Fiction Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby by Donald Barthelme. Some of Colby's friends had been threatening him for a long time because of his behavior and now that he had gone too far, his friends decided to hang him. Colby didn't think he should be hung even if he had gone too far (he didn't deny he had gone...

The Current Cinema THOUGHT'S EMPIRE by Penelope Gilliatt.

Annals of Diplomacy SALT IV-THE BACK CHANNEL by John Newhouse. ANNALS OF DIPLOMACY about the first four sessions of SALT talks from the fall of 1969 to the spring of '71 In Oct., 1969 there was satisfaction that the talks were to begin but Wash. & Moscow took a wary view of the prospects. SALT I started Nov. 17, 1969...

The Race Track by G. F. T. Ryall. As had been expected, the legislature in Albany passed a revised racing and betting law last week that would give the N.Y.R.A. and the horsemen a bigger share of the take from the parimutuel, and that would permit racing on Sunday. Writer says the last he heard, the mutuel clerks...

The Talk of the Town The Browning Hum by Lillian Ross. Talk story about the N.Y. Browning Society's annual luncheon. Burgess, who spoke on "Browning and the Modern Age," admitted his difficiencies in Browning scholarship. Tells about some of his remarks remembered by one of the Society's members...

The Talk of the Town News on a Shoestring by Hendrik Hertzberg. Talk story about news programs broadcasted on WBAI, the local Pacifica Foundation FM radio station on E. 62nd st. Interviews Paul Fischer, news director of WBAI. News stories on WBAI are straightforward, free of packaging, tend to be longer than usual radio programs, with detailed coverage of the IndoChina war...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. Watergate has given new impetus to the country's long standing debate over the merits of "the system." Since the term became popular, about 10 years ago, it has merged at least two meanings that should have, been kept distinct. On the one hand, it has referred to the system of...

The Theatre PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH by Brendan Gill.

The Talk of the Town Bar by Susan Sheehan. Talk story about a visit to the Powers & Healy Pub at 211 Dyckman St. in the Inwood section of upper Manhattan. Many of the patrons at this bar, which has a poster of Eire and a carpeting decorated with the heads of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy...

Profiles HANGING OUT WITH BLOSSOM DEARIE by Whitney Balliett. PROFILE of singer Blossom Dearie. Writer spends a day with her, visiting her at her Greenwich Village apt., going with her to a recording session, having lunch with her, & going with her to hear her sing at Three, a bar-and-restaurant on E. 72nd. Her voice is tiny...

Fiction Of Love and Friendship by Arturo Vivante. Author recalls his childhood in Siena, Italy. His father had been a philosopher who was given a piece of land there. His mother believed in her husband's philosophy, but was never able to fully understand it. She loved him as she would a son, only he was more exacting. The...

Around City Hall DIVERSIONS by Andy Logan. AROUND CITY HALL about recent diversions in the New York city mayoral campaign. Tells about the annual musical satire presented by the Inner Circle, an organization of local political reporters & Mayor Lindsay's song-and-dance rebuttal. Tells about Jerome Kretchmer & Robert Postel dropping out of the Democratic race...

Poetry Acevedo by Jorge Luis Borges. Vast cattle land of my father's fathers...

Poetry Fireside by Seamus Heaney. Always there would be stories of lights...