Reflections THE ABOLITION II-A DELIBERATE POLICY by Jonathan Schell. REFLECTIONS about nuclear arms. The problem with our present policy of deterrence is that the extinction of mankind would result if it fails. A conflict might start because one side believes the other will attack, or it might occur inadvertently, in error. Writer believes we should enter an agreement abolishing...

The Current Cinema BUSYBODY by Pauline Kael.

Fiction Birthday by Judy Troy. Stuart and David have been lovers for twenty years. Stuart drives Viola, David's mother, to the house that he and David share. Viola is a drunk and the men take turns making sure she doesn't have money for liquor. Today, David forgot and Viola is smashed. It's David's 53rd birthday...

The Talk of the Town Herb Garden by Stanley Mieses. Talk story about a visit to the Cloisters to see the Bonnefont Cloister herb garden, a square plot of earth, tucked within a low-walled veranda on a perch several feet above the Hudson River. Writer met Susan Leach, a young woman wearing several layers of shirts and carrying a...

Comment by William McKibben. Comment on the first cold snap of the winter, which arrived this year the week before Christmas. Writer took the M train out to Brighton Beach, next to Coney Island, in order to challenge the cold and soak it in. At first it was bracing, and made the writer feel...

Books by V. S. Pritchett.

The Theatre by Edith Oliver.

Fiction Things to Draw by Katharine Andres. The writer's parents have been divorced for eleven years, and she spends Saturdays with her father who lives on West End Avenue in NYC. The first Saturday in May, they go to a clothing store. Her father orders a blue suit that is to be made to measure. Then they...

The Talk of the Town The Young Lions by Natacha Stewart. Talk story about Gunther Gebel-Williams, the animal trainer of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Writer goes to see Mr. Gebel-Williams at the Meadowlands Arena, where he is in the middle of one of his twice-a-day practice sessions. This season his "something new" is...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Poetry Weather Breeder by Brendan Galvin. This heron-still day...

Poetry Voyages by Amy Clampitt. On April 27, 1932, Hart Crane...