The Talk of the Town Music in the Park by E. J. Kahn. Talk story about the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in Central Park. Edward Naumburg, Jr. is the third generation of Naumburgs to sponsor the free concerts, inaugurated in 1905 by Elkan Naumburg, a German-born banker and amateur pianist. Edward, Jr. is a bibliophilic broker who plays the violin and still goes...

Fiction The Remission by Mavis Gallant. When Alec Webb, an Englishman, learns he is dying, he moves with his wife Barbara and 3 children to a house on the Riviera. Barbara's brothers in Wales pay for the house, called Lou Mas, but leave the deed in Alec's name. Describes neighbors and townspeople of Rivabella a French...

The Talk of the Town Speech! Speech! by Stanley Mieses. Talk story about meeting of the Freeport chapter of Toastmasters International, an organization of public-speaking clubs. Florence First, a retired school teacher, delivered an anecdotal address entitled "Teacher Talk," in which she attempted to interpret the special language of teachers. She won the award for Best Speaker...

Comment by George W. S. Trow. Comment about Country Time, a powdered lemonadelike product that is advertised on television The advertising indicates that only Grandpa remembers what lemonade tastes like - it's a thing of the past. Children, after reading Foxfire One through Five in their public elementary school, crowd around Grandpa hoping he'll tell them how...

Reflections Disturbing the Universe-II by Freeman Dyson. REFLECTIONS about the writer's early days of scientific research in the U.S. to which he came from England in the fall of 1947. He enrolled as a graduate student in the Physics Dept. of Cornell University. He went there to learn how to do research in physics under the guidance...

The Talk of the Town Giverny by Mary D. Kierstead. Talk story about Monet's gardens at Giverny, 40 miles northwest of Paris. The gardens had been deteriorating over a period of 50 years. Three years ago, thanks to the beneficence of Lila Acheson Wallace, co-founder of the "Reader's Digest," work was begun on their restoration. The writer visited the...

U. S. Journal THOUGHTS OF A SKEPTICAL GROWNUP AT BEAVER BOYS' STATE by Calvin Trillin. U.S. JOURNAL: OREGON about Beaver Boys' State, a Boys' State camp in Oregon. At American Legion-sponsored Boys' States all around the nation, high-school juniors learn about their government and the country by running a governors' race and organizing a mock legislature. Oregon Beaver Boys' State has been reformed...

Fiction Notes from the Edge Conference by Roy Blount. Notes, like the minutes of a meeting, full of abbreviations, recording a conference on the usage and meaning of the word "edge." Edge, as in: Lip. Verge. Pungency. To sidle. Advantage. "Near bound of nerves' end, inside of out." Gives titles of papers read at conference: "Edges and Hedges: Things...

The Theatre FRISBEES by Brendan Gill.

The Current Cinema JOE COOL AND THE WRIGLEY'S GIRL by Veronica Geng.

Poetry You See? by John Ratti. When I was a child in West Virginia...

Poetry Shooting Whales by Mark Strand. When the shoals of plankton...

Poetry The Mole by Robert Phillips. There goes The Mole!" Mother cried...