Profiles ACCORDING TO WHERE I GO by Whitney Balliett. PROFILE of Hugh Shannon, who considers himself a "saloon" singer, although his admirers include some of the wealthiest people in the world. Writer listened to him talk in his apartment that he shares with the publicist Gus Ober, when he's in New York. Shannon has spent much of his career...

The Talk of the Town The Reading by Calvin Tomkins. Talk story about the 3rd annual non-stop reading of "The Making of Americans," by Gertrude Stein, at the Paula Cooper Gallery, in SoHo. The first year's reading, on Dec. 31, 1974, was the idea of Jean Rigg, Alison Knowles, Annea Lockwood, and Ruth Anderson. 74 people participated in this...

The Current Cinema Processing Sludge by Pauline Kael. Review of Peter Bogdanovich's film "Nickelodeon...

The Talk of the Town Von Sydow by Hendrik Hertzberg. Talk story about Swedish actor Max Von Sydow, in town for the opening of a new movie, "Voyage of the Damned." Von Sydow talks about the character he plays Gustav Schroeder, captain of a German cruise ship with 937 Jews aboard leaving Nazi Germany with the government's permission in 1939...

Cartoon Keeping Calm by George Booth. Illustrated prose and fiction, entitled, "Keeping Calm," Series of seven pictures with captions reading "Avoid Overstimulation," "Spend more time alone," "Putter among the flowers before breakfast," "Take catnaps whenever you can," "Stay Single...

A Reporter in Washington Autumn Notes~II by Elizabeth Drew. Diary notes from Oct. 13 to Nov. 3 about the Presidential campaign and election. Writer begins analyzing what was wrong with the Carter campaign as of Oct. 13. One of Carter's problems was that he was a better primary candidate than he was a general-election candidate. Tells about changes...

The Talk of the Town Spuds (Contd.) by E. J. Kahn. Talk story about daylong year-end seminar on carbohydrates conducted at the new United Nations Plaza Hotel by the Potato Board, a Denver, Colorado institution of higher carbohydratological learning. About 30 people attended, most of them food editors and writers. Tells what several speakers had to say about the use...

Musical Events The Memory of Byron by Andrew Porter.

Dancing Baryshnikov's "Nutcracker" by Arlene Croce.

The Race Track Rough Going by G. F. T. Ryall. At Aqueduct, the Rosetown Stakes was won by Jacques Wimpfheimer's Ring o' Bells. NOTE: This name was inccorectly spelled in this column as "Wimpheimer...

Comment by Jamaica Kincaid. On the first of January, 1977, the writer took an Amtrak train from Cleveland to New York. The train was scheduled to leave Cleveland at 11:05PM but didn't depart until midnight. Writer found a window seat and describes the view. Before going to sleep, at 2:30AM, writer walks through the...

Fiction News from the China~Watchers by Merritt W. Moseley. Parody of a report on recent developments in China. The deaths of Chairman Mao and Chou En-lai have altered political conditions. Mao's widow, Chiang Ching and three others are in disfavor with the Chinese Communist Party. Describes wall posters denouncing the four, and the doctrinal errors they have made...

The Theatre THE LOSER AS WINNER by Brendan Gill.

Fiction The Question Party (Variation on a Theme from "Godey's Lady's Book, 1850) by Donald Barthelme. Maria's mother, Mrs. Teach, gives a party at which she invites all the guests to participate in a novel form of entertainment. Gathering all guests into the parlor, Mrs. Teach gives each a card on which to write a response to the question, "What is a bachelor?" Mr. Lynch, a...

Poetry The Coin by W. S. Merwin. I have been to a fair alone...

Poetry Palm Beach With Portuguese Man-of-War by James Merrill. A mile-long vertebrate picked clean...

Poetry Mandelstam by Norman Rosten. A millennium of thaw, flowering ice...