Fiction Pool Lights by Frederick Barthelme. A good-looking swimming instructor lives in the Santa Rosa apartment complex. He spends a lot of time in his apartment, which overlooks the pool. He is working of a "project" which involves sorting through a year's worth of magazines. Every once in a while his brother calls and criticizes...

The Talk of the Town Books Without Writers by Lillian Ross. Talk story about spending two hours at the Womrath's Book Store on Madison Avenue near Eighty-sixth Street -- one hour just after the 9 A.M. opening, and one hour just before the 6 P.M. closing. This Womrath's is owned and run jointly by Walter Bergman and his 29-year-old...

Dance Jiri Kylian by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about a chat with Jiri Kylian, director and choreographer of the Netherlands Dance Theatre which paid a brief visit to the Metropolitan Opera recently. Writer spoke with him in the Metropolitan Opera auditorium during a rehearsal that took place a few hours before opening night. Tells about him...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. Long mention in Comment about the Administration and human rights. Its policy has been further clarified by some remarks by Edwin Meese, the counsellor to the President in an intervidw with Meg Greenfield of the Washington Post in which he defends an earlier allegation of his that the American Civil...

The Talk of the Town History by James Stevenson. Talk story consisting of miscellaneous facts about royalty of the past, inspired by the coming wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Most of the facts are startling...

The Sporting Scene THE WEB OF THE GAME by Roger Angell. THE SPORTING SCENE about the Yale vs. St. John's University game at Yale field in New Haven, in mid-May. Two first rate pitchers were playing at the game - Ron Darling, a junior at Yale, the best pitcher ever to take the mound for the Blue, and Frank Viola, a...

That Was New York HARLEM IV-HARD TIMES AND BEYOND by Jervis Anderson. THAT WAS NEW YORK about Harlem in the 30s and 40s. Tells about the Lafayette Theatre, which until 1934, was Harlem's most popular musical stage. Its managers then took over the Apollo Theatre, which became one of the most popular and important theatres in the history of black entertainment. They...

Fiction Invasion of the Book Envelopes by John Updike. Small puddles of gray fluff had been appearing for years on office floors and in the vestibules of suburban homes. The book envelopes and their deadly, drifting spores were everywhere. No one could remember when they had not existed, when books had been simply wrapped in brown paper and string...

A Reporter at Large JESSE HELMS by Elizabeth Drew. REPORTER AT LARGE about Jesse Helms, the Republican senior Senator from North Carolina. Since his first election to the Senate, in 1972, Helms has succeeded in building alliances that have established him a national Constituency and made him a very powerful force in American politics. While Senate colleagues were dismissing...

Poetry Behind the House Three Poems by David Pollens. In the back yard, the garden...