Comment by Joan Bennet. We've received the following note from our ever-enthusiastic music-loving friend Louise: Last Thursday afternoon I listened on my local public-radio station to Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" in a satellite-relay live digital broadcast from the Neue Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig, where Bach is buried, and where...

The Talk of the Town Lessons by William McKibben. Talk story about a class in making balloon sculptures given at the Learning Annex by Jim and Brenna Holden, the owners of Airborne Inspirations...

Fiction The Knitting by Alice Mattison. Beth is visiting her sister Franny's family in New Haven because Franny's daughter, Stephanie, is confined to a psychiatric hospital after an attempt at suicide. In the late afternoon Beth's nephews teach her to ride a bike. She did not learn as a child because when Franny outgrew the bike...

The Talk of the Town Gerunds by Emily Hahn. Talk story about a screening at the Asia Society of parts of "The Heart of the Dragon," a 12-part television documentary about China today, beginning May 6th on PBS. Writer spoke to executive producer Peter Montagnon, who was co-producer of Kenneth Clark's "Civilization" &produced "The Long Search...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Fiction Cocktails at Doney's by William Trevor. Story about a man staying in Florence who meets a married American woman staying in the same hotel. Although he finds her very tiresome, and is not at all interested in starting a romantic relationship with her, he spends time with her, and is very concerned when she disappears. The...

The Talk of the Town Kim Williams by Ian Frazier. Talk story about 61-year-old Kim Williams, who can be heard on National Public Radio's news-and-commentary program"All Things Considered." Perhaps as many as 2 1/2 million people listen to Kim Williams, in Missoula, Montana, as she talks on topics ranging from the dangers of mistaking water...

A Reporter at Large II-THE BUTTON by Daniel Ford. REPORTER AT LARGE about the U.S. command & control system. The Pentagon has contingency plans for using nuclear weapons despite public statements saying that the country's nuclear forces would never be used in a preemptive first strike. If the U.S. were pushed into a corner it would strike first. Writer...

The Theatre BURYING THE DEAD by Brendan Gill.

The Sporting Scene The Khan Dynasty by Herbert Warren Wind. THE SPORTING SCENE about the 1985 W.P.S.A. Championships in Toronto, won by Jahangir Khan. Tells of Hashim Khan, who completely changed the course of events in the game of squash racquets when he arrived on the international scene from Pakistan in 1950&about his descendants, including Mohibullah Sharif&...

The Talk of the Town Challengers by Tony Gibbs. Talk story about a gathering of commodores from some 25 affiliated yacht clubs at the New York Yacht Club on Forty-fourth St. The clubs are united under the banner of the America II syndicate, in pursuit of the America's Cup, which was lost in 1983. It is now ensconced...

The Current Cinema CODDLED by Pauline Kael.

Poetry The Seekonk Woods by Galway Kinnell. When first I walked here I hobbled...