A Reporter at Large CHOICES by Raymond Bonner. REPORTER AT LARGE about South Africa and its election on Sept. 6 in which blackscould not vote. At one end of the political spectrum is the Conservative Party which wants to preserve white rule in S. Africa, where there are 5 million whites and 19 million non-whites. They wish...

Letter from London Hothouse Rock by Bobbie Ann Mason. Talk story is a letter from London in the form of a diary. Its author relates experiences over a six day period in London. He is looking for a rock group called the Hothouse Flowers. Unfortunately, he cannot turn them up, but report on what other groups are playing in...

Books by John Updike.

The Current Cinema PULLING THE RUG OUT by Pauline Kael.

The Talk of the Town Mushrooms by Richard Brookhiser. Talk story about the annual banquwt of the New York Mycological Society at the Officers' Club on Governor's Island. Tells about the various mushroom appetizers served. After dinner the president of the society, Elinoar Shavit announced the topics of the winter lecture series. She told the writer that the first...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Fiction A Christmas Story by Garrison Keillor. Jim, a boy neglected by his conspicuously wealthy parents, decides to take his ailing dog, Tony, and run away on Christmas Eve. Jim is upset because his parents are going to Aruba for the holidays and are leaving him behind with the cleaning lady. The writer spoofs the commercialization of...

The Talk of the Town Extra-Artistic by Alec Wilkinson. Talk story about photographers in Times Square and their background banners. The Midtown Cowboy describes the kind of street photography he does late at night in Times Square as free-lancing. His company, which consists of him and two partners, a few sandwich boards of photographs a taken in Times...

Books by John Updike.

Fiction Christmas by William Steig. Drawings, in color, of five typical Christmas scenes...

Greetings, Friends! by Roger Angell. Hark the chime! The year is fleeting...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL THAT'S LIFE by Andy Logan. Tells about the appointment of Scardino, Mayor-elect David Dinkins' new press secretary. It had been learned almost at once that Scardino, a "Times" reporter, had consulted with members of the Dinkins campaign, including the candidate, about the conduct of the campaign while he was working for the "Times." He...

Comment by Mark Hertsgaard. Comment about China, & the Bush Administration's re-opening of ties soon after the Tiananmen Square massacre. The visit to Beijing last week by Brent Scowcroft & Lawrence Eagleburger, two of Bush's most senior foreign-policy advisers, was, by all accounts, a visit full of smiles & good cheer. One...

The Theatre DOUBLE OR NOTHING by Edith Oliver.

Books by John Updike.

Our Far-Flung Correspondents ARISTOCRATS by Naomi Bliven. OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS the trumpeter swan, the world's largest, with a wingspan of 8 feet, once ranged the entire continent of North America. Its farewell symphony began in the last quarter of the 18th century, when the Hudson's Bay Company started hunting the bird. In those days, it didn't...

Poetry In a Rainy Country by John Ash. It was already the landscape of the past...