Fiction Luc and His Father by Mavis Gallant. To the astonishment of no one except his parents Luc Clairvoie fails the examination that should have propelled him into one of the finest engineering schools in Paris. Simone and Roger Clairvoie have tried all their lives to give Luc the best of everythig, but he remains remote and unconcerned...

Comment by James Stevenson. A late flash from our friend with the two-by-five-foot garden in the country. He said the lettuces he bought did very well. They turned into three edible-looking plants about the size of large grapefruits. Just when he was about to eat them, a friend came over...

The Current Cinema ACTORS AS HEROES by Pauline Kael.

The Talk of the Town Lace by Bobbie Ann Mason. Talk story about an exhibit of laces at the Cooper-Hewitt. The collection goes back four centuries. The fine handmade laces are extremely intricate and beautiful. Not all people wore lace. Just certain people. Lace was so big in France in the 17th century that Louis XIV issued a Lace...

Musical Events Under Way by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Bojangles' by William McKibben. Talk story about the opening of the first Bojangles' Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits in the North. Bojangles' is a fast-food store which specializes in "dirty rice" (rice with sausage and spices) biscuits and chicken. This particular store is located on 6th Ave between 45th and 46th Streets and is...

The Talk of the Town The Machines by Susan Lardner. Talk story about kids under drinking age spending most of their quarters this summer, on Fire Island, in the village of Ocean beach, on video games. Writer quotes the signs posted in various places where the young people played. Most of the signs requested that the kids refrain from doing...

A Reporter Aloft PLANE CRAZY by Burton Bernstein. A REPORTER ALOFT about taking flying lessons. Writer had always been enthusiastic about flying and once thought he might like to be a pilot. He tells his story in diary form. When he was 14 he began taking instruction from George R. Wiggin at a school in Norwood, Mass. When...

The Theatre Nora Comes Home by Edith Oliver.

Fiction Beneppo Or, the Squid of St.Andrew by Howard Moss. Parody of an opera synopsis in four acts. Act. I: Mikhail is failing in his studies, unbeknownst to his wife Maria, who sings her pride in his accomplishments in an Italian song whose title is wrongly translated as "My Heart Grows Tiny at Thy Command." Maria is being courted by...

Jazz King Again by Whitney Balliett.

Poetry The Fields by W. S. Merwin. Saturday on Seventh Street...

Poetry Tarantulas by Arthur Smith. If you fear them, you can find them...