Comment by Suzannah Lessard. Antagonism often creates structure. This is how the structure of antagonism worked during the Cold War. But the old struggles are now evaporating and with them, the viability of the structures that grew around them. If the nuclear arsenals of the Soviet Union and the US are not aimed at...

Fiction Berard's Luck by Tom Chiarella. Berard hits fox on the road while driving his pregnant wife home. A long string of bad luck follows, including a fight with a dog that breaks into Berard's house. He fights the dog off, and has to get rabies shots. Later, his wife buys him a puppy of the...

Reflections II-BREAKING FAITH by Shirley Hazzard. REFLECTIONS about the United Nations, especially the disastrous decade of the 70s when Kurt Waldheim was the Secretary-General. In Jan., 1972 he assumed control of an enfeebled organization. In a world of mounting disorder he pursued a policy of appeasing member governments. His attitude was that once an item...

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. After a speech on illegal drugs given by George Bush, some Democrats said that they shouldn't help Bush make the point that the drug problem can be dealt with without raising taxes. The attack on Byrd's proposal from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue served to solidify other Democratic senators...

A Reporter at Large FIRE by Thomas Hackett. REPORTER AT LARGE about the fires in Yellowstone National Park last summer & the controversy that ensued over the park's natural-burn policy which allowed certain lightening caused fires to burn unhindered. From the time the fires began in May 1988 until they officially ended in November 1988, almost a...

The Talk of the Town Dividends by Alec Wilkinson. Talk Story about Dorothy Scardino, a piano player who has played piano for 19 years at the Manhattan Savings Bank at 86th Street & Third Avenue. Because she's worked the same "room" for nineteen years, her cabaret act is among the longer-running ones in Manhattan--perhaps the longest-running...

The Talk of the Town Windows by Adam Gopnik. Talk Story about the window art of Stephen J. Gerberich, who came here from West Des Moines, Iowa three years ago to become an artist. His art can be found at 472 Broome Street. In the window, Gerberich has for the past two years created meticulously detailed fantasy environments made...

The Current Cinema SATYR by Pauline Kael.

Books by Terrence Rafferty.

The Theatre ACCENT ON YOUTH by Edith Oliver.

The Talk of the Town Balloonist by Mike Cannell. Talk story about Julian Nott, Britain's foremost hot-air balloonist who plans the first non-stop balloon voyage around the world. He was interviewed here in an office provided by Rolex Watch U.S.A., one of 50 firms that are lending him their services. His 145 foot balloon Explorer will lift...

Poetry Rimbaud (Je reconnais la ma sale education d'enfance.) by Robert Mazzocco. The rain has tormented the child...

Poetry Red Poppy by Tess Gallagher. That linkage of warnings sent a tremor through June...