Fiction Overnight to Many Distant Cities by Donald Barthelme. Writer recalls places he has visited around the world, describing the scenes conjured up in his mind when remembering each city. These memories are being described to a woman, who was apparently present during many of these scenes. On a tour of Versailles, they were preceded by a group of...

Fiction Guilt and Gluttony by Charles McGrath. Parody of the idea that great ideas are born over meals. Opens with quotes from "Wealth and Poverty," by George Gilder. One is from the preface, and says that most of the ideas for the book were presented at dinner or breakfast, etc. The second quote says that great capitalists...

Fiction Like Glass by Ann Beattie. Narrator finds an old snapshot of her ex-husband, taken when he was a baby. She thinks the picture is intriguing because it seems to be a picture of a baby staring into the distance. Lately she's been thinking about when she was married, and about two things that are...

The Talk of the Town Three Gatherings by Lillian Ross. Talk story about the party put on by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company at Luchow's, where the message was "The Bell System Celebrates a Hundred Years of the Phone at Home." The hosts were executives of A.T. & T. The guest of honor was Don Ameche, star of the...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL MAYBE by Andy Logan. On Jan. 15th, nine days after his State of the State address, Gov. Hugh Carey in a "stunning" announcement declared he would not run again. Ten days later the New York political world was shaken again by the news that Mayor Edward Koch was considering making a race for the...

Our Far-Flung Correspondents NOTES FROM A SPANISH VILLAGE by Alastair Reid. OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS about a recent visit to Spain, in particular to the writer's remote stone house above a mountain village with a population of 70. When writer first knew it there were 600 inhabitantsNa working village that sustained itself principally by making charcoal. Its downfall came in the...

The Sporting Scene JUMPERS AT KEMPTON PARK by Bill Barich. THE SPORTING SCENE about the Kempton Park racecourse, in Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, outside London. When the writer was living in London last fall and winter, he went there whenever he could. One day, on the special train out to the course, he met a woman he calls Mrs. Dorothy...

The Current Cinema by Pauline Kael. Review - full column - of "Personal Best", which was written, produced, and directed by the celebrated screenwriter Robert Towne...

The Talk of the Town Three Gatherings by Alec Wilkinson. Talk story about a party given for the unveiling of a piece of architectural sculpture called "Triad," by Molly Burgess, which had been commissioned to enhance the northern fa ade of the American Thread Building, at 260 West Broadway, just south of Canal Street. At the party, which took place...

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

Musical Events Love's Mazes by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Three Gatherings by Emily Hahn. Talk story about a symposium put on by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, entitled OHow Humans Adapt: A Biocultural Odyssey.O It was held in the Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History. Tells what was said by several of the speakers and those questioning them...

Comment by Andrea Lee Fallows. We have just received a communication from a young woman we know. She says it is about two o'clock in the afternoon of one of the coldest days of winter and she is sitting with a friend who had her first baby forty-eight hours ago. Her friend is a...

Questionnaire Proust's Questionnaire by John Ashbery. I am beginning to wonder...

Jazz JAZZ BEING A GENIUS by Whitney Balliett. Biographical sketch of pianist Erroll Garner. He was born in Pittsburgh and died in Los Angeles, in 1977, at the age of 53...

Dancing This Space and That Jazz and These Dancers by Arlene Croce.

Poetry An Upset by James Merrill. Drowsing in bed alone, quite thoughtless of nights...