Jazz by Whitney Balliett.

Comment by Alexander Kaplen. At the checkout stand of a Greenwich Village grocery store, a middle-aged couple...discussed the end of summer. The man guessed...fall began on September 21st, but the woman... suggested September 22nd.... The woman behind the register disagreed.... Why, we wondered, hadn't these people understood that fall was already...

Fiction The Corridors of Mr. Cyril by Penelope Gilliatt. In London, George & Patricia decide to move--their house is falling apart rapidly. She wants to own their next house rather than be "lessees." She has found a house in Battersea that needs some work. George tells Patricia that likely the burden of moving will fall to her. He...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Post-Aspen by Susan Lardner. Talk story about Janet, who recently returned from the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. She has lost some very important checks. At Aspen the moderator chose her to direct "Antigone." She cut out all the parts she didn't understand--the parts about the grandparents sleeping with each other, the dismal...

Fiction Florida by Mavis Gallant. Marie had been living in Montreal with Bertha Carette, her sister, since the year her husband died. She had spent 8 Christmases of her life in Fla. where her son, Raymond, was establishing himself in the motel industry. Each time she went there, he was starting over in a new...

A Reporter Aloft SMALL AIRPORTS by Burton Bernstein. 2 A REPORTER ALOFT about visiting several small airports in the Northeast. Writer told his friend, the artist Ed Koren, about small airports and their habitues and they decided to take some trips together. Writer is a licensed light-airplane pilot. On Fri., Oct. 21, 1983 they took their first...

The Current Cinema TANGLED WEBS by Pauline Kael.

Books by Naomi Bliven.

The Art World (The Art Galleries) by Calvin Tomkins.

The Talk of the Town Roadside by James Stevenson. Illustrated Talk story about roadside vegetable stands in New England and on Long Island. "Keep it simple," was the advice of Arugula C. Kale, the Frank Lloyd Wright of roadside stands. There has been a good deal of innovation since Kale's unfortunate demise beneath six tons of Brussels sprouts. Writer...

Our Far-Flung Correspondents FEATHER RIVER COUNTRY by Bill Barich. OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS about fishing in the North Fork of the Feather River near Chester, California. Writer drove up from San Francisco last fall to do some trout fishing. Tells about the river, and the surrounding towns. In the 1850's, nearby Belson was a gold-mining center, as...

Comment by Lawrence Weschler. A young reporter we know writes: Friends sometimes ask me why I don't try writing a novel, but I' can't even imagine being able to write fiction, though I love reading it. For me the world is already filled with interconnections and consequences. I couldn't find room for fictional ones...

Poetry Autobiography by David Rigsbee. As soon as you leave, you enter...

Poetry Scenic View by William Matthews. From the scorch and poverty and from the cumin and opulence be...

Poetry Hard Cases by Vern Rutsala. You know what kinds of hats...