Fiction Uncle Leopold by Sergei Dovlatov. The narrator, who lived in the Soviet Union, recalls how he used to be excited by his Uncle Leopold's fate. Leopold grew up a hustler. He ran away from Vladisvostok (their hometown in Russia) and finally ended up in Belgium. No one had heard from him in some time and...

The Talk of the Town Wimps by Richard Preston. Talk story about physicists who are searching for the Dark Matter. They are convinced that most of the universe is made up of unknown matter--they call this alien stuff Dark Matter. The race to find Dark Matter has begun. Tne physicists, half of them graduate students and postdoctoral fellows...

The Talk of the Town Unique Concept by Mark Singer. Talk story about Execucoach, a Rochelle Park, N.J, outfit, run by Rich Fleischer, Frank Karlsson and Rich Karlsson. They came up 5 years ago with Zimmer Motor Coach, a 9-passenger design that "offer the utility of a boardroom while maintaining all the style, status, and appeal of a true...

Fiction The Last Segment by Ian Frazier. The writer places himself in the audience attending the last Mary Tyler Moore show. He describes how emotional the cast became, as well as the crew. He then describes how his life has been changed since that last episode. He tells of several people in his life who have either...

The Theatre OSCAR WILDE, SUPERSTAR by Mimi Kramer.

A Critic at Large HOWELLS AS ANTI-NOVELIST by John Updike. A CRITIC AT LARGE about William Dean Howells. The 150th anniversary of his birth is this year, and has been celebrated quietly. Howells was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, in 1837, the son of a country-newspaper editor. His family moved to various Ohio towns. The adolescent boy undertook a...

The Talk of the Town The New Statue of Liberty by Adam Gopnik. Talk story about Ernst Neizvestny, who designed the New Statue of Liberty, which will sit on an island in the harbor of the city of Kao-shiung in Taiwan. He is 61 years old and in 1976 he emigrated from the Soviet Union to America. When he is not making...

A Reporter at Large I-GETTING THE STORY by William Finnegan. REPORTER AT LARGE about South Africa. Writer spent time with Jon Qwelane, 34, a black journalist, who works for the Johannesburg "Star". He is the senior black reporter on the paper. Tells about a visit to KwaNdebele, a small Bantustan, or "black self-governing state", northeast of Pretoria & describes...

Comment by William Finnegan. Comment about the Gay/Lesbian Pride parade which took place on a Sunday in Manhattan. Joe Avena, the head of the Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps. Band, which was marching at the very front of the parade, remarked before the parade began, "If there's somebody out there with a...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Current Cinema PONDEROSO by Pauline Kael.

Poetry Meadowlark Country by Amy Clampitt. Speaking of the skylark in a New England classroom...

Poetry The Belfast Tune by Joseph Brodsky. Here's a girl from a dangerous town...