American Chronicles COMPETITORS by Calvin Trillin. AMERICAN CHRONICLES about Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's Homemade ice cream companies, and about a dispute between the two. Reuben Mattus is the founder of Haagen-Dazs and, by just about any account, the creator of the field that is known as "superpremium" ice cream. In his early seventies...

Comment by Lawrence Weschler. Third part of five part Comment. We just received a call from a stockbroker who announced a new investment opportunity for us. They've set up some limited partnerships that allow you to invest in a package of 10 Hollywood films. One of the films in this particular package is "Rambo...

Dancing by Arlene Croce.

Comment by William McKibben. First part of five part Comment. "The minute the main engines cut off, I had my face up against the window. It was wild..." said George Nelson, an American astronaut who flew on the space shuttle Challenger last year, & talked at the American Museum of Natural History. He repaired...

Fiction The People V. Jim by Garrison Keillor. Story in the form of questioning by a lawyer of Jim, who writes magazine "list articles," such as "Fifteen Great Ideas for Putting New Life in Those Dingy Stair Treads," and "Ten Things That Look Very Unusual but Really Aren't?" Jim explains why he writes these articles, but the lawyer...

The Diplomatic Round A FREEMASONRY OF TERRORISM by John Newhouse. THE DIPLOMATIC ROUND about terrorism. Police&intelligence agencies in Western Europe are waging an uphill struggle against it: for every terrorist apprehended, at least 1 more seems to sprout up. With hit teams from the Middle East making hostages of American airline passengers&hunting down American diplomats in...

Fiction The Thirties by Charles Saxon. Five page spread of fourteen drawings showing what it was like to be a boy growing up in the thirties. Some of the captions are: "We took violin from Mr. Capobianco. It was too bad if anybody saw you wearing knickers." "Cousin Arthur went to Spain to fight Franco." "Everybody...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Comment by Elizabeth Macklin. Last part of five part Comment. A young woman we know writes: A week or so ago I went out and bought 1500 pesetas (just under $100) in preparation for a trip to Spain. Peseta notes are beautiful now. Describes the money. The loveliest part is the handwritten quotation from...

Fiction From Cloud to Cloud by Mavis Gallant. The family's experience of Raymond Joseph Prescott was like a long railway journey with a constantly shifting point of view. His mother Marie&his Aunt Berthe were from Montreal& the 2 sisters thought they could never love anyone more than Raymond. His father Louis died when Raymond was...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. Fourth part of a five part Comment. Americans are mortal. That may seem obvious, but in crises like the recent hi= jacking it seems to be forgotten; we Americans act as if our mortality were the result of someone's mismanagement. Terrorism frustrates in part because little can be done about...

Books by George Steiner.

Poetry Itself Now by Mark Strand. They will say it is feeling or mood, or the world, or...