The Talk of the Town Greenery by Marion Knox Barthelme. Talk story about a conference on urban horticulture at the New York Botanical Gardens--a 3 day meeting attended by more than 200 foresters, arborists, horticulturists, plant researchers & landscape architects. Tessa Huxley, executive director of the Green Guerillas, a ten-year-old volunteer group that helps New York...

A Reporter at Large I-THE LAW OF THE SEA by William Wertenbaker. REPORTER AT LARGE about the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which came to an end last winter after 9 years of deliberations, when nations subordinated some of their desires to a goal of general order & agreement. Several thousand people, from more than 150...

Books Louise in the New World, Alice on the Magic Molehill by John Updike.

Comment by William McKibben. Comment about the Sixties. A young friend writes that he was listening to FM radio and the disc jockey was talking about "the Sixties" as if they took place a long time ago, which in fact they did. He was born in 1960...and he missed all the fuss. If...

First Job Crossing the Line by John McGahern. A young man in Ireland comes to his first job at a school 100 miles from Dublin. Kennedy, the principal, picks him up at the train station & takes him to his Victorian cottage. Kennedy introduces him to his wife & 3 children. Kennedy asks if he's in...

A Political Journal by Elizabeth Drew. Entire column devoted to the "debategate" Scandal, which arose when it was discovered that Carter's briefing notes for the 1980 debate with Reagan had been acquired by the other side. Although Reagan originally made light of the matter, it blew up after Laurence Barrett's book, "Gambling with History," mentioned that...

The Talk of the Town Stars and Stripes by William McKibben. Talk story about Fredrick Davies demonstrating his astrological approach to interior decoration last week on the ninth floor of Gimbels. He advises people on the home furnishings they should purchase by considering their astrological sign. Perched behind a desk on the furniture-showroom floor, Mr. Davies spent all last week...

Fiction Kissing the President by Donald Barthelme. This story starts with a quotation from "The Post" about country singer Tammy Wynette kissing President Reagan on stage saying "You're so wonderful." Writer then parodies an interviewer asking an official questions like "What class of person is, under the U.S. Constitution & applicable statures, entitled to kiss the...

The Talk of the Town Boccie by David Updike. Talk story about boccie, a game the writer became interested in while he was in Italy. Boccie is played with heavy, grapefruit-size wooden balls, generally red or green. The balls are rolled down a long, narrow court of packed clay or sand toward a small white wooden ball, or...

Musical Events Pianists by Andrew Porter.

Poetry Two Brothers In a Field of Absence by Cynthia MacDonald. Because as they cut it was that special green, they decided...

Poetry Pollen by Brendan Galvin. As when a breeze...

Poetry The Clear Day by Douglas Dunn. Sunlight gathers in the leaves, dripping...