The Talk of the Town Seminar by Gerald Jonas. Talk story about an all-day seminar entitled "Frontiers of Research in the Neurosciences," organized by the Society for Neuroscience, held at Cornell University Medical College. Concerns an article in the British journal Nature that reported the discovery in coffee of a previously unsuspected "psychoactive" substance that might have powerful...

The Talk of the Town Imprinted Sportswear by William McKibben. Talk story about the National T-Shirt Show at the Sheraton Centre. Mr. Terry Cook, the publisher of "T-Shirt Retailer & Screen Printer" and host of the show, wasn't happy when asked if T-shirts were a fad. He said, "To that I say 'Nuts!' If it is...

Concert Records / Popular Music Beginnings by Winthrop Sargeant.

The Theatre PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG SAINT by Brendan Gill.

Dancing Bad News by Arlene Croce.

The Talk of the Town Hasty Pudding by William McKibben. Talk story about the New York run of Harvard College's annual Hasty Pudding presentation. Havard College's Hasty Pudding Theatricals commuted down from Cambridge for a three-day run of the 135th annual Pudding show, where an all-male cast performs in drag. Past productions have starred Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL BEEN DOWN SO LONG IT LOOKS LIKE UP by Andy Logan. Since Koch lost the gubernatorial nomination last Sept. there has been anear-absence of what used to be almost daily events: the sounds of the Mayor going on TV to bait one adversary or another on the local, the state, or even the international scene. Recently, though, Koch has suggested...

Fiction Patriotic by Janet Kauffman. Floyd Day helps the narrator bail hay on her farm. Floyd is her 17 year old neighbor. He is a high-school senior. He takes off his shirt. She is braless. She calls Mrs. Bagnoli, a tractor driver who lives on a farm 3 miles away. She drives up in...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. Almost immediately after Pres. Reagan proposed to change "the course of human history" by shielding the nation from nuclear attack with a system of defense that would become operative in the twent-first century, a host of objectionsNmost of them convincing, we thoughtNwere raised. Tells about the objections of the...

The Talk of the Town Expensive by Alec Wilkinson. Talk story about a reception announcing the most expensive apartments ever built in New York City. It was held in the sales office of 500 Park Avenue, above which the expensive apartments rise. A man whose company had helped finance the apartments told a reporter that out of a total...

Fiction The Wellman Twins by Mary A. Robison. You never lied to me," Bluey wrote before the point of his pencil snapped. He kept his writings in a loose binder that he titled "Letters to Ivy." There were 70 letters, more then 500 pages. He wanted to finish this latest one with a lie. There was noise at...

Books Larks by Mary D. Kierstead.

Musical Events Divine Spark by Andrew Porter.

A Reporter at Large I-A STATE OF WAR by Lawrence Weschler. REPORTER AT LARGE about Poland. In the fall of 1982 writer came to witness martial law in Warsaw. Solidarity had been permitted to exist officially for 16 months. It ended with Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski's coup on Dec. 13, 1981. The general and his colleagues engaged in a sort of self...

Poetry Approximation by Karen Fish. The sun is slow, its light tugging across the fields...

Poetry For Molly by Carl Dennis. For him to remember what he was...