were wearing operetta uniforms that Mrs. Trump had ordered from London. Writer learned that...

A Reporter at Large ETHANOL by Barry Commoner. A REPORTER AT LARGE about substituting ethanol for gasoline. The oil embargo of the OPEC countries in the early 70's caused the domestic cost of oil production to rise faster than other prices, and now commands 34% of the country's business-investment capital. The oil companies, who made enormous...

Our Far-Flung Correspondents OPEN MAN by John McPhee. OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS about New Jersey's senior United States senator, William Warren Bradley. Bradley takes a trip around the state of New Jersey to talk to the voters and see what they have on their minds about various issues. He has covered nearly 300 miles on this particular day...

Poetry Tulips: A Selected History by Vickie Karp. On your street, whose name means "roundabout" in Dutch...

Poetry The New Season by W. S. Merwin. On the third night of autumn...