The Current Cinema MINDSPEAK by Pauline Kael.

Annals of Finance THE PRICE OF MONEY II-FULL FAITH AND CREDIT by William Greider. ANNALS OF FINANCE about the Federal Reserve, America's central bank. The founding assumptions of it were first championed by the Populists. Their main concern was the poor economic conditions of the farmers. Money problems really started with the Civil War. Lincoln had to set aside the rules of "sound money...

The Talk of the Town Edwige by Elizabeth Morgan. Talk story about Edwige, a chanteuse fluttering around downtown clubs these days, who sings standards from the twenties and thirties--French standards on some nights, American standards on others. Writer found her on the cabaret level of The World, a club at Second Street and Avenue C one evening about...

Fiction Oh, What Avails by Alice Munro. Short story in 3 parts about a brother & sister living in Logan, a small town in Canada, probably near Toronto. I-"Deadeye Dick". Joan & Morris are brother & sister. Their widowed mother is a small-scale landlord & lumberyard owner in the town. Tells about their neighbor, Mrs...

The Talk of the Town The House of Zaitsev by Holly Brubach. Talk story about Viyacheslav Zaitsev who, at 49, is the leading designer for Moscow's Dom Mody, or Fashion House. He's reputably Raisa Gorbachev's favorite couturier. Writer attended Zaitsev's recent fashion show at the Waldorf Astoria The clothing is quite different from Western styles: no miniskirts, trousers, or bathing suits. The...

Comment by William Finnegan. Mozambique might be an African California. It has a long, beautiful coastline, a fertile hinterland & excellent harboars. It contains immense mineral wealth... When the Portuguese left in 1975 they left behind them a country mauled by 10 years of guerrilla war & burdened with one of the lowest literacy...

The Theatre THE DISENCHANTED by Mimi Kramer.

Fiction Hollywood in the Fifties by Garrison Keillor. Writer deliberately confuses names of well-known people and connects them together in impossible ways. He matches Mark Van Doren, poet & critic with Mamie Van Doren, actress. He pairs Donna Reed, actress, with Rex Reed, newspaper writer, and John Reed who witnessed the Russian revolution & wrote about it...

Books by John Updike.

The Talk of the Town Baker Field by Mary Norris. A talk story about a football game between Columbia University & Lehigh, at Baker field... At halftime, the Lehigh University marching band takes the field & plays Gustav Holst's "The Planets" while marching in the shape of a backward, sideways letter F, then shifts into a pi sign and bends...

Poetry Sycamores by Deborah Digges. As if their height had taught them this startling...