Profiles ALLOCATING SACRIFICE by Jeremy Bernstein. PROFILE of financier Felix George Rohatyn. Since 1960, when he was 31, he has been a partner in the investment-banking firm of Lazard Freres & Co. He has helped engineer mergers & acquisitions involving billions of dollars, including the acquisition of the Hartford Fire Insurance Co. by I.T.T...

Letter from Europe by Jane Kramer. LETTER about the French reaction to the present economic crisis and to the rhetoric of the new Socialist President Francos Mitterand. Writer relates an ancecdote about her landlady, Mme. Goncalves, in which Mme. came to the sudden conclusion that she was having an economic crisis because she couldn't afford turkey...

Musical Events Queen in Babylon by Andrew Porter.

Fiction Mexican Dust by Alice Adams. Miriam is travelling in Mexico with her husband, Eric, and another couple, Joan and Russell. All are old friends but Eric, Joan and Russell have much more in common with each other than Miriam does. She feels increasingly estranged during the trip. Joan and Eric are twins. Both are doctors...

Comment by Alan Meckler. A friend writes: About a year ago, with my wife and four children, I moved into an eight-room apartment overlooking the East River. The building was put up by Vincent Astor around 1930, and until a couple of weeks ago something about the place made me uneasy. All our...

Fiction Coney Island by Ann Beattie. Drew and his friend Chester sit drinking in Chester's apartment in Arlington. (The story is set in Arlington, Virginia, though this is not stated.) Chester's wife is in the hospital for the night after having minor surgery to discover if she has a fertility problem. Drew has driven across the...

The Talk of the Town Honorable Guess by Philip Hamburger. Talk story about David Hare, the 35-year-old British author and director of the play "Plenty," who was in this country briefly to supervise the play's move from the Public Theatre downtown, to the Plymouth Theatre, uptown, where it has since opened to considerable critical acclaim. Hare said he...

The Talk of the Town Opening by William McKibben. Talk story about reopening the New York Public Library on Thursdays. The library had been closed on Thursdays since 1975, when the city was short of cash and all municipal departments had to do some cutting back. Last fall, thanks to the Chase Manhattan Bank, the historian Barbara Tuchman, and...

The Current Cinema HOPELESS by Pauline Kael.

The Talk of the Town Automobile Show by E. J. Kahn. Talk story about a cocktail party at the Sheraton Centre Ballroom thrown by Lee Iacocca, the chairman of the Chrysler Corporation. There was a 17-piece Duke Ellington ensemble with Mercer E. conducting. There were a dozen or so highly polished new cars placed around the big room. Tells about...

Poetry The House Where Lord Rochester Died by Nicholas Christopher. The embarrassment of the swans...

Poetry Lying by Richard Wilbur. To claim, at a dead party, to have spotted a grackle...

Poetry Tracks by Robert Mazzocco. What separates people...