Comment Comment, Pt. I by Raymond Bonner. Comment about news coverage in black Africa and the nation of Burundi... African complaints that journalists only cover bad news--floods, famines, violence, civil wars--were ehightened last month when foreigners bearing press credentials invaded the Central African nation of Burundi, a country that is smaller than nearby Lake Victoria...

Casual THE CASUALNESS OF IT by Whitney Balliett. PROFILE of comedian Jackie Mason. Writer talks about his stage presence and says that it's hard to believe that there is only one person onstage after 15 minutes of his current Broadway show "The World According to Me." Mason was convinced to try a one-man show by his friend...

Fiction Two Men by Denis Johnson. Story about three men, the narrator and his companions Tom and Richard on a night when they encounter two other men. These three aren't exactly friends, but they hang out together and commit petty crimes together. One night they left a dance after the narrator was caught kissing a woman...

Fiction The Prince of Wales by Bette Pesetsky. Story about a 15-year-old girl, Cissie, who lives in a poor neighborhood in the 1950's and is only interested in gossip. Her family moved often, and one reason she was so interested in gossip was because it "was at home anywhere" She thinks that gossip is like...

A Reporter at Large II-LARGE CARS by Bryan Di Salvatore. A REPORTER AT LARGE about truck driver Lonnie Umphlett, truck stops & driving long-distance trucks. Writer tells how Umphlett manages his driving logs. According to Lonnie, a driver creates a narrative line, whose success depends on the likelihood that his logbook will be inspected by weigh station authorities only...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Hundred-and-Fortieth by Lizbeth Rosenberg. A talk story about visiting the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca FAlls, NY, on the 140th anniversary of the first women's rights convention. Because the Wesleyan chapel in which the original meeting was held had been remodelled several times and was an empty laundromat when the park was...

Letter from New Delhi by Ved Mehta. Early in 1986, the "Indian Express" published articles alleging that the chairman of Reliance Industries, Dhirubhai Ambani, who was a business titan and was thought to be a major contributor to the Congress Party, had illegally imported machinery, and Rajiv's government had looked the other way. The articles clearly implied...

The Talk of the Town Digger by Brendan Dealy. Talk story about Digger O'Day, the founder, president, and sole employee of Digger O'Day Finder's Service. Early one morning writer flew up to Montreal to interview O'Day. Tells about his work. It involves finding unusual things for people. He works out of and divides his time between a trailer office...

Books by Brad Leithauser.

Comment Comment, Pt. II by Garrison Keillor. Comment about demonstration page writer found in a typewriter, this summer, and travelling in Europe, as well as ocean dumping... It occurred to us the other day that maybe we could catch up on the letters we owe people if we bought a better typewriter--one with some memory capacity...

The Talk of the Town Fiftieth by Whitney Balliett. A talk story about when the writer was caught in the great hurricane of 1938. He was on a train on his way to the Fessenden School, a private day and boarding school in West Newton, MA, for the first time. The school had taken a private car for its...

Poetry Incandescence at Dusk by Edward Hirsch. There is fire in everything...

Poetry One Sounding for a Final Note by Celia Gilbert. She concentrates on a wooden sound...

Poetry The Box Turtle by Cynthia Zarin. Long-lived, repository of memory; secretive...