Profiles by George W. S. Trow. PROFILE of Ahmet Ertegun, 54, president of Atlantic Records and vice-president of its parent company, Warner Communications. Writer spends time with him in 1971 and tells how he conducts business dealing with different rock groups (the Rolling Stones, Crosby, Still & Nash), scouting new groups, doing business on board...

The Talk of the Town Ice Age by Calvin Tomkins. Talk story about first show of Ice Age art at the Museum of Natural History. The exhibit includes archeological finds dating from 35,000 to 10,000 B.C., called the Upper Paleolithic age of Cro-Magnon hunting cultures of Europe. Writer talks to Henry Gardiner, the museum's exhibit-design chief, Margaret Cooper...

The Talk of the Town Noun by Mark Singer. Talk story about radio personality Barry Farber's effort to pay off campaign debts by selling sandwiches Farber accumulated sixty thousand dollars in debts when he ran for mayor and lost. Barry Farber's Authentic North Carolina Wood Cooked Pit Barbecue (shredded pork and cole slaw on a bun) is sold at...

The Talk of the Town Biko's Friend by E. J. Kahn. Talk story about Donald Woods, former editor of the East London, South Africa, "Daily Dispatch," who has been banned in S. Africa for speaking out against apartheid and Stephen Biko's death. Woods fled the country and has been giving lectures on apartheid all over the world. He was in New...

Books by Alastair Reid.

The Sporting Scene THE FULL DISTANCE by Colman McCarthy. THE SPORTING SCENE about marathon running and Bill Rodgers, the world's best long-distance runner...

Fiction More Than Toucan Do by H. F. Ellis. Writer poses the question "Who was mobbed in 1848 by curl-crested toucans?"-Alfred Russel Wallace or Henry Walter Bates? The writer doesn't know but he can share some hints. Wallace and Bates, English naturalists, helped form the evolutionary theories that culminated in Darwin's "Origin of the Species" and went...

The Theatre DAILY BREAD by Brendan Gill.

Comment by Jonathan Schell. Dick Cavett recently invited three publishers and a literary agent to appear on his evening talk show, and during the conversation he asked them what they thought about the practice of paying large advances for books written by the Watergate defend nts.... One ...said..that 'weighty First Amendment questions'were involved...

Obituary by Gardner Botsford. Obituary of Hobart G. Weekes, who died on Wednesday, May 17, 1978, at the age of 77...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Race Track by G. F. T. Ryall. It was a good week for Karen Taylor. It began the Sunday befor last, when Seattle Slew made his successful comebak at Aqueduct. Then last Saturday Mrs. Taylor's Big John Taylor won the Roseben Handicap. Seattle Slew has a chance to do what no horse before him has been able...

The Current Cinema NOTES ON GUESSES AT THE ACTUAL by Penelope Gilliatt.

Fiction Company by Alan Sillitoe. Albert, a middle-aged Englishman, lives in the house he grew up in with only a dog for company. He and the dog go to the golf course at night, and the dog finds golf balls which he brings to Albert. Albert sells them to supplement his social security. Sometimes...

Poetry Shad-Time by Richard Wilbur. Though between sullen hills...

Poetry Hiding by Brian Swann. Quite arbitrarily I have chosen a window...

Poetry Kimono by Laurence Lieberman. Clonking up the cobbled roadway, I bob...