A Reporter at Large II-THE THIN EDGE by Robert Shaplen. REPORTER AT LARGE about the Philippines. Writer tells about a week spent on the island of Negros, the country's fourth largest. Negros has become a principal testing ground for Pres. Aquino's unfinished & increasingly troubled revolution. The most important reason for this is the decline in demand for the island's...

Comment Comment, Pt. II by Adam Gopnik. An indignant friend writes: I am a North American binational-childhood & elementary school in Philedelphia, adolescence & higher education in Montreal... Once every 4 years, for 2 weeks in Sept., I become entirely Canadian, for this is when the Canada Cup hockey tournament takes place. The Cup is the...

Comment Comment, Pt. I by C. P. Crow. Comment following revelations that Sen. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., used lengthy quotes from other politician's speeches without acknowledging his sources... We have received a communication from a friend who has decided to add his name to the list of next year's Presidential candidates: Observe good faith & justice toward all...

Books by Clive James.

Profiles THE MAN WHO LOST HIS HUMILITY by Whitney Balliett. PROFILE of singer Julius La Rosa... La Rosa's career reached bottom very soon after it began--in 1953, when he was 23. For 2 years he had been a member of the oppressed band of entertainers that the radio-&-TV personality Arthur Godfrey had gathered about him...10 days...

The Talk of the Town Release by John McPhee. Talk story about Robert Russell, a professor at Franklin and Marshall College,in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Prof. Russell, who is blind, has taught there for 32 years, taking his rotation as chairman of the English Department, and writing, meanwhile, innumerable articles and several books. Russell turned away from his computer to...

Fiction Hostess by Donald Mangum. The narrator's husband was promoted & with the raise they moved into a double-wide trailer... Tells about a chaotic housewarming party they had... Well, Meg drank herself to tears & holed up in the toilet. It was seeing R.L. with that tramp down in 18 that made her do...

The Talk of the Town Taste of Texas by William Finnegan. Talk story about going to the Puck Building in SoHo to visit the Taste of Texas food show. Thirty-six Texas companites were displaying their wares. Describes some of the food...

Our Footloose Correspondents FIVE DAYS IN FINLAND AT THE AGE OF FIFTY-FIVE by John Updike. OUR FOOTLOOSE CORRESPONDENTS about writer who was asked to come to: Sweden for a conference, and agreed if he could also spend five days in Finland, for fun. He went to Helsinki in mid-August, and it was raining. He took a train to Savonlinna the heart of the region...

Fiction Half Past Four by Ursula K. Le Guin. Half Past Four” is the title of a short story which is composed of 8 stories titled “A New Life”, “Unbreaking”, “The Tiger”, “Living in Yinland”, “Mirroring”, “Earthworks” “The Photograph” &”The Story”which share character-names & some of the same places & situations. The main constant factor is...

Poetry Cosmetics by Mary Stewart Hammond. Cremation? Honey, you've got to be kidding...