The Talk of the Town "You!" by William McKibben. Talk story about going to the recent citywide public high school basketball championships. Games included match between Springfield Gardens and Alexander Hamilton High Schools (won by Springfield Gardens 86-83), an B Class Boys game between Printing of Manhattan and Walton of the Bronx, and a Girls' Championship between August Martin...

Musical Events Moralities by Andrew Porter.

Letter from Europe by Jane Kramer. Pope John Paul II is not popular among the Roman bourgeoisie. Romans, as the Poles suspect, would prefer an Italian Pope, but not so much for his nationality as for his inconspicuousness. Right now only the Socialists in Italy have a real political interest in the attack on John Paul...

Profiles Finding Out Is Better by Jonathan Cott. PROFILE of Peter and Iona Opie, British scholars of children's folklore. Writer accompanies Iona on her weekly visit to the Liss County Junior School, where she comes to observe the games and listen to the rhymes of the local schoolchildren. At their home in the village of West Liss (which...

Fiction Bruns by Norman Rush. This story is set in Keteng, a country near South Africa. There are many Boers living there. Boers are South Africans of Dutch descent, though they are a humiliation to the Dutch because they are like "ids set free in the world." The narrator, a female anthropologist from Stanford, tells...

Comment by Gwyneth Cravens. A woman we know writes: According to a new study of how Central Park is used by visitors, 20.2 per cent of the people who go there on weekdays go there to think. On weekends, the figure drops to 13.2 per cent. I have lived near the Park for almost...

Fiction Architecture by Saul Steinberg. Four drawings of fanciful modern buildings...

The Talk of the Town Signs by James Stevenson. Talk story about signs the narrator finds around the Times Square area. Outside a porno movie on 8th Avenue, he sees a man putting up a homemade poster that said, "A Surprise Hit!" In the basement window of a brownstone nearby was a sign: "For Lease. Suitable for Restaurant Piano...

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

The Current Cinema SAVED! by Pauline Kael.

The Talk of the Town Eggs on End by William McKibben. Talk story about going to Ralph J. Bunche Park, across from the U.N., to watch Donna Henes stand 360 eggs on end and fire off 52 emergency highway flares in the name of world peace. According to Donna, at 11:39 on March 20th, the moment of vernal equinox, eggs can...

Poetry by C. K. Williams. Until I asked her to please stop doing it and was astonished...

Poetry Getting Away by David Wagoner. We had brought out love thereNto a lake by a...