Musical Events A Composer for Our Time by Andrew Porter.

Fiction Guilt-Gems by John Updike. Ferguson, a divorced, middle-aged man, discovered in the blue ground of his midnight brain certain bright moments that never failed to make him feel guilty. Guilt, for those prone to it, need not attach to conduct generally judged reprehensible. In himself he detected a pervasive ceaseless guilt in regard...

The Race Track Meadowlands Opening by G. F. T. Ryall. Meadowlands, the track in the Hackensack Meadows in East Rutherford, New Jersey, began its thoroughbreds meeting, which will end on New Year's Eve, the evening after Labor Day. The track is part of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, a complex that includes the Giants' football stadium. The grandstand...

Books From Quarks to the Cosmos by Jeremy Bernstein.

Onward and Upward with the Arts PIANIST'S PROGRESS by Helen Drees Ruttencutter. ONWARD AND UPWARD WITH THE ARTS about concert pianist Robin McCabe, who recently completed her doctorate at Juilliard. Writer became interested in the problems of student pianists trying for careers when she met Robin, in 1973. Robin, one of 200 pianists at Juilliard, was accepted in 1971. She had just...

The Talk of the Town Double-Double by Wallace White. Talk story about a "Star Party" held on the lawn in front of the Hayden Planetarium by the Amateur Astronomers Association. A.A.A. is a local organization with 500 members that for 50 years has been gazing at the heavens through telescopes, usually made by some of its members. About 150...

The Talk of the Town Defending Yuri Orlov by Anthony Bailey. Talk story about Professor Yuri Orlov, a 53-year old Russian physicist who was arrested Feb. 10, 1977 for defaming the Soviet state. In January 1974, after founding a unit of Amnesty International, and defending dissident Andrei Skhharov, Orlov lost his job at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics...

The Current Cinema Regency by Penelope Gilliatt. Directed "Let Joy Reign Supreme," with a script by Jean Aurenche and the director...

Cartoon City Dogs by Saul Steinberg. Six cartoons showing various city scenes with doglike figures...

Reflections THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP by William Pfaff. REFLECTIONS about Anglo-American relations. Britain's status as a great power has declined since 1945, when World War II ended. Today Britain is the weakest of the major West European states and the one with the most problematic future. The British have clearly suffered a failure to articulate and act...

Fiction Revelations of a List-Maker by Guillermo Cabrera Infante. Lists thrill me. I am planning to write a masterwork, no less, which will consist of nothing but a list. I have been guided in the planning and elaboration of its design by close reading of the actual text of Genesis. This house of mine, which daily becomes more and...

Comment by Anthony Hiss. Over a bowl of bay scallops at the Oyster Bar in his favorite railroad station, Grand Central Terminal, E.M. Frimbo last week delivered himself of the following: "How to get people out of the countryside-I guess that's the unwritten federal policy today." Tells how the government has made the...

Poetry The Last Step by Philip Levine. Once I was a small grain...

Poetry Standards by Howard Moss. Sadly among the patient standards...

Poetry Homage To The First Geometer by Jack Butler. All things are water, Thales said, and meant...