The Talk of the Town The Whole Life by William McKibben. Talk story about going to the Whole Life Expo at the Sheraton Center, which featured various natural aids to physical and spiritual well-being. Potentials Unlimited of Grand Rapids, Mich. was featuring a range of self-hypnosis tapes designed to help a person "make his life better." The tapes played...

Musical Events Toil and Trouble by Andrew Porter.

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

The Current Cinema RAUNCH AND RETICENCE by Pauline Kael.

The Talk of the Town Clarke's World by Jeremy Bernstein. Talk story about interviewing science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke at the Waldorf, where he had come to promote his latest novel, "2010: 0dyssey Two." The novel is already #7 on the NY Times bestseller list. Clarke presently lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and he greets writer in his typical...

A Reporter at Large II-POLITICS AND MONEY by Elizabeth Drew. REPORTER AT LARGE about political fund-raising and spending for federal candidates. The idea that Presidential campaigns have been freed from private money and that candidates proceed on an equal financial footing is a myth. The laws governing the contributions and expenditures for these campaigns are riddled with loopholes. Now...

The Talk of the Town Harvard vs. China by E. J. Kahn. Talk story about the basketball game played between Harvard and the Jiangsu Club from Peking, China, at Harvard's newly refurbished Briggs Athletic Center. Harvard won 113-73. The Chinese team looked tired, according to Harvard's coach, Frank McLaughlin. The Jiangsu Club were on their tenth day of a twelve-day tour...

Comment by Suzannah Lessard. Comment on the increasing subjectivity of the news and of books. Writer looks at an ad which CBS is currently using to promote their news program: Under a blowup of a broadcaster is the caption, "If it concerns you, it concerns us." To the extent that what interests us in...

Fiction The Black Peugeot by Georgia A. Brown. Molly, the narrator, keeps getting calls from friends asking how Ben, her husband, is. The couple has split up, however, and Molly reminisces to herself about the early years of their marriage--in particular the Black Peugeot which they lived in for a year as they travelled in Europe. At...

Fiction The Sledding Party by Steven Millhauser. Catherine is a teenager at the Anderson's sledding party. She likes the fact that half the party takes place indoors in the playroom and the other half on the snowy slope behind the house; she can move from one spot to another without feeling trapped. She is outside on the...

Poetry Last Words by Philip Levine. If the shoe fell from the other foot...