The Talk of the Town Testing by Ian Frazier. Talk story about a day with the members of the International Motor Press Association at the Bridgehampton Road Racing Circuit on Long Island. Every fall, the members of the IMPA go to a race track in the Greater New York area and drive some of the new cars (provided free...

Fiction Difficult People Saying Goodbye by Myrna Blyth. A New York woman, Ellen, reminisces about breakup of first marriage to Frenchman, Pierre. Thinking of partings brings to mind the imminent departure of her parents from New Jersey to a retirement home in Florida. On the day with which the story is concerned, Ellen remains home from work nursing...

Around City Hall THE HOME-TOWN BOYS by Andy Logan. AROUND CITY HALL about the fiscal crisis. Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, along with most of the Ford Administration, has insisted that the default of the city would be only a "tolerable & temporary" inconvenience to the rest of the country, and has urged that any remedy be "punitive...

The Talk of the Town Two Commercial Parties by George W. S. Trow. Talk story about party given by Bonwit Teller's for Ken Williams, managing director of Turnbull & Asser, the London shirtmakers. The reporters hoped to meet in person the promotional concept), "The Progressive Man-that man who supresses his waist, widens his lapels, and is unafraid of masculine-fragrance products." Dick...

Musical Events Thrice Carlos by Andrew Porter.

The Air (On Television) Neutrality at the Empty Center by Michael J. Arlen.

U. S. Journal Partners by Calvin Trillin. Account of a murder in Westwood, a Boston suburb, of policeman William Sheehan and of John Oi, a partner in Chin Enterprises, Inc., a corporation set up to establish a Cantonese-Polynesian restaurant in Marietta, Ga., a town near Atlanta. Armand R. Therrien, a former N.H. state policeman and partner...

The Race Track Another Pleasure by G. F. T. Ryall. Tells about sales at Belmont Park last week. Buddy Jacobson, acting for an unnamed patron, gave $90,000 for La Tamborera...

Letter from Blackpool by Mollie Panter-Downes. The Conservative Party has just held its 92nd annual conference in Blackpool, a large, cheerful seaside town As the 4 days got under way there was much talk of a new Conservative philosophy. As it turned out the only definitely new thing that sent delegates off in a glow was...

The Current Cinema All for Love by Pauline Kael. Review of "Maogany", starring Diana Ross. Berry Gordy, chairman of the board of Motown Records, put "Mahogany" together after firing the director Tony Richardson...

A Reporter at Large COUNTRYSIDE by Berton Roueche. REPORTER AT LARGE about a trip on the Meramec River and on a white-water tributary called Courtois Creek, in Crawford County, Missouri, in the foothills of the Ozarks. It's some 90 miles southwest of St. Louis. The Meramec caught the eye of the Army Corps of Engineers which plans...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. Account of the day NYC nearly defaulted, Friday, Oct. 17, when Ngw York's future depended on the decision of Albert Shanker, president of the AFT, whether or not the NYC Teachers' Retirement System would invest $150 million in MAC bonds. A $750 million state loan to the city depended on...

The Talk of the Town Two Commercial Parties by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about a party given by Revlon to celebrate the opening of the movie, "Mahagony," and a new line of Revlon cosmetics, China Bronze. Marable is a beauty consultant for Revlon who, in the story, states that China Bronze was not developed for black women, but for all women...

The Art World (The Art Galleries) Smile of Memory by Harold Rosenberg.

Books A Mind of Her Own by V. S. Pritchett.

Fiction Twelve Years by Joel Agee. In April 1963, just after his 23rd birthday, Joel Uhse, or Joel Agee according to his American passport, went to East Berlin to visit the grave of his stepfather, Bodo Uhse. Joel had lived in the German Democratic Republic, from 1948 to 1960 (from age 8 to 20), with Bodo...

Poetry Walking Home From The Icehouse by Vern Rutsala. I pack in for the night...