Books by George Steiner.

Annals of Exploration THE NORTH BORNEO EXPEDITION OF 1981 by Caroline Alexander. ANNALS OF EXPLORATION about the North Borneo Expedition team of 3 young American women, who went to Sabah, a small state in northeastern Borneo, to collect virus-infected insects for the Institute of Virology at Oxford, in 1981. The Institute wanted infected pest specimens in order to extract and analyze...

Comment by Amanda Hirsch. This is an excerpt from the journal of a friend who, on occasion, helps to staff a volunteer shelter for the homeless at Ansche Chesed Synagogue, on West 100th Street. Here is an account of how things go on a typical evening. She and her friend, Doug, arrive at 7:30...

Reflections HARD TIMES by Robert Heilbroner. REFLECTIONS about the decline of the American economy & the collapse of foreign trade... In virtually every year from 1896 to 1981--with the exception of 1977 & 1978, when we incurred a tremendous oil bill because of the 2nd OPEC crisis--we sold more goods & services abroad than...

Fiction Jock is Back by George W. S. Trow. Dallas" update: For a while recently, it seemed possible that Jock Ewing, family patriarch, presumed dead in a South American plane crash, was alive and back at South Fork) Conversation in play form between two men, One and Second One, who sit facing a light source upstage. They are talking...

The Talk of the Town Miss Muse by Nancy Ramsey. Talk story about the crowning of Sophia Sung, of Taipei, as Miss World Culture, or Miss Muse... When writer received word of this, on a sunny Friday afternoon, she headed to Suite 1422 of the Omni Park Central Hotel to meet Miss Muse & was greeted by Evelyn Neinken, a...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL CRUCIBLE by Andy Logan. Anyone who doubts that politicans sort out voters here according to ethnic or racial roots might consult Koch's book "Mayor." ... That book was a best-seller. Koch told reporters that he expected to cash in again by enlightening the public on another subject: dieting. Two weeks after he returned to...

Fiction Admirals by Michael Chabon. Nathan, who is in high school, and his younger brother, Ricky, are driving with their father, Dr. Shapiro, and his girlfriend Anne, to Annapolis to stay in a motel even though they are only a half an hour away from where Nathan, Ricky, and their mother live. Anne is the...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Pier 40: A Remembrance by Mark Singer. Talk story about a three-block-long three-level parking facility on Pier 40, at Houston and West Street, right next to the Hudson River. The Port Authority recently shut the whole thing down because of the structural unsoundness of the pier pilings. A friend recalls the parking facility, from...

The Talk of the Town Walking the Cyclone by Thomas Hackett. Talk story about Walter Williams, the head repairman at the Coney Island Cyclone, who asked writer, in honor of the roller coaster's sixtieth anniversary, to join him for a walk along the tracks, which rise to 91 feet. The Cyclone--owned by the city but operated, under a license, by...

Poetry September by Nina Cassian. See, September is here. I used to address him...