Afterword by Gore Vidal. Writer defends himself against charges of anti-semitism...

Comment Generation of Change by Paul Berman. Comment about the spirit of the sixties and Bill Clinton. Clinton was a genuine participant in the student atmosphere of the late sixties. He may not have inhaled marijuana, but he breathed the spirit of the time. He played his small but honorable role in organizing opposition to the war...

The Talk of the Town Battle Fatigue by Helen Thorpe. Talk story about AIDS activist Peter Staley. Five years ago Staley abandoned his job as a Wall St. bond trader to become a fund-raiser for ACT UP, & he emerged as one of the leaders of its Treatment and Data Committee, which became instrumental in reforming the policies of...

The Talk of the Town Bully Pulpits by Alexander Chancellor. Talk story about the "character" issue in this year's Presidential election. At St. Thomas's Episcopal, on West 53rd St., one can buy copies of sermons by the rector, the Rev. Dr. John Andrew, for 25 cents each. The one preached on Oct. 4th was inspired by the character issue. After...

The Talk of the Town Beckett's Last Book by Anthony Lane. Signed Talk story about the publication of Samuel Beckett's early novel, "Dream of Fair to middling Women." Beckett died in 1989. The manuscript has long been hidden in the archives of Dartmouth College. Beckett thought of publishing the book in 1986, but changed his mind. He wrote it in 1932...

The Talk of the Town Imperial Comeback by Benjamin Brantley. Talk story about artist Richard Osterweil's showing of paintings, based on photos of Czar Nicholas II & his family, at the Russian Mission to the U.N. A spokesman for the Mission, Victor Romashov, describes the event as a manifestation of "the new wave of interest in the history of Russia...

Letter from Burbank JAY LENO'S HARD BARGAIN by Peter J. Boyer. LETTER FROM BURBANK about the "Tonight Show" and host Jay Leno's tenuous position--as well as about the firing of his long-time manager and the show's executive producer Helen Kushnick. She was fired four months after he got the job as permanent host. Kushnick had been his manager for...

Postcard from Oregon REVOLUTION NUMBER 9 by Robert Sullivan. POSTCARD FROM OREGON about Ballot Measure 9, a amendment to the state constitution which would make homosexuality "abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse...to be discouraged and avoided"--and could make same-sex parenting illegal, prohibit gay teachers, and even cause honosexuals to lose state business licenses. It is being pushed...

Dept. of Modest Proposals TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE by Jonathan Rubinstein. DEPARTMENT OF MODEST PROPOSALS parodying Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal." Suggests that U.S. prisoners should be sent to the Gulag prison camps of Siberia, which are now empty. Recalls a recent visit to Lefortovo Prison, in Moscow. Russia, a country with nothing to sell but weapons & raw materials, has...

Onward and Upward with the Arts EDWARD GOREY AND THE TAO OF NONSENSE by Stephen Schiff. ONWARD AND UPWARD WITH THE ARTS about artist Edward Gorey. Most people have by now seen his work somewhere -the sets and costumes he designed for the hit stage version of "Dracula" in 1978, the swooning logos for the PBS TV series "Mystery!", or possibly the hundreds of book covers...

Report from Mexico SERENADING THE FUTURE by Alma Guillermoprieto. LETTER FROM MEXICO about ranchera music and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Now that the government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has approved a North American Free Trade Agreement which promises to make Mexico commercially one with its neighbors to the north, there is little scope for magnificent...

Fiction Loaded Gun by Antonya Nelson. The story describes a family in Witchita, Kansas, who has hidden secrets, but when together function as a traditional middle-of-the-road-American family. The main character in the story, Edie, is a fifteen-year old girl who is an average student, was caught shoplifting, and who stole some...

Musical Events by Paul Griffiths.

The Art World (The Art Galleries) by Adam Gopnik.

The Air (On Television) THE LAST SWINGER by James Wolcott.

The Theatre One-Man Universe by John Lahr.

Books by Richard Brookhiser.

Shouts & Murmurs FIRST TUESDAY by Roger Angell. SHOUTS AND MURMURS about voting. Writer votes at the uptown Y, on Lexington Ave., which he otherwise visits only for the occasional string quartet or poetry reading. He grabs the lever and records himself with a manly fling. All that day he is pervaded by a sense of calm, dumb...

Poetry The Anthill by Cynthia Zarin. Sand pyramid, size of a child, each September...

Poetry Fall Back by Elizabeth Macklin. On a day like this, when I have no paper...

Poetry Pharaoh by Jane Kenyon. The future ain't what it used used to be...