The Current Cinema by Terrence Rafferty.

Profiles Former ballet dancer and now director of Miami City Ballet I-SLOWER IS FASTER II-THE PRODIGAL by Arlene Croce.

The Theatre HOT TICKET TO NOWHERE by Mimi Kramer.

The Talk of the Town Election '88, Pt. IV by Mark Singer. Talk story in diary form about writer watching election coverage at NBC News, in RCA Building. 6:30 p.m.--Sheldon Gawiser, NBC polling consultant, gives first briefing to 75 or so members of media gathered in improvised pressroom. 6:45--ABC has Bush ahead in electoral votes, 21-zip.7:00- NBC gives...

Fiction So Much More by Chris Marcil. A proposal of marriage presented as a sales pitch letter. Ralph W. Balding addresses his intended as "Dear Girlfriend" promising her a special voyage, one of love, adventure--an exploration of marriage. He ends by asking her to return her response on the enclosed card. Girlfriend's response is in the...

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

The Talk of the Town Election '88 Pt. 3 by Susan Orlean. Talk story about Charles Barron, a project supervisor of the Oceanhill-Brownsville Voter Participation Project & Carlos Jesse, head of the House of the Lord Pentecostal Church in Crown Heights. Writer drives around with these men on Election Day in a van equipped with a public address system as they...

The Talk of the Town Election '88 Pt. I by Alexander Stille. Talk story about the homeless men waiting on Election night near Grand Central at the corner of 43rd & Vanderbilt for a truck full of sandwiches which will arrive around 9pm. Writer talks to a number of these men & finds them surprisingly intelligent. They don't fit the common stereotype...

The Talk of the Town Election '88, Pt. II by Jane Kramer. Talk story about how the U.S. election was observed in Paris at a party writer attended... It seemed to be obligatory in Paris on Election Night to give a party or to go to someone else's party--the party writer went to was thrown by a writer & his wife...

Fiction Berard's Rapture by Tom Chiarella. Berard, a compulsive liar has told his friend Max that he knows how to scuba dive. Grace, Berard's wife, tells him that they've been invited on Max's boat and that Max expects to go scuba diving. Berard vaguely recalls a conversation with Max in which "rapture of the deep" was...

Comment Comment, Pt. I by James Lardner. In his victory statement last Tuesday night President Elect Bush spoke of the way elections"clear the way for harmony & peace," & vowed to earn the trust of those who didn't vote for him. In his first post-election news conference he rejected a reporter's use of the word...

Comment Comment Pt. II by Garrison Keillor. A friend writes: "Like everybody else I grew up with a powerful admiration for Presidents." He was born late in Roosevelt, grew up during Truman, a president who resembled his Uncle Bill Anderson who was a hero of his. Eisenhower who presided over the rest of his childhood resembled his...

A Reporter at Large ULSTER SPRING by Bill Barich. A REPORTER AT LARGE about visiting Northern Ireland & the friction between Protestant & Catholic factions there... Tells about the security measures writer encountered at his hotel. He soon learned that they had less to do with terrorist attacks than with keeping rowdies out of the lobby bar on weekend...

Poetry Susan's Field by Harold Brodkey. Wind canters...

Poetry A GAme of Monopoly at Chavannes by Maxine Kumin. Each time I look up from the board to the rusty vineyards...