The Talk of the Town Books by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about country-and-Western singing star Tammy Wynette's visit to a Fifth Avenue bookstore whe where she autographed copies of her autobiography "Stand by Your Man." Her husband, George Richey, accompanied her...

Comment by Joan Bennet. A woman we know, an ex-patriate Texan who has lived in New York for thirteen years, recently disclosed to us her admiration for Dimitri Tiomkin, the composer of movie music who died last month. She writes: For a long time, I really hadn't even thought about how much I...

Fiction Moon over Alani Beach by George W. S. Trow. When the moon appears over Alani Beach, the whole line of grand, peeling hotels stands out. In the Hotel Merovingian, most luxurious hotel of the old city, Madame Ludovica watches the light on her mural--the truncation of a mural, the rest of which is in the next room. The...

The Theatre THE IRISH IN BROOKLYN by Brendan Gill.

The Talk of the Town Phone Call and Party by Ian Frazier. Talk story about a promotion party for Jordache bluejeans, which are manufactured by three brothers named Nakash. Writer tells about a 'phone conversation with Steve Feld of Will Gagen Associates Public Relations who invited him to the party and told him the facts behind it. The new Jordache jeans commercial...

Our Local Correspondents STARTING AT THE TOP by Whitney Balliett. OUR LOCAL CORRESPONDENTS about jazz trumpeter Jabbo Smith, performing in "One Mo' Time", a re-creation from New Orleans of a 1926 black vaudeville show, now at the Village Gate. He was born in Pembroke, Georgia, in 1908 and has been a legend half his life. He was only in...

Profiles Master of the Trade-I by Jeremy Bernstein. PROFILE of physicist Hans Albrecht Bethe, 73. Because of his encylopedic knowledge and personal contributions in many areas of physics, he has been called the master of the trade. He won the Nobel Prize in 1967 for work he did in 1938 on the specific mechanisms that generate stellar energy...

Reflections A SECOND COLD WAR by William Pfaff. REFLECTIONS on U.S.-Soviet relations. Both countries find themselves with substantial rather then symbolic national interests at stake in the Middle East. We depend on Middle Eastern oil & within a few years the Soviet Union will also need to import a significant part of its energy from the outside...

Fiction The Call by Edna O'Brien. A woman is having an affair with a married man. When the phone rings, she hopes it is he, but by the time she answers, he has hung up. She considers calling him at his work number, which he had kept a secret for six months, but she is too...

Musical Events by Winthrop Sargeant.

Comment by Julie Hayden. Comment about a Saturday morning of a woman of our acquaintance. After visiting her allergist for her weekly shot, at 9 A.M., she walks in Central Park, which is nearby, and views the foliage. It is a beautiful Indian-summer day. She returns to her part of town, Greenwich Village...

The Talk of the Town Art by George W. S. Trow. Talk story about the revival of interest in furniture made by Gustav Stickley early in this century. It was in a style called "mission", has strength, elegance and sense. It was mainly of oak but could be ordered in other woods. Stickley was also concerned with metalwork & gardens and...

Poetry St. Clement's Church: Harris, Outer Hebrides by Richard Hugo. Lord, I'd rehearsed and rehearsed your loss...

Poetry The Cold by Robert Pinsky. I can't remember what I was thinking . . . the cold...