Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL HOW'M I DOIN'? by Andy Logan. Early last month there were rumors that a holdup of federal loan guarantees to N.Y.C. might occur. Serious questions were being raised about the reliability of the figures that the Koch Administration had supplied to the Treasury when it presented last winter's 4-yr. financial plan. Tells what was said...

The Talk of the Town Winning by Marion Knox Barthelme. Talk story about Sarah Ragle Weddington, who replaced Midge Costanza as Pres. Carter's special assistant, and the measure extending by 3 yrs. and 3 mos. the term for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Supporters were worried about an amendment by Sen. Jake Gam (R.--Utah) which would have allowed...

Dancing by Arlene Croce.

On Photography by Janet Malcolm.

Books by John Updike.

Comment by Jeremy Bernstein. Obituaries of Edgar Bergen, the ventriloquist, and of Jacques Brel, the singer-composer. Bergen died in his sleep in Las Vegas, shortly after announcing he was going to retire from show business. The writer recalls listening to Bergen on the radio and meeting him at a high school press conference...

The Talk of the Town Things by Kennedy Fraser. Talk story about a woman, whose project for the fall is getting rid of things. Possessions may be all right for people with stable lives, but not for New Yorkers. Writer does not want to die and leave behind a pile of boxes from Azuma. When her apartment was burglarized...

Profiles STRING QUARTET by Helen Drees Ruttencutter. PROFILE of the Guarneri Quartet, the preeminent string quartet in the world today. Michael Tree is the violist for the quartet. Tree, 44, talks about his musical education and his performing experience. He studied violin with his father, Samuel Applebaum, a well-known violin teacher, until he was 12 and...

The Talk of the Town Observer from Vietnam by Seymour M. Hersh. Talk story about interview with Nguyen Co Thach, a Deputy Foreign Minister of the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Writer spoke to Thach in New York, where he is holding private informal talks with Richard Holbrooke and other people in the U.S. State Department about establishing diplomatic relations between the...

Musical Events by Philip Hamburger.

The Race Track by G. F. T. Ryall. Nelson Bunker Hunt's kentucky-bred Exceller won the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park last Saturday...

Books by John Updike.

Fiction Green Georgette by Edna O'Brien. As a girl of 12, the narrator and her mother are invited to the Jamesons', a rich family with a grand house in the town of Tubbercurry, Ireland. The little girl has seen Mrs. Jameson in church and admires her wardrobe. Vera Jameson lives with her husband Hugh, a banker...

The Current Cinema DETECTIVES-THE CAPON AND THE BABY BOWWOW by Pauline Kael.

Fiction Somewhere Else by Grace Paley. The narrator and 22 other Americans were touring China They took lots of pictures, even though they were told not to without asking permission. They loved China, the revolution, and Mao Tse-tung. One day, Wong, the political guidance counsellor in the Travel Service, accused Freddy Lorenz of photographing a...

Poetry Five Poems by Yannis Ritsos. O distant, distant; deep unapproachable; receive always...

Poetry New Graveyard in New Jersey by John Hollander. One stands almost grateful in the freezing air...