Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. Congress managed to avoid the penalty for not meeting the Gramm-Rudman target--an across-the-board cut in many programs, or "sequestration"--by employing a number of highly imaginative tricks; & in this the Administration colluded, because a sequestration would have cut the President's defense proposal by even more...

Fiction Stealing Time by Mary Grimm. Two grown sisters (who have families of their own)visit their Aunt Ren in the hospital. Aunt Ren is a stroke victim and her son Graham is visiting when they arrive. The narrator and her sister Kate have been dreading the visit, but they know they won't have to go...

The Talk of the Town Mr. Caruso and Miss Brass by Kennedy Fraser. Talk story about Julius Caruso of the Julius Caruso hair salon & Barbara Brass of Barbara Brass Communications. Tells about their photography session in Mr. Caruso's salon to promote "Julius's Clipper," Mr. Caruso's new $25 cut&blow-dry, coffee-croissant & newspaper service which was aimed at businesswomen on...

The Talk of the Town A Little Band by Kennedy Fraser. Talk story about writer visiting a rehearsal studio on lower Broadway, where "Wild Honey" is being rehearsed. Chekhov wrote the play, "Platonov" when he was either in or barely out of his teens, and the British playwright, Michael Frayn, has retitled the play, "Wild Honey," and reworked it into a...

The Theatre BRIT SKITS by Brendan Gill.

A Reporter at Large Marble Stories by Berton Roueche. REPORTER AT LARGE about visiting cemeteries. Writer visits the Green River cemetery, in eastern Long Island near the writer's home; the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, the Central Cemetery in Vienna and Pere-Lachaise in Paris. A number of famous people are buried in each of these cemeteries and writer looks...

Profiles II-A GIRL OF THE ZEITGEIST by Janet Malcolm. PROFILE of Ingrid Sischy, editor of the magazine "Artforum" since the end of 1979. Writer formed the idea of writing about her after seeing "Artforum" change from a journal of lifeless opacity into a magazine of such wild and assertive contemporaneity that one could only imagine its editor to be...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. It is sometimes said that now that President Reagan is nearing the end of his constitutionally allowable time in office he is turning his thoughts to "history," and that when he does this he is possessed by a desire to conclude an arms-control agreement, which will constitute his "legacy...

The Talk of the Town No. 1 by William McKibben. Talk story about the number one ranked University of Miami football team; Nigel Mansell, who leads the season standings in Formula-One race car driving; the Grand Canyon; and Oak Creek ravine near Sedona, Arizona... Even though more than 40 members of the University of Miami football team have ended...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Jazz TWO IN ONE by Whitney Balliett. Column-length article about singer Joe Williams. Tells about his life...

Poetry Wednesday by Marvin Bell. Gray rainwater lay on the grass in the late afternoon...

Poetry Autumn Firestorm by Charles Wright. The season steps up...