Comment Global Gunslinger, Global Cops by James Chace. Comment about the coming shift in foreign policy. "It would be the irony of fate if my Administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs," Woodrow Wilson remarked to a friend before quitting New Jersey for Washington and his swearing-in. That, of course, was precisely the irony fate had...

The Talk of the Town On With the Show by Irene Dische. Talk story about the trial of Erich Honecker, the former head of state in East Germany. Tells about his liver tumor, which is complicating the trial being planned for him; he is expected to be dead before the trial is completed. The court decided to let him stand trial anyway...

The Talk of the Town Dishonored Lady by Arlene Croce. Talk story about Ginger Rogers receiving one of the annual Kennedy Center Honors. Tells about the awards ceremony: Mrs. Robyn Astaire, the dancer's widow, refused to give the Kennedy Center clearance to televise film clips and still photographs of Fred with Ginger. It should not have taken the Kennedy Center...

The Talk of the Town No Speeches, Please by Alexander Chancellor. Of all the noises that New Yorkers have to endure--the honking of horns, the roar of pneumatic drills, the crackle of gunfire, the yapping and howling of ambulances--one little sound may have come to be more widely dreaded than any other, the gentle ping-ping of a spoon...

In Fashion by Holly Brubach.

Annals of Invention The Flash of Genius by John Seabrook. ANNALS OF INVENTION about Bob Kearns’s struggle to control his patent for the intermittent windshield wiper through a series of lawsuits that have netted him millions of dollars from Ford and Chrysler. Most of his patents have expired, and he is taking auto companies to court, he says, out of...

A Reporter at Large A LOST CHILDHOOD by Susan Sheehan. A REPORTER AT LARGE about Crystal Taylor, her son Daquan Jefferson, Jr., and the welfare system. She gave birth in October, 1984. Tells about how the child was put into foster care on account of Crystal's age--fourteen. She herself entered the foster care system when it was discovered that...

Convergences LOVING OR LEAVING BOSNIA by Edward Koren. CONVERGENCES about a photograph in "The Economist" of a horse-drawn vehicle filled with refugees leaving Bosnia, compared to a cartoon by Edward Koren, showing a horse-drawn carriage filled with people bearing a bumper sticker saying, "I Bosnia and Herzegovina." In 1981, the thoroughfares of the United States...

Storyboard Verse Advice by Edward Gorey. Four-page color spread giving advice for the new year in...

Casual My Generation by Andrew Bergman. Casual which is the rough draft of the Clinton Inaugural Address, which has been tested in three major markets, and scored in the ninetieth percentileNhigher than Eisenhower's Farewell Address, Thomas Eagleton's Withdrawal Speech and Nixon's Third Inaugural Address, which, of course, was never used. The speech begins with Clinton having...

Fiction Bank Holiday by Jonathan Wilson. The narrator, Wolfson, is a Jewish sixteen-year-old boy growing up in London in August of 1967. He and his friend Dennis have taken the bus to the funfair to catch the freak show of the Ratwoman. The Ratwoman, dressed in a full-body leotard with tufts of hair...

Musical Events by Paul Griffiths.

The Current Cinema FORCE OF NATURE by Terrence Rafferty.

Books by Naomi Bliven.

Books by Mary Hawthorne.

Shouts & Murmurs WAITING IN ROOM 3-120 by Kennedy Fraser. SHOUTS AND MURMURS about visiting the downtown branch of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to get a new "green card" as a Permanent Resident Alien. The morning of the day named, 6,700 people were patiently waiting at the front doors of the Javits Building, in Federal Plaza, and a couple...

Poetry Black Coat by Ted Hughes. I remember going out there...

Poetry What Do Women Want? by Mary Jo Salter. Look! It's a wedding!O at the ice-cream shop's pristine picture window, the...

Poetry Lines For A Civic Statue by James Lasdun. The President takes a ceremonial stroll...