Musical Events Thought-Executing Fires by Andrew Porter.

A Political Journal by Elizabeth Drew. Like much of Washington, the White House has seemed to be suffering from a kind of overload, from too many subjects to cope with: Central America, the Middle East, arms control, the budget, the MX missile, the economy, the environment, China, race. A White House aide said to the writer...

The Talk of the Town Falling by William McKibben. Talk story about FreeFall, a ride at the Great Adventure amusement park in Jackson, New Jersey. The park has, among other things, the largest safari outside Africa and plants 98,000 flowers annually. FreeFall simulates the feeling of falling from a 13-story building. It takes about three seconds at a...

Comment by Lawrence Weschler. In his recent speech before the joint sessions of Congress Reagan remarked that El Salvador is nearer to Texas than Texas is to Massachussets, and that Nicaragua is just as close to Miami, San Antonio, San Diego, and Tucson as those cities are to Washington. If those citizens were to...

The Talk of the Town Reopening by Wallace White. Talk story about the reopening of the Puck Building. Writer went to a supper&grand ball to which over 2000 guests had been invited. Writer described the evening as big, festive, gilded, choreographed, publicized, packed&literary. The Puck Building is a 9 story Romanesque Revival structure that covers...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL SETBACKS by Andy Logan. There has been a bitter confrontation between Mayor Koch and the local black leaders over the naming of a new chancellor for the city's schools. One Feb. 22 it was announced that at the Mayor's urging, Robert Wagner, Jr., his friend and the deputy mayor for policy in his administration...

Fiction Figures in the Distance by Jamaica Kincaid. A woman who lived on the island of Antigua in the West Indies, remembers her childhood thoughts on death. She thought that only people she didn't know died. She was afraid of the dead because she didn't know when they might show up again-in dreams or standing under trees...

The Talk of the Town A Short Tennis Story by Lillian Ross. Talk story about tennis players in Central Park. Writer quotes, at some length, from an overheard conversation. It was the "rainiest spring on record" and "On one of the first clear mornings" she sat down near Flora, a regular player in her fifties who was joined by Kenneth, a regular...

The Theatre Hit by Edith Oliver.

Reflections Kafka's Short Stories by John Updike. REFLECTIONS on Franz Kafka, German-speaking Jewish writer who lived in Prague at the turn of the century. During his lifetime Kafka published few works, and urged his fianc e, Dora Dymant, and his friend Max Brod to burn his writings after his death. Dora obeyed but Max didn't; thus...

The Talk of the Town Speed and Roses by William McKibben. Talk story about Barbara Cartland, the romantic novelist. When the writer last spoke to her in her home outside of London in 1976, she was 75 & had published 217 books--170 of them novels--with a total of 70 million copies in print. The writer encountered Miss Cartland...

Fiction Trip by Frederick Barthelme. Harry Lang met Fay at a corporate sensitivity workshop in San Antonio last year. They have spent the last 6 months having long & wistful phone conversations on their company WATS line. Though she is married, they decide to meet in Dallas. Harry's company Chevrolet breaks down on the...

Dancing Loyal to the Royal by Arlene Croce.

Poetry Growing Stones in New Hampshire by Mekeel McBride. That first year we turned the soil...

Poetry Chelsea by Robert Long. I'm comfortable here, on 50 mg. of Librium...