Letter from London by Mollie Panter-Downes. Three thousand invited friends, many of whom had come from abroad for the occasion, packed the Royal Festival Hall the other evening for a concert in affectionate honor of the 100 birthday of Sir Robert Mayer, born into a cultivated Jewish family in Mannheim, who has spent himself and his...

Fiction The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth. Part Two Nathan Zuckerman, staying overnight in the Berkshire home of famous writer E.I. Lonoff, attempts to write a letter to his father, in Newark, who was devastated by a story Nathan wrote chronicling a family scandal. He thought it made Jews look like money-grubbing kikes He eavesdrops on...

The Talk of the Town Miss Jamaica by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about a cocktail party held for Miss Jamaica, Joan McDonald of Kingston, Jamaica. She is a member of the Jamaica School of Dance...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. In recent months, the term "boat people" has come to be widely used in reference to the tens of thousands of Vietnamese who are being driven out to sea from Vietnam in small, unseaworthy boats. Lately, the majority of these people have belonged to Vietnam's ethnic-Chinese community ..It is...

Around City Hall Recess by Andy Logan. Mayor Koch attended many of the celebrations for Radio City Music Hall, and other city landmarks, that fell in the 3-week period this spring. He had vowed to be a strictly business mayor. His standing in the polls remains high. Tells about the "Times" editorial, "Baloney Pictures," on the...

Books by John Updike.

On and Off the Avenue Feminie Fashions by Kennedy Fraser. Column about designers' fall collections for businesswomen. They are mainly suits with feminine accessories, often derived from designs of the past, particularly the 40's. Nostalgic fashion, now referred to in America as "retro," has been around for ages...

U. S. Journal DISCOVERING THE STElNETTES by Calvin Trillin. U.S. JOURNAL: MANHATTAN about four young actresses who have formed a fifties-style vocal group called The Steinettes. They began as a group a year and a half ago when they performed in a Westbeth Theatre production, where a men's a-cappella quartet called the Great American Dream also started...

Books by John Updike.

The Current Cinema FLOW GENTLY, SWEET POPCORN by Susan Lardner.

The Talk of the Town Vacs by Ian Frazier. Talk story about promotional luncheon at the Hotel Pierre for the Eureka Company's Single-Speed and Two-Speed Upright Self-Propelled Vacuum Cleaners. The Second City improvisational-comedy group presented skits with a vacuum-cleaner motif. Officials from Eureka, whose offices are in Bloomington, Ill., were there. Tony Dorley, assistant...

The Talk of the Town Conditioning Man by Mark Singer. Talk story about John Petrul, 80, who runs exercise classes on the 7th floor of the McBurney Y.M.C.A., on W. 23rd St., in Chelsea. Petrul joined McBurney Y in 1920 and began leading calisthenics there in 1935. Tells about the gym's extensive facilities. Tells about Petrul's personal, intensive exercise regimen...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Fiction Friend Twin by George W. S. Trow. It's Friend Twin. Looks like a friend, feels like a friend Friend Twin asks about your screenplay, supports you when you lie in the giant redwood steaming appliance.. Friend Twin talks about the deal Freddy Friyn has made with Barbara Krearn, which cuts out Marty Rupp.. Friend Twin has no...

The Talk of the Town The Tree House by James Stevenson. Talk story about a middle-aged man who goes to examine a tree house, he's seen in his neighborhood. The tree house has several levels and a sign that says "Password Please!" He decides to climb up into the tree house and does so; his skill in tree house climbing...

Poetry Tree Ferns by Stanley Plumly. They were the local Ohio palm, tropic in the heat of...

Poetry Charm by Anne Stevenson. Quaint, quaint...

Poetry The Night Express by Howard Moss. That moment we neared the reservoir...