Fiction Ways by Edna O'Brien. Nell, an Irish poet, comes to Vermont from New York to give a poetry reading at a university. She is put up overnight by Jane and her husband, Dan, who teach at the university. The day after the reading, Jane and Nell walk through an early snow in the Vermont...

The Talk of the Town Dawn by Lillian Ross. Talk story about the 1976 Greater New York Automobile Show at the Coliseum. Gus Leconte, manager of the Cadillac display, told the writer that a cream-colored Cadillac Eldorado had just been sold. Writer sat in the Cadillac Seville for a taste of Compact Luxury. Describes the car, saying it...

Dancing Two by Balanchine by Arlene Croce.

Musical Events Song from the Twin Cities by Andrew Porter.

Around City Hall Irishry by Andy Logan. In his State of the State Message, on Jan. 7th Gov. Carey said he saw a resemblance between those who in 1976 "shrink from service" when they are asked to depend more upon themselves and "the summer soldiers and the sunshine patriots", scorned by Tom Paine in a pamphlet called...

The Talk of the Town Bells and Drells by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about the black singing group, Archie Bell and the Drells, from Houston, Texas, who were in New York to promote their new album. The group had two hits in the mid-sixties, "Tighten Up" and "I Can't Stop Dancing," and, although they haven't had any hits since, have...

Books The Oddest of Men by L. E. Sissman.

The Current Cinema Underground Man by Pauline Kael. Review of "Taxi Driver", directed by Martin Scorsese...

The Talk of the Town Factor by Mark Singer. Talk story about the windchill factor. Tells about a visit with Dr. Frank Field, the meteorologist, to find out just how he measures WNBC-TV's version of the windchill factor. Three times a day, Dr. Field drops by the National Weather Service office and gathers the information he needs for...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. Lately, writers, directors & producers in virtually every medium of communication have been experimenting with ways of mingling fact & fiction. In the field of books, the most prominent current practitioner may be E.L. Doctorow, the author of "Bagtime"... On television the mingling has taken the form of "dramatizations" of...

The Talk of the Town Founding Fathers by Anthony Hiss. Talk story about the old curmudgeon's visit with Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, the Welsh Bicentennial Ambassador to the United States, at the beginning of his tour of the U.S. and Canada to invite all Americans to visit "the land of their Founding Fathers" in 1976. Tells about the discoverer and colonizer...

The Theatre TWO FLY INTO THE PHOENIX'S NEST by Brendan Gill.

Fiction The Water Bucket by Marguerite Dorian. At night, the narrator remembers her East European ancestors, "the white wings of their prayer shawls spread wide, their women with kerchiefs of silk tied over their wedding wigs..." She knows few facts about them. She, her mother, and grandmother were all born in January and the narrator feels a...

The Talk of the Town Line by George W. S. Trow. Talk story about the exhibit of drawing entitled, "Drawing Now," at the Museum of Modern Art. Writer describes a work done by Robert Morris, directly on the wall and the floor. The artist had put his hands and feet in powdered graphite and plate oil and walked for ten seconds...

A Reporter at Large ENERGY-II by Barry Commoner. REPORTER AT LARGE about nuclear and solar energy, their comparative cost and functions. Tells about how atomic energy is released in a nuclear reactor. Describes how the process of fission(splitting of the nucleus) is effected in the mechanism of the reactor, and how the enormous energy which is released...

The Race Track Repeater by G. F. T. Ryall. Alma North was bought, for $275,000 at a Florida sale. The tab was signed by Martin Burdett-Coutts, representing the Stud and Racing Services, Ltd., a British company acting for an unnamed buyer...

Fiction The Three-Mile Hill Is Five Miles Long by Daniel Menaker. On Saturday at around noon, Dave and Anne left the ski slopes at Butternut Basin and drove back to Uncle Sol's farmhouse, where they alone were staying, for lunch. Anne had made Dave's favorite lunch to take with them before they left the city Friday evening for the Berkshires. At...

Poetry The Lichen Painter by Richard Elman. They were pale...

Poetry Midsummer, England by Derek Walcott. At Henley, the sky-blue striped pavilions...

Poetry Hammering by David Ray. His ultimate...

Poetry Sentences by Charles Wright. The ash fish has been away for a long time now...