Feminine Fashions by Kennedy Fraser. Whole column devoted to women writers' clothes. Describes clothing and style of Colette, Virginia Woolf, and Dame Edith Sitwell, among others. Calls Sitwell's dramatic style a kind of disguise. How women look, and how their looks change in the course of their lives, is not a frivolous question. It is...

The Talk of the Town Magic by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about watching two rehearsalsNthe second time a dress rehearsalNof a new production of Carl Maria von Weber's opera "Der Freischutz," at the City Opera...

Comment by Daniel Menaker. We've received a note from a friend of ours who lives on the Upper West Side. He said the Marathon was terrific, as usual--galvanizing the whole city. He watched from the same station he took last year--the East Drive in Central Park near Fifth Ave. at about 86th...

Fiction Sister Imelda by Edna O'Brien. When the narrator was a student at a convent school, she fell in love with a young nun named Sister Imelda. She was Sister Imelda's petNSister Imelda gave her small presents and helped her with her geometry. She kissed the narrator on the night of the school play. Sister Imelda...

Musical Events Celebration by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Piggybacking, Shoehorning, and ULURP by Alastair Reid. Talk story about a pre-opening visit to an exhibit on zoning put on by the Municipal Art Society at the Villard Houses. Writer spoke with Shirley Secunda who conceived and coordinated it. She said they wanted to put on some kind of citizens' primer. She decided to lay out...

Fiction Rx for Matterhorn Motors by Bruce McCall. Illustrated story in the form of suggestions to improve a failing automobile manufacturing business (Matterhorn Motors.) Eg., 1. Admit that in U.S. buyersO minds a Korean-made small car is not the same as a Japanese-made small car. Face the probability that the $399 price tag may have been...

Jazz Ellington Theatre by Whitney Balliett.

The Current Cinema by Pauline Kael. Review of Brazilian film "Pixote," about children in the urban slums, directed by Hector Babenco...

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

Letter from Europe by Jane Kramer. Paris, October 26NThe writer's concierge, Mme. Goncalves, is Portuguese. She & her husband lived in Angola for many years, returning to Portugal after Angola became independent. Back home, the "retornados" received a poor welcomeNthere was no work & no housingNand the Goncalves ended up in France, along with...

Books Updike by V. S. Pritchett.

A Reporter in Poland AND THERE WAS LIGHT I-MAY, 1981 by Lawrence Weschler. REPORTER IN POLAND. The current national renewal began in 1980. That summer, the Moscow Olympics were held. There was a rise in meat prices in Poland. Many Poles felt their meat was being shipped to Moscow for the festivities, and the meat price decree provoked a rolling series of strikes...

The Talk of the Town Reagan Genealogy by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about Pres. Ronald Reagan's genealogy. Writer looked into the subject with the help of Dr. Hugh Peskett, the Senior Genealogist of "Debrett's Peerage," and reports that our chief executive is half Irish (on his father's side) and one-quarter Scots and one-quarter English (on his mother's side...

Poetry Dawn.: What I Might Have Dreamed by T. R. Hummer. It always has to begin...

Poetry Gathering Kindling by Ira Sadoff. I pick up the fallen branches...