Comment by William Finnegan. Tells about the massacre of the Kurds in Iraq. When President Bush, studiously on vacation in the Florida Keys, was accused of ignoring the suffering of the Kurds, much as he had ignored that of the Lithuanians in 1989, he snapped, "I think I was right in 1989, and I...

The Talk of the Town The Frimbonians by Anthony Hiss. Talk story about Amtrak's new Hudson River service down the West Side of Manhattan into Pennsylvania Station, which was officially styled The E.M. Frimbo Special, Each of the 300 guests aboard the train was handed an Amtrak press release detailing the great man's legendary career. Tells about riding on the...

The Talk of the Town Sunday by Hilton Als. Talk story about the Empire Roller Disco, in Brooklyn. The Roller Disco is located half a block away from where Ebbetts Field used to be. Writer meets Lakisha Wilson and her friends, Winsom Brown, Petal Johnson, Rakeem Farrah Turner and Ice: "No beginning, no middle and no end to me...

The Talk of the Town Oonbelievable by Guy Trebay. Talk story about the juggler Lottie Brunn. The writer saw the Russian Gregory Popovich juggle nine rings in a performance of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden. A companion observed that Popovich has art but not beauty, unlike Lottie Brunn. Michael Moschen, one of the...

Fiction Carmen by Rick Rofihe. Carmen's parents ran a tuxedo-rental and bridal gown store. Her mother, unhappy in her own marriage, advised customers to wait a few years before marrying. But now that Carmen is 31, her mother is pressuring her to marry. When Carmen was in high school, she assumed that she'd go...

Fiction Back Bay to the Bundu by Maria Thomas. Frances Eliot, an elderly Bostonian, meets a rancher named Stanley while on vacation in Kenya. He persuades her to settle in Kenya and buy a full partnership in his failing ranch on the bundu. To the astonishment of her Boston relatives, she does so, saying she wishes to spend her...

Profiles UNCONQUERABLE by Barry Paris. PROFILE of Marcia Davenport, 37, who has spanned the realms of music & literature for half a century. She was the first American to write a biography of Mozart, and is the last survivor of the celebrated novelists edited by Maxwell Parkins. She was the daughter of soprano Alma Gluck...

The Theatre BARRYMORE RETURNS by Edith Oliver.

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Current Cinema by Terrence Rafferty.

Letter from Medellin by Alma Guillermoprieto. Tells about the cocaine trade and the violent youth gangs of Medellin. Last year, the most violent in Medellin's history, more than 300 police officers were killed, along with some 3,000 youths between the ages of 14 & 25. In the first 2 months of this year, the rate has...

Books by Brad Leithauser.

Poetry Mr. Cogito Laments the Pettiness of Dreams by Zbigniew Herbert. Even dreams become smaller...

Poetry The Grandsire Bells by Linda Bierds. At first quick glance and lingering second...

Poetry Night Pleasures by Dave Smith. Where I come from land lies flat as paper...