Report from Baghdad by Milton Viorst. Tells about Jesse Jackson's negotiations for the release of Americans being held in Kuwait & Iraq, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The writer accompanied Jackson on his mission to Iraq and Kuwait, which was financed by King World Productions for U.S. television. On Mon., Aug. 27, Jackson and his TV...

Letter from Washington by Elizabeth Drew. Saddam Hussein's lunge into Kuwait has plunged the Bush Administration into its biggest gamble, with the biggest dangers and big stakes--and with the possibility of a big payoff. The hope is that the international economic embargo on Iraq will force Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait. The harder questions revolve...

The Talk of the Town Star by Mindy Aloff. Talk story about Flora Baldini, an African elephant. From now until the end of October she will be spending part of each day inside a tent in a parking lot across from the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Majestic Theatre. The rest of the time she will be playing the Majestic...

Fiction Jelly Doughnuts by Rick Rofihe. Etta December (nee Dietz), the narrator, dated Buck a Penobscot Indian, for a few weeks in 1985. Now, in 1990 Buck is dating Etta's emotionally disturbed younger sister Simmi. Simmi is terrified of anything connected with the past, recent, or distant. After living for a few years in the west...

The Talk of the Town Final by Jane Shapiro. Talk story about going to Flushing Meadow for the final day of the U.S. Open. The writer, who knows little about sports, was invited by an old friend, her former husband, Eddie. They arrived at the Open at the conclusion of the women's doubles. Martina & Gigi held up their...

Fiction Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid. Lucy, the narrator, is a native of the West Indies, who came to New YOrk City to work as an au pair for Lewis and Mariah, taking care of their four children. When the couple divorced less than a year later, Lucy moved into an apartment with her friend Peggy...

Books by Lis Harris.

A Reporter at Large ALBATROSSES by Diane Ackerman. A REPORTER AT LARGE about the short-tailed albatross & Torishima Is., which is the only nesting grounds for the bird. Pater Harrison is a painter and ornithologist, who has probably seen more species of seabirds than anyone else on earth. Writer met him on a cruise in the Antarctic...

The Talk of the Town Opening Day by Susan Orlean. Talk story about the opening of a new Nordstrom's at Garden State Plaza, in Paramus. Nordstrom's is a fancy department store chain based in Seattle. This is their first branch in the Northeast. Tells how the company makes retailing an event rather than just retailing. Quotes from conversation overheard by...

The Current Cinema by Pauline Kael.

Comment by Mark Danner. Comment about the Iran-Contra affair and the savings-and-loan debacle--the great public scandals of the last decade, which are remarkable above all for their inconclusiveness. In the case of Iran-Contra, it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember that events so threatening to the Constitution and representative...

Poetry Skin Cancer by Mark Jarman. Balmy overcast nights of mid-September...

Poetry Skagit Valley by Roger Fanning. Long after my last drop of adrenaline...

Poetry Second Nature by Ron Hornung. In the dream you are living in Akron again...