Books Selda, Lilia, Ursa, Great Gram, and Other Ladies in Distress by John Updike.

Dept. of Amplification by Richard Harris. DEPT. OF AMPLIFICATION of ANNALS OF LAW June 17, 24, 1974 about Charles James, a teacher fired for wearing a black armband to school on Vietnam Moratorium Day in 1969. Tells about the outcome of the case for his reinstatement & repayment of illegally deprived pay. He also sued the...

The Talk of the Town Leisure Living by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about leisure suits. Mel Torme wore a subdued leisure-suit-and-scarf ensemble on the "Tonight Show...

Fiction Downhill by Ann Beattie. A woman, Maria, and her dog are alone in the house, while her common-law husband Jon of four years and four months is away for a week, visiting his twin brother. She recalls a letter from her mother to "John," congratulating him for the start in September of his...

Cartoon Highlights of the Psychokinetic Year (Illus.) by James Stevenson. Examples of psychic phenomena, all having to do with the frustrations of life, that have occurred during the year, with illustrations. For example: On March 27th, an office boy willed a Mars bar from a machine marked "Out of Order." On April 12th, a commuter made the train stop exactly...

The Race Track Word to the Wise by G. F. T. Ryall. Vincent O'Brien trains American-bred horses in Ireland He will train a filly bought by Daniel Van Clief...

Profiles Back From Valhalla by Whitney Balliett.

The Talk of the Town Index by Hendrik Hertzberg. Mentioned at length in Talk story about the London-based quarterly, "Index On Censorship," and its editor, Michael Scammell. "Index," devoted to the defense of freedom of expression, provides an outlet for manuscripts that have been suppressed by any governments, and publishes lengthy reports on threats to freedom of speech...

A Reporter at Large From MacArthur to Miki~III by Robert Shaplen. REPORTER AT LARGE about Japan and the Japanese today. Author quotes many Japanese psychiatrists, anthropologists and authors in the attempt to understand the Japanese character. The Japanese have a certain privacy of communication, a sense of mutual dependence called amae, which is a part of all their relationships both business...

The Talk of the Town Whaling Museum by Geoffrey T. Hellman. Talk story about a visit to Barbara Johnson, who has a private whaling museum in her house in Princeton, N.J. Several rooms are given over to the well-arranged collection of whaling material and a library of 16,000 books and ships' logs bearing on early whaling days. In one room...

Comment by Julie Hayden. We received a letter from a friend, a hard-core New Yorker who has been sojourning in New Hampshire: When I first came here, lady's-slipper orchids were hung like so many Japanese lanterns through the green ferns... Scarlet tanagers are as commonplace as stoplights... On overcast days, 3 or...

Dancing An American Giselle by Arlene Croce.

The Current Cinema The Hand of the Thirties by Penelope Gilliatt. Entire review about Philippe Mora's "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime...

Poetry Birches by Louise Gluck. Already the hills are being delivered to moonlight...

Poetry Shadow by Peter Cooley. Cold, he watches for me, cold...