Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL TUNING UP by Andy Logan. According to New York State's political system, although the Democratic and Republican nominees for the Nov. ballot are chosen in the Sept. primary, the parties at their state conventions in June, name as "designee" for a particular office the candidate who gets at least 50% of the delegates' weighted votes...

The Talk of the Town Knitting by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about the Country Store & Yarn Shop in Washington, Connecticut, where one can buy all sorts of materials and instruments used in handicrafts, and especially in knitting. It is run and owned by Beatrice Morse Davenport, who is accomplished in all the needle-crafts but is most particularly...

The Talk of the Town Big Numbers by E. J. Kahn. Talk story about taking the census in China. The People's Republic of China conducted its 3rd national census -- and its first ever using modern technology -- on July 1st, and on the eve of the count the writer paid a call on William Seltzer, a United Nations official, whose office has...

Books Master and Man by George Steiner.

The Current Cinema BABY, THE RAIN MUST FALL by Pauline Kael.

Fiction The Encyclopedia of the Dead (A Whole Life) by Danilo Kis. The writer is a Yugoslavian woman whose father died not long ago. She tells of visiting Sweden last year as a guest of the Institute for Theatre Research. A Mrs. Johnsson served as her guide and instructor. One night she took the writer to a library. Although it was already...

A Reporter at Large PROMENADE DES ANGLAIS by Anthony Bailey. REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to Nice, France. Writer and his wife, Margot, spent their honeymoon there 20 years ago, arriving from England by train. This time they flew. Their taxi from the airport sped along the Promenade des Anglais, which has become a six-lane shorefront motorway. They...

The Talk of the Town Foam and Brass by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about Phelps Dodge Industries giving a lunch at the 21 Club to introduce some expensive decorative household wares, all made out of brass. They were done in the Federal Period style and included a wine cooler, a basket and a bowl for holding fruit, a tray, a compote...

Fiction The Total Abstainer by M. F. K. Fisher. An elderly woman (about 70) looks back over a life of tea-drinking and tea-serving. She herself has abstained from the brew for more than 40 years, claiming it makes her "drunk as a skunk.O She reminisces about growing up in Whittier, California, where her father was a reporter...

Musical Events Aesthetic Rapture by Nicholas Kenyon.

Dancing Names and Places by Arlene Croce.

Comment by John Updike. Tribute to writer John Cheever, who died on Friday, June 18, 1982...

Poetry Passage by James Reiss. Near South Fallsburg the woods thin out...