The Theatre ACROSS THE RIVER by Mimi Kramer.

Fiction Worlds Of Love by Jeffrey Shaffer. Inspired by a personal advertisement in the "Willamette Week" in which the advertiser describes himself as a "slightly uncivilized SWM..." and prefers that his mate understand "the Crab Nebula..." the writer submits eleven more personal ads, all of which contain science fictitious or astrological quips. Some of the entry headings...

The Current Cinema SUNSHINE by Pauline Kael.

Annals of Medicine A LEAN CUISINE by Berton Roueche. ANNALS OF MEDICINE about an outbreak of thyroid disease in which patients had an excessive supply of thyroid hormones. It is called thyrotoxicosis. The usual cause is a derangement of the body's immune system-known as Graves' disease. There are, however, other avenues by which the body can be oversupplied...

The Talk of the Town Pops by Stanley Mieses. Talk story about a visit to the Louis Armstrong House at 107th St. in Corona, Queens, at the invitation of Gail Hightower, professor of music at Queens College & director of the House. Musician Armstrong lived there for the last 3 decades of his life. He died at 71 in...

The Talk of the Town Central, Mombo! by Michael Bamberger. Talk story about the girl's varsity badminton team of Central high school in Philadelphia. Central, an academically selective Philadelphia high school founded in 1836, began accepting girls in 1983, and fielded its first girls' varsity badminton team in the Philadelphia Public League this year. Fifteen girls made the team, and...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Fiction Hic Haec Hoc by Penelope Gilliatt. Diana is being tutored by Professor David Reid about Chaucer when Prof. Hugh Hower-Bennett shouts through the open door that Jane Shaw, Ph.D. will be joining him, and others of the Oxford community, on their Trojan cruise---a vacation cruise, complete with guest lecturers, headed for Greece. Diana coaxes...

Annals of War AN AMERICAN SOLDIER IN VIETNAM II-A SET-PIECE BATTLE by Neil Sheehan. ANNALS OF WAR about Lt. Col. John Vann & the war in Vietnam. Gives an account of a battle between ARVN troops & Vietcong for the hamlet of Bac in the Mekong Delta. There were about 350 Vietcong in the village--about 200 more than estimated Tells how they defeated...

The Talk of the Town Green Beams by Brendan Dealy. Talk story about the first citywide laser show ever mounted in New York, the handiwork of Dick Sandhaus, a laser artist and the president of a laser special effects company called Science Faction. The laser show is a part of the First New York International Festival of the Arts. The...

A Critic at Large IN THE SHADOW OF THE GOLDEN MOUNTAINS by Lis Harris. A CRITIC AT LARGE about the writings of the novelist Henry Roth. Roth's first novel--& until now his only book--was "Call It Sleep," surely the most lyrically authentic novel in American literature about a young boy's coming to consciousness & arguably the most distinguished novel ever written about...

Comment by Cynthia Zarin. A comment about the emergency drill which took place at Lilco's Shoreham nuclear power plant... The drill, which followed a script written by FEMA, consisted of a series of simulated malfunctions. (As it happened, before the test got underway, FEMA itself had joined the chorus of state & local agencies...

Poetry High Noon by Amy Clampitt. The poplars gray as a ghost by the creek...

Poetry Heavy Summer Rain by Jane Kenyon. The grasses in the field have toppled...