Comment by Lawrence Weschler. Comment about the Iraqi war dead. Writer describes news broadcasts of accounts of allied deaths. Such reports still convey a skewed impression of the war's true dimensions, however, the fact is that the Desert Storm campaign, quick and surgically precise though it was, involved battle carnage on a scale and...

The Talk of the Town Groundbreaking by Mary Norris. Talk story about groundbreaking ceremonies for the Nehemiah houses, five hundred and forty low-cost houses projected to be built in the South Bronx. The project is the work of South Bronx Churches, a group comprising Lutherans Methodists, Disciples of Christ, Baptists, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Catholics, Muslims, and Presbyterians. The builder...

The Talk of the Town Milk by Adam Gopnik. Talk story about attending a milk-tasting organized by the American Institute of Wine and Food at the Regency Hotel. Writer talks to Marc Goldman, a militant New Jersey dairy farmer. Ex-Sen. Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota seemed disspirited in his speech. Joan Snyder, the co-owner of a boutique...

Fiction What Price the Truth? by Doris Lessing. The narrator confides in an old friend, telling the truth about her notorious "love affair" with her longtime employer, Caesar Stone. She slaves for years to support her two children on Caesar's skinflint wages. People, including Caesar's wife, assume that she and Caesar are lovers, but in fact she never...

Fiction Sonny by Ellen Cooney. Sonny, a mover, is depressed because his wife, Debby, has left him. He attends a matinee of the film "Platoon," and unsuccessfully attempts to pick up a woman in the audience. The next day, he moves the belongings of a couple who quarrel as he works. He uses their phone...

Annals of Government SERVING THE PRESIDENT I-THE TRUMAN YEARS by Clark Clifford. ANNALS OF GOVERNMENT about serving as adviser to Pres. Truman. After graduating from college & law school, writer practiced law in St. Louis for 15 years & then in 1944, at age 37, he became an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Tells how he became naval aide to Pres...

The Current Cinema by Terrence Rafferty.

Personal History THE SCHOOL ON THE LINKS by Muriel Spark. PERSONAL HISTORY about the writer's schooldays at James Gillespie's School in Edinburgh, and how she was affected by a teacher there, Christina Kay. Kay became the model for the main character in her novel, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." Describes Kay, and contrasts her with the character in the...

Books by Naomi Bliven.

Poetry Night Figure by Eamon Grennan. She hovers over the ache of thresholds...

Poetry The Yellow Star that Goes with Me by Jessica Greenbaum. Sometimes when I'm really thirsty, I mean really dying of...

Poetry She Thinks of Him On Her Birthday by Deborah Garrison. It's still winter...