The Current Cinema THE SEVENS by Pauline Kael.

Comment by William McKibben. Every weekday between noon and two, hungry people come to Riverside Church's Cloister Lounge, which houses the Food Pantry. The Food Pantry is an operation that hands out charity groceries. The clients must bring a referral letter from some city social service agency. Most are black or Hispanic. Writer talks...

The Talk of the Town Hot Stuff by William McKibben. Talk story about Thermal/R, a new fabric invented by Larry Fingerhut, an engineer. It consists of two thin film layers separated by an airy foam. It is virtually windproof, and a jacket made with a one-thirty-second-inch layer of fabric can take the place of a three...

Musical Events Not Magic But the Human Heart by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town The Palace at 4 A.M. by Donald Barthelme. The story begins with an excerpt from the autobiography of the King. He talks about how his father ruled the country by promoting all of his subjects. Every soldier was a colonel, every priest a bishop. "I was the only man in the kingdom who thought himself a donkey." The...

A Reporter at Large AT THE FOUNTAIN by Bill Barich. REPORTER AT LARGE about the writer's local pub during a five-month stay in London...

The Theatre A Grumble of Greeks by Andrew Porter.

Fiction Effie by Gwyneth Cravens. Effie Hammond's husband Tom was at Cibola County Hospital. They'd celebrated Christmas on the 13th of December, before Tom's heart operation. Tom and Effie had been married 32 years and had 3 children, Tommy, Bud, and Nancy. Effie read the Christian Fellowship booklet she'd received in the mail and meditated...

Annals of Diplomacy II-ALLIANCE by Richard J. Barnet. ANNALS OF DIPLOMACY about U.S.-German relations. The Western alliance was in disarray from the day the North Atlantic Treaty was signed--Apr. 4, 1949--because the members had different visions of what they were doing and different expectations. Confusion centered on the NATO military forces. The threat against which...

The Talk of the Town New Stamps by Lincoln Caplan. Talk story about the inauguration of four new stamps honoring American electrical engineers. Writer interviewed Howard Paine, who is the art director for National Geographic, a member of the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee, and the designer in charge of the investors series. He explained how subjects are chosen for new...

Poetry The Shirt by Roger Shattuck. For years...

Poetry Two Poems From 1916 by Marina Tsvetayeva. Seeing off the beloved ones, I...