Comment by William Finnegan. A whiff of amesia was in the air a few weeks ago when President Bush, in a commencement address at the US Military Academy at West Point, got on the subject of race relations, and declared, "Black and white,the great civil-rights leaders of the fifties and sixties deplored...

The Talk of the Town Levels of New York by George W. S. Trow. Talk story about Galeries Lafayette, which is replacing Bonwit Teller in New York. "Bonwit Teller Leaves Manhattan --For Syracuse" is a headline for which even a close reading of Nostradamus had not prepared us. We brooded over the history of Bonwit Teller in New York. We thought about how splendid...

The Talk of the Town Dead Heat by Amy Clyde. Talk story about the competition between songwriters Red Mascara and Angelo Nigro to write the official state song of New Jersey. Red has been lobbying the New Jersey State Legislature for more than 30 years on behalf of his tune "I'm from New Jersey." He passes out gumdrops to everyone...

The Talk of the Town Ticker Tape by Guy Trebay. Talk story about the ticker tape parade, on Broadway, for veterans of the Persian Gulf War. The writer didn't believe in the war, but attended the celebration for the hoopla. On the subway downtown, a man said, "After Vietnam there were so many negatives." The country has done a pretty...

Fiction Fatal Wish by Lore Segal. Ilka meets Jimmy Carl at her first New York party, and they have a casual affair. Jimmy gets a job with the ACLU in Washington. Several years later, Ilka receives an appointment as a junior associate at the Concordance Institute in Connecticut. Jimmy gets a job there as director of...

Profiles PLAYING POSSUM by John Lahr. PROFILE of Australian comic Barry Humphries who gives solo performances on the British stage as Dame Edna Everage, a character he has created. Tells about his 1989 appearance at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London. He was repeating his 1987 revue & taking in 160,000 pounds a week from...

Our Local Correspondents Shantytown by James Lardner. OUR LOCAL CORRESPONDENTS about a shantytown on a dusty hummock adjoining the Canal Street end of the Manhattan Bridge, called the Hill. The settlement is small, only about 20 people living in fifteen structures. It is the most permanent-looking of all the city's current shantytowns...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Current Cinema DIVIDED SELF by Terrence Rafferty.

Books by John Updike.

Poetry After K. 452 by Richard Howard. In conversation, even...

Poetry On the Back of the Boarding Pass by W. S. Merwin. In the airport by myself I forget...

Poetry The Gulf by James Ulmer. Along the Gulf, we bury the dead...