The Talk of the Town Devil's Advocates by Amy Clyde. Talk story about Chrome, Scum, and Celluloid, a 24-night biker-movie festival at the Anthology Film Archives in the East Village. Writer picked up some festival literature which described "Devil's Angels" and 17 other movies which were to be screened. During intermission writer met Ivan Lerner, the curator of...

Fiction Dirty Wedding by Denis Johnson. The narrator tells how he liked to ride the El trains in Chicago, when he was in his mid-20s and living with a girl named Michelle. Michelle becomes pregnant and has an abortion. The narrator becomes unruly in the abortion clinic, and is ejected by a security guard. He...

Comment by Ronnie Dugger. Comment about the potential bombing of Baghdad by American forces. Tells about the bellicose statements from various quarters. When military people talk about bombing cities, they usually try to get across the idea that they don't intend to bomb civilians--it's just that civilians get in the way. The military...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL LURCHING by Andy Logan. Within a short time last month, decline hit the former high approval ratings of both the President and New York's mayor. "He's in a free fall," New Yorker's Senator Daniel Moynihan said of Bush, and during the next few days it seemed that half the City Hall regulars were describing...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Books by Jeremy Bernstein.

Obituary by E. J. Kahn. Obituary of "New Yorker" editor William Knapp, who died on Friday, October 12th, at 70...

The Current Cinema EARTHLY PLEASURES by Terrence Rafferty.

In Fashion by Holly Brubach.

Profiles THE ODOR OF PICKLED RADISHES by Phyllis Birnbaum. PROFILE of Japanesefilm actress Hideko Takamine. She was the favorite actress of Mikio Naruse & Keisuke Kinoshita, two of the most esteemed directors of the postwar period. In Japan, at that time, where her films were often set, her heroines encountered bonecrushing disappointment. The kinds of roles she played fit...

Books BOOKS FEET OF CLAY by Jeremy Bernstein. Full-column review of a biography of Erwin Schrodinger, the Austrian polymath by the physical chemist Walter Moore. The book is called "Schrodinger: Life and Thought...

The Talk of the Town Sofa by Susan Lardner. Janet talk story about moving a sofa out of Janet's apartment. Janet tells writer about meeting someone named Quentin, or a name to that effect, who she met on the train to White Plains. Quentin told her he did not like brown sofas. She decided to get rid of her...

Fiction Over Doyles' Drop-Off by Peter Brown. The 14-year-old narrator, Samuel, has been spending time with his lakeside neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Doyle, a couple in their 50s. He fishes with Mrs. Doyle in a rowboat anchored at the drop-off toward deep water in the lake, in front of the Doyles' house. Mr. Doyle...

The Theatre PUBLIC NUISANCE, PUBLIC DOMAIN by Mimi Kramer.

The Talk of the Town Winner by Alec Wilkinson. Talk story about Anne Breeding, who won a WNEW Giants Ticket Sweepstakes for writing a song showing her love for the New York Giants. Her entry, "Way Down in the Jersey Swamps," was submitted last winter, but Bob Papa, the host of "The Tailgate Show," which sponsors the contest, liked...

Poetry White Bears: Tolstoy at Astapovo by Linda Bierds. The wheels of the train were a runner's heartbeat...

Poetry Granite by John Updike. New England doesn't kid around...