Comment by Adam Gopnik. It's often said that t.v. has condensed experience and sliced it up into bite-size bits--has reduced politics to thirty-second spots, and shrunk sports to ribbons of highlights on the late news. But cable has changed that, and now all of us--or, anyway, those of us who...

Our Local Correspondents SUBWAY STORY by George W. S. Trow. OUR LOCAL CORRESPONDENTS about a 26-year-old homeless black man, Frederick Nelson, who allegedly pushed a black subway token clerk, Michelle Hobbs (who was six months pregnant) before an oncoming train. This took place on Nov. 9, 1987 at 10 in the morning in the IND station at 145th...

The Talk of the Town Hall of Fame by Susan Orlean. Talk story about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which is being designed by I.M. Pei. Its model is stored in the architectural-model shop at I.M. Pei & Partners' Madison Avenue offices. There are four other architects at work on this project, and they helped to educate Mr...

Fiction Memphis by Bobbie Ann Mason. Beverly and her husband Joe, who live in Kentucky, separated about a year ago. For the sake of their three children they tried to get back together, without success, and are now divorced. The marriage had been happy at first, but Beverly had begun not to trust her intelligence and...

The Talk of the Town The Living Paintings by Adam Gopnik. Talk story about The Living Paintings, an exhibition of the handiwork of British sculptor Stephen Taylor Woodrow, at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, downtown on Broadway. The paintings are part performance art, part trompe-l'oeil, part some kind of delayed-release Wildean dandyism. From noon until closing time, Wednesday...

Casual Three New Twins Join Club in Spring by Garrison Keillor. Casual about the four new players traded to the Minnesota Twins, who are now beginning spring training, after spending winter doing youth work. Last fall, the team pooled their Series pay to purchase Twin Acres, a farm where they stayed in shape doing chores in the off-season. They invited...

Fiction Days of Tender Passion by Charles Saxon. Three pages of poems and six drawings to illustrate them. The poems are culled from "A Poetic Anthology", published by E. H. Butler & Co., Philadelphia in 1851...

The Talk of the Town Seltzer by Mark Singer. Talk story about promoting Good Health Seltzer. The company rented a restaurant at a health club and invited some celebrity bartenders. They were Helen O'Connell, the singer, Floyd Patterson, the ex-boxer, and Howard Johnson, the switch-hitting, hard-charging third basemen for the Mets. Bill Martin, the president of...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Current Cinema by Pauline Kael.

Letter from Europe by Jane Kramer. Writer tells about the Prix Goncourt and other French literary prizes. There are 1500 literary prizes in France. The prize that French writers really covet is the Goncourt. The check for it is 50 francs, a little over $10. From a literary point of view the honor is as small...

The Theatre COMEDY TONIGHT by Edith Oliver.

Dancing by Arlene Croce.

A Critic at Large MANY BENS by John Updike. A CRITIC AT LARGE about Benjamin Franklin. Tells about his life beginning with his last day. Tells about his role at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. His ideas were generally voted down. He died in 1790. He had been of a different generation from the other founders. What they needed...

The Control of Nature I-COOLING THE LAVA by John McPhee. THE CONTROL OF NATURE about cooling a lava flow in Iceland in 1973. A volcanic eruption began on Jan. 23 in Heimaey, the largest island of the Vestmannaeyjar group. Red-hot lava was threatening a town of 5000 & an important harbor. The vent was a nascent volcano. As the...

Poetry Of the Knowledge of Good and Evil by George Bradley. Perhaps in the dead of some different night, Staring into an ocean...

Poetry Fear & Fame by Philip Levine. Half an hour to dress: wide rubber hip boots...