Comment by John Brooks. A man who keeps track of financial doings writes about a service now being offered, through brokers, to investors in gold, silver, and platinum by a Wall Street firm called Mocatta Metals Corp., which is the American affiliate of Mocatta & Goldsmid, Ltd., a London firm older than the Bank...

Musical Events Passion by Andrew Porter.

Fiction Sunday by Katinka Loeser. Narrator and her husband, Gladstone, used to spend their Sundays lying around the house, getting to know each ocher, watching "60 Minutes." Nowadays, they go to parties given by their friends. Her husband is something of a hypochondriac--he says his skin feels sore and he is a trifle giddy...

The Talk of the Town Triple Play by Alastair Reid. Talk story about the publication of a 400-page Trictionary, which renders some 3000 words in their Spanish, English, and Chinese forms, and which has been published by Art Resources for Teachers and Students or ARTS, an organization that has set in motion a variety of cultural projects on the...

The Sporting Scene FOR OPENERS by Roger Angell. THE SPORTING SCENE about baseball's 1982 Opening Day games, of which writer attended 3: Yankees vs. White Sox, at Yankee Stadium; White Sox vs. Red Sox, at Fenway; and the Mets vs. the Phillies, at Shea. Bad weather plagued most teams' spring training, and an early-April blizzard wiped out...

Fiction Starlight by Marian Thurm. When Elaine and her husband were divorced, her two sons, Jesse and Matthew, had decided to stay with her ex-husband. Elaine had felt grief, followed by anger, followed by humiliation. She hadn't seen the boys for months after the divorce, only talking to them once on the phone. Now...

The Talk of the Town Birthday Party at an East Side Townhouse by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story in conversation form about a birthday party for Gwendolyn, the twenty-six-year-old assistant editor of a literary magazine. There were over a hundred guests at the party. They all knew Gwendolyn and said they were glad to come. Gwendolyn stood in the middle of the room...

A Reporter at Large HOMECOMING I-THE HOUSE ON NEW CHINA ROAD by John Hersey. REPORTER AT LARGE about a recent visit to China. Writer was born in a house at 20 Recreation Road, in Tientsin, in North China, in 1914. That house was his home for eleven years. In 1925 his father, a missionary, fell ill, and the family moved back to the U.S...

Reflections MELVILLE'S WITHDRAWAL by John Updike. REFLECTIONS about the American writer Herman Melville (1819-91). In the mythology of American letters, the popular critical failure of his novel "Moby-Dick" and his subsequent withdrawal into wounded silence is a central image. Writer says, though, that inspection of Melville's books after "Moby-Dick" and of the biographical particulars...

The Talk of the Town THe Northville Ducks by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about the Ford Motor Company plant in Northville, Michigan, which Ford had closed, supposedly for good, late last year. On St. Patrick's Day this year, Ford announced the reopening of the plant. The town had gotten a lot of attention when it was revealed that the ducks in...

Dancing Finders Keepers by Arlene Croce.

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

Poetry The Tune He Saw by Cynthia MacDonald. Woods. A stand, waiting for the bite, the teeth...

Poetry The "Metro" by James Merrill. One level below street, an airless tank...