The Talk of the Town Suit-Burning by Veronica Geng. Talk story about the ritual burning of a suit owned by Dan Frankl, a former ad executive. Reason For Burning the Suit: Not because it was from Syms. Because it was a symbol of the corporate life Dan has decided to reject. This week, he's leaving his job for good...

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. Tells about the Tower Commission's Iran-Contra scandal hearings... The Israelis, who had been selling arms to Iran for years, with a wink from the Reagan Administration, had apparently proposed the 1985 arms sales to the Administration. What was different this time was that Israel asked the U.S. to replenish...

The Talk of the Town Rousing by Nancy Ramsey. Robert Hill, a history Professor at UCLA and the editor of six volumes of Marcus Garvey's writings is the curator of "Marcus Garvey: The Centennial Exhibition," an exhibit at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at 135 St. & Lenox Ave...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Theatre by Edith Oliver.

Fiction The Self Once Seen: Reflective Images in Time by James Stevenson. Illustrated story refuting the claim of art historian, H.W. Janson, that Albrecht Ourer was "the first artist to be fascinated by his own image." Examples are given: 1) Adalbert van Hus, maker of hinges on the Ghent Altarpiece, rendered his face in egg tempura. In 1420, upon meeting the Flemish...

The Talk of the Town Everly Brothers by Barry Singer. Talk story about a visit on a recent Thursday in July when the Everly Brothers came back to Brooklyn, to Midwood High School's back-yard Astroturf football park, at the corner of Avenue K and Eighteenth Street in Flatbush: the Midwood Field Concert Series. For nine summers, Senator Marty Markowitz...

Jazz by Whitney Balliett. Column devoted to the late John Hammond and also to Dick Wellstood. Hammond helped to discover a long list of musicians and singers in the jazz world. Both men died earlier this summer...

Fiction The Drinking Club by Alice Adams. Karen, an alcoholic concert pianist, wakes up in a hotel in Atlanta and tries to recollect what happened. The room is a mess. She realizes she must have cancelled the concert scheduled for the previous night. She calls San Fran at 6:30 CA time, awakening her husband Julian, who is...

Comment by Alec Wilkinson. Comment in letter form, about a young man who has lived in N.Y.C. for 8 and 1/2 years, the first 7 of which he spent in an apartment on the 6th floor of a tenement across the street from the Ravenite Social Club, on Mulberry Street. The Club is the...

Books by Naomi Bliven.

Poetry Desperate Character by Nicholas Christopher. Playing the bongos in Rome...