Dancing by Alastair Macaulay.

A Reporter at Large IRISES by Calvin Tomkins. REPORTER AT LARGE about auctioning art, especially about the sale, last fall, of van Gogh's "Irises" at Sotheby's in New York. The painting was sold for forty-nine million dollars. The name of the new owner was never revealed. It had been owned by John Whitney Payson. His mother, Joan...

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. Albert Gore, who might possibly be a stronger Democratic Presidential nominee if he got a grip on his campaign & gave people more of a reason to follow him, may have started too late to become well enough known or a sufficiently developed candidate to give Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis...

Books by Helen Vendler.

The Talk of the Town Leonie Rysanek by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about Leonie Rysanek. Writer explains a major operatic career usually lasts about 25 years, but one of the remarkable exceptions is Leonie Rysanek, who was recently in town to sign 2 performances of Sieglinde in the Metropolitan Opera's production of "Die Walkure"--a role she first performed in...

The Current Cinema SOFT LIGHT AND HELLFIRE by Pauline Kael.

The Talk of the Town Bridge by Cynthia Zarin. Talk story about replacing the Williamsburg Bridge... The bridge, if not exactly falling down, doesn't inspire confidence these days--cables are corroding, the foundation has 10-foot cracks--& in a contests, sponsored by the Dept. of Transportation, architects & engineers have submitted plans for replacing or repairing it. One...

Fiction Bitterwater by Ann Cummins. Brenda, the narrator, married Manny when she was 18, and it broke her dad's heart. Manny got into her head right away, from practically the minute her family moved to the Navajo Reservation when she was 13. A bunch of them would play softball next to the mining-company housing...

Fiction The Little Knife by Michael Chabon. The last interminable summer before his parents separated, the Shapiros went to Nags Head, North Carolina, where Nathan aged 10, without planning to, perpetuated a great hoax. Nathan's father, Dr. Shapiro, seemed to be disappointed by his family. When Nathan's baseball team played against his father's team, every decision Nathan...

The Talk of the Town Breakfast at Tiffany's by Adam Gopnik. Talk story about being invited for lunch at Tiffany's to see some old jewelry that the staff had assembled for a show of gems and jewelry at the American Museum of Natural History celebrating Tiffany's 150th anniversary. Tiffany's senior gemologist, Peter Schneirla, and the Tiffany archivist, Janet Zapata, wanted to...

Comment by William Finnegan. Comment about Honduras... The Reagan Administration sent 4 battalions of troops to Honduras. They were making "a show of force." The occasion for the airlift was the incursion by Nicaraguan troops, fighting the weakened Contras, into a remote area of southern Honduras, but in a larger sense, the occasion was...

The Theatre POOR BUTTERFLY by Edith Oliver.

Poetry Fountain Park by Stanley Plumly. At a hundred feet or more the maples...

Poetry Goodbye by Vickie Karp. Upstairs, a man is writing a screenplay about assassins...