The Talk of the Town Cherry Stems by Veronica Geng. Talk story about a friend of the writer's who recently demonstrated how to tie a cherry stem into a knot inside your mouth. He used fresh-cherry stems. He said it was easier with maraschino-cherry stems, which are softer. The shorter the stem the more difficult it is to...

The Current Cinema NOODLES by Pauline Kael.

Letter from the Ticino by William Murray. We've been Swiss for not quite 200 years," the young man said, "but we've been Italian for a thousand." Writer had found the area to be typically Swiss; that is to say, neat, clean, orderly, efficient--not like Italy at all. "I go to Italy on my vacation every year...

Fiction Three Great Meals by Donald Barthelme. In this article, writer tells "you how to make three great meals using standard ingredients. By 'standard ingredients' I mean things that can be found in any supermarket from one end of the country to the other." He names names, and tells you what brands he uses, because those are...

Centennial Comment by Lawrence Weschler. As the congressional hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal grind on into the bicentennial summer of our country's Constitution, the Reagan Administration's various alibis for its activities in Nicaragua have been falling away one by one & the disguise of an innocuous foreign policy venture has been lifted to show...

A Reporter at Large II-A MIRACLE, A UNIVERSE by Lawrence Weschler. REPORTER AT LARGE about the use of torture against political opponents by Brazilian military governments between 1964 & 1979, which was revealed in the book "Brasil: Nunca Mais", published in Brazil in 1985. The book was the result of a daring& dangerous secret project supervised over a 6-year...

The Theatre STOPOVER by Edith Oliver.

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Garbage by Nancy Ramsey. Talk story about garbage and the inefficient way it's being handled here compared to the effective way it's handled in Japan. Writer listens to Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, who is the director of the solid-waste-research program of INFORM, a non-profit environmental group. Dr. Hershkowitz talks with writer just...

The Talk of the Town Gondolas by Adam Gopnik. A talk story about a Venitian gondola donated to Central Park by Lucy Moses, an elderly philanthropist... Miki Gutman, the gondola's P.R. person, said of Moses, "I think she may have had a love affair in Venice, or maybe she just had a love affair with Venice. She thought that...

Books by George Steiner.

The Talk of the Town Under the Boardwalk by Stanley Mieses. Talk story about a friend who came upon Sing a Song Studio on St. Mark's Place, one of those storefront recording places that have been popping up around town. He decided to "record" Selection No. 61., the Drifter's 1964 classic, "Under the Boardwalk." Describes the recording studio and his experience...

Profiles A PAINTING DERVISH by Dan Hofstadter. PROFILE of artist Avigdor Arikha, 58. He is a remarkable repository of experience both social & artistic. One of the few contemporary painters who have won a large reputation for paintings executed from observation, he grew up far from the centers of European art, in Czernowitz, in the province of...

Fiction Errand by Raymond Carver. In March of 1897 Chekhov was dining at an elegant restaurant in Moscow when blood began gushing from his mouth. He returned to his hotel, and later, after another hemmorhage, allowed himself to be moved to a clinic that specialized in the treatment of t.b. and related respiratory infections There...

Poetry The Bathers by Stanley Moss. In the great bronze tub of summer...

Poetry The Rose Beetle by W. S. Merwin. It is said that you came from China...