The Talk of the Town Canyon by David Roe. Talk story about a hike through an unnamed canyon. The writer and two companions convened in the desert at some distance from the Las Vegas airport. Their itenerary began with lowering themselves on ropes for the steeper parts of a thousand-foot descent into the canyon's upper end. They would...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. Precision of thought has never been a hallmark of the worldwide debate about the American hostages in Iran, but in recent weeks the misconceptions and misrepresentations have reached a high point. The Iran govt. added to its long list of lies by claiming that Iraq acted as an instrument of...

Books Reading Stevenson by Naomi Bliven.

Fiction Brand-New Man by Ellis Weiner. The Same Old Futurist Rides Another Shock Wave) The writer surveys the history of man, breaking it down into the categories of Old Man, Man Man, New Man, and Brand-New Man. Using sociological and other jargon, he assembles a montage of familiar catch-phrases and historical cliches, juxtaposing meaningful...

Fiction I Spy by Daniel Menaker. David, the narrator, recalls his brief experience as an industrial spy. His father had once been involved in some minor espionage work for the Communist Party, and Jim McKay, an F.B.I. agent, had been assigned to follow him. The two men and their families subsequently became friends, and McKay, now...

The Talk of the Town Tanks by Mark Singer. Talk story about the Elmhurst gas tanks in Queens. The tanks, which are properly called the Newtown H. Holder Station, are two beige cylinders, ninety yards in diameter, that are supported by red-and-white super-structures twelve stories high. The tanks were built by the Brooklyn Union Gas Company...

Around City Hall Settling by Andy Logan. Tells about the transit strike, which shut down the city's subways and most of its buses from just after two in the morning, Tuesday, April 1 until mid-evening of Friday, April 11th. In the contract negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority--the state agency that runs the city's transit...

Dancing Doing the Old Low Down by Arlene Croce.

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

Musical Events Pastorale Heroique by Nicholas Kenyon.

The Talk of the Town Our Part by Ian Frazier. Talk story about observing the filming of a movie scene. The movie is "They All Laughed," directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Audrey Hepburn, John Ritter, and Ben Gazzara, and the writer is standing in the lobby of a hotel in New York where the scene is being filmed. The...

The Current Cinema DEPARTING TRAINS by Roger Angell.

Poetry Cleaning a Fish by Dave Smith. In her hand the knife, brisk, brilliant as moon-claw...

Poetry Rouge et Noir by Alex Stevens. How sootling the garments were...

Poetry Jean Rhys by Derek Walcott. In their faint photographs...

Poetry Get Up by Philip Levine. Morning wakens on time...