Comment by James Lardner. Comment comparing contemporary political speechmaking with a recently published collection of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt's radio addresses known as "fireside chats." The details of Pres. Bush's State of the Union Address seemed to have been inserted at the last minute, and parts were abandoned almost as soon as he spelled...

The Talk of the Town Flowering by Garrison Keillor. Talk story about visiting the New York Flower Show at Pier 92. Writer slipped into the show without telling anyone, fearing that he would be thought too indehiscent to have an interest in flowers. "Indehiscent" means "not open ing at maturity." He noted how terse were the judge's comp liments...

The Talk of the Town Henry by Michael Stern. Talk story about a rooster named Henry who escaped from the annual Grange fair in Cheshire, Connecticut, in September. Story opens with reactions to Henry from Police Lieutenant Myron Verner; Louise Bartholomew, who runs The Picture Framer; John MacKay; Dorothy Anthony, of the Town Planning and Zoning Department; and, Richard...

The Talk of the Town Night Out by Elizabeth Wurtzel. Talk story about a party for Yoko Ono at the Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, in SoHo. After leaving the party, the writer went with friends to a restaurant on Prince St., and met the artist J.S.G. Boggs. He said that for the past year he had lived without money. He had...

Fiction Sleep by Haruki Murakami. The narrator, a Japanese housewife, has spent the last 17 days without sleep. It is not insomnia, which she had in college. She describes her successful dentist husband as a good provider, a man everybody likes. He is "strange-looking" and they share a joke about his "good looks." For...

Profiles FIGURING IT OUT by Kennedy Fraser. PROFILE of classical guitarist Eliot Fisk. At 37, Fisk is a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg; he keeps a pieda-terre on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The writer describes two recitals Fisk gave in New York last spring: at a private party in the home of a...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Theatre AT THE DIG by Edith Oliver.

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. Tsongas suspended his race for the Democratic nomination for President. He wasn't ready for a large-scale battle--in terms of his organization, his mental preparedness, or the development of his message and his political skills. He had the requisite organization and the perfect message for New Hampshire--hard solutions...

Reflections ALFRED CHESTER'S WIG by Cynthia Ozick. REFLECTIONS about the author and critic Alfred Chester, and his relationship with the writer. She competed with him in an NYU composition class in 1946, and followed his somewhat successful literary career with envy. He died in 1970, just as her own career was beginning. Chester had his heyday. He...

Poetry Gold Lily by Louise Gluck. As I perceive...

Poetry Withered Compliments by John Ashbery. Have a care lest...