Comment by Thomas Hackett. Comment on the twenty-second anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing last month. This summer, the writer returned to the beach town of Neskowin, Oregon, where he listened to the radio broadcast of the moon landing in 1969, at age five. He has associated going to the beach with...

The Talk of the Town Humpty Restored by Richard Preston. Talk story about visting the restoration firm of Stoneledge, Inc., a fine-art-conservation-and-restoration firm that operates in a former junior high school in Wharton, NJ. The company has rebuilt Roman armor, preserved bricks f from Max Ernst's house, fixed up a tropical landscape by Frederick Edwin Church...

The Talk of the Town Radical by Robert Sullivan. Talk story about a walking tour of the financial district, led by Bruce Kayton, that examined the area from the anarchist's point of view. Kayton conducts alternative walking tours of the city in loose association with the New York Marxist School. Tells of the nonviolent anti-establishment activities of Kayton...

The Talk of the Town Pretzel Talk by Susan Lardner. Talk story about a pretzel bagger at a pretzel stall in Union Square. Sasha is 22, wearing jeans, a jersey top, sneakers, earrings she made herself, and a tripartite apron with pockets for twenties, tens and fives. She sells handmade, handrolled Pennsylvania Dutch pretzels. She works from 8:30 till five...

Fiction People Who Don't Know the Answers by Anne Tyler. Doug Bedloe, a schoolteacher, feels at loose ends when he retires. He lives with his arthritic wife, Bee; their son, Ian; and their young grandchildren, Agatha, Thomas, and Daphne. These are the children of their son Danny, who moved in when their parents died. Doug passes the time by helping...

Annals of Place IN THE NORTHWEST by Sallie Tisdale. ANNALS OF PLACE about the Pacific Northwest. Writer, who lives in Portland, says the Northwest is her place. She grew up in a town called Yreka, just south of the Oregon-Calif. border. It was a gold-mining camp turned into a mill town. It's pronounced "why-ree-ka". She...

Personal History VISITING THE LAUREATE by Muriel Spark. PERSONAL HISTORY about the writer visiting the poet laureate, John Masefield. Masefield introduced into English poetry something fresh, democratic, colloquial. Masefield was born in 1878 in Herefordshire. He had been trained as a sailor, and as a sailor he had rounded Cape Horn on a sailing vessel. Between 1885 and...

The Current Cinema DUBLINERS by Terrence Rafferty.

Around City Hall LOW HOPES AROUND CITY HALL by Andy Logan. It was not until after David Dinkins moved into City Hall that most New Yorkers began to realize how little they knew of their new mayor and how sparse had been his experience in governing or in citywide politics before he took charge of running a city of more than...

Books by Naomi Bliven.

Poetry Bindweed by John Updike. Intelligence is sometimes a help...

Poetry After Rereading "Notes of a Native Son" by Jessica Greenbaum. I stood on the mattress...

Poetry Mermaid by James Reidel. For three days tremors...