Comment by Anthony Hiss. From a friend: Just after I got out of the movie "Hopscotch,O which I saw Saturday night and really liked because it permitted Walter Matthau to squelch all the C.I.A. and K.G.B. big shots, and at the same time hum Mozart--well, for just about a half hour after...

The Talk of the Town Romance by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about a luncheon given recently by Harlequin Books for 200 women readers of Harlequin Romances in the large dining room of a large hotel in New Jersey. Various individuals associated with the company spoke to the women. Writer quotes comments of some of the guests and some of...

Fiction An Open House by James Hughes. The writer narrates; he is 21 and his younger brother, Fig is a senior in high school. Fig is recovering from an accident he had the week before; he had turned on the garbage disposal before removing his hand and, as a result, lost a piece of a finger. This...

Musical Events Emotion by Nicholas Kenyon.

Comment by James Stevenson. Great-Aunt Edwina turned eighty in mid-Sept., but we didn't get out to the seashore to say happy birthday until last week. We found her at the top of a 20-foot aluminum ladder trimming some wisteria from the side of her house. She looked fine. We called out...

Around City Hall Coalescing by Andy Logan. When a federal court ordered the city police department to begin hiring blacks and Hispanics for one out of two openings the Mayor refused to comply and halted all hiring of police while the order was appealed. After the quota was lowered to one out of three, however, he gave...

Profiles THE CAPITAL OF HOPE by Alex Shoumatoff. PROFILE of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. 80% of the population of Brazil lives within 200 miles of the Atlantic. The rest of the country is virtually empty. Amazonia, a vast region of central and northwestern Brazil is the world's greatest demographic void. For a country its size its population...

Dancing Americana by Arlene Croce.

Books A Sense of the Day by V. S. Pritchett.

The Talk of the Town Situation by Mark Singer. Talk story about a 3-hour lecture on "How to Start a Conversation," given by Don Gabor at the Baldwin School. Writer includes some of Don Gabor's pet sayings and pointers, e.g. "Trite is right" and "Cliche is O.K.," and tries to apply these lessons to a conversation he attempts...

Fiction Europe by Satellite by Mavis Gallant. Snatches of several TV programs, given as though writer were twirling the dial of a set hooked up to every station in Europe. Samples: We are happy to announce that close on to three billion people watched our broadcast of the production, which covered the first 2 years of Parnell's...

The Theatre Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay! by Edith Oliver.

The Talk of the Town Park Rangers by Elizabeth Hawes. Talk story about the initiation of four young women, three young men, and six horses into the new Mounted Urban Park Ranger Corps of New York City. The group, horses and people, had been trained for a month in dressage at the Police Department's Remount School, in Pelham Bay Park...

Poetry Form by Heather McHugh. We were wrong to think...

Poetry Looking Northward, Aegeanward: Nestling on Sea Cliff by Robert Penn Warren. Chalky, steel-hard, or glass-slick, the cliff is...

Poetry These Green-Going-to-Yellow by Marvin Bell. This year...

Poetry Fragment of a Conversation in Bed by Hayden Carruth. Then again when I saw the moon shadow...