The Theatre Out There and Down Here by Brendan Gill. Review of "Marie and Bruce", a new comedy by Wallace Shawn...

The Talk of the Town Birgit Nilsson's Return by Jane Boutwell. Talk story written on the occasion of Birgit Nilsson's return to the American operatic scene after a five-year absence, an absence due to a tax dispute with the U.S. government. The vehicle for Miss Nilsson's return is Richard Strauss's "Elektra," which the writer observed in both performance and rehearsal...

Books Closing Time by George Steiner.

Musical Events Testimony by Nicholas Kenyon.

Dancing Swing Street Revisited by Arlene Croce.

The Talk of the Town Fame by Mark Singer. Talk story about the Brooklyn Hall of Fame luncheon at the Fort Hamilton Officers' Club in Bay Ridge. The induction ceremony, the first since 1973, was organized by John N. LaCorte, who spoke at the ceremony about his intention to put Brooklyn on the map. The Brooklyn Hall of Fame...

Fiction A Revised Guide to Paris by Mavis Gallant. Short story which parodies travel guides to Paris. The city is depicted as unclean, overpriced, dangerous and uninteresting; full of insipid historical sights, mundane bargains and boring restaurants. The descriptions are written, however, so as to make us think of Paris as a center of style, cuisine and shopping, as...

The Theatre OUT THERE AND DOWN HERE by Brendan Gill.

The Talk of the Town Sold by Mark Singer. Talk story about an interview with Tim McGinnis after the recent purchase, by Doubleday and Co. of the New York Mets baseball franchise for $21.1 million. He works at the Doubleday and Co. headquarters on Park Ave. and is captain of the Doubleday softball team. He is an assistant editor...

Comment by Berton Roueche. A friend who lives in the country writes: Oil and steel and shoes and wool and machinery and automobiles and technology and gourmet foods and boutique frivolities are not the only things that our formerly more than self-sufficient country now finds it necessary to import. He mentions a number...

Fiction The Making of More Americans by Maxine Hong Kingston. A Chinese-American writer reminisces about her childhood in California and her relatives there, mainly her great-uncle. Within the recollections is the story of an uncle, Mad Sao, who received letters from his mother in China, begging him to send her money. Mad Sao claims her ghost is following...

Our Far-Flung Correspondents TRANSITION by Roger Wilkins. OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS about the upcoming election in Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, where blacks have been waging guerrilla wars for 7 years to destroy colonialism and gain majority rule. In Dec. a ceasefire took effect and an electoral system was devised by Lord Carrington, British Foreign Minister, at Lancaster House in...

Poetry On the Meridian by Nicholas Christopher. Your feints are choreographed...

Poetry Dream Flight by Dave Smith. Mid-January, leaving Honolulu, we are all tanned and...