Fiction The Bullies by Harold Brodkey. Ida Nicholson is visiting Momma, Lila, for an afternoon. They are in the midwest. The two women sit on the porch eating cucumber sandwiches and talking, protected from the rain by the canvas awnings. Throughout their conversation each workman vies for more power, and there are many subtle innuendoes at...

The Current Cinema THEFTS by Pauline Kael.

Around City Hall A Friend Indeed by Andy Logan. About "The Curious Case of Victor Botnick." Botnick, the exchairman of the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation, was since January, chairman of the HHC, which is the largest, public-hospital complex in the nation. Botnick has played a major role at the HHC, which runs 16 municipal hospitals & has...

The Talk of the Town Great Party by William McKibben. Talk story about the Flanders Gourmet Beer party "plugging eleven Belgian brews" at the Tavern on the Green. Writer spoke with Ferdinand de Wilde, the Belgian consulgeneral, who said that Belgium has 129 breweries, and that "our beer, it is one reason Belgians are not immigrants." Writer then met Howard...

Comment Comment, Pt. II by William McKibben. The day after the space shuttle Challenger exploded, the Times ran a story headlined"FAITH IN TECHNOLOGY IS JOLTED BUT THERE IS NO GOING BACK," which read, in part, "People are jolted into realizing once again the extreme vulnerabilities that all humans must ultimately subject themselves to when they attempt...

Letter from Europe by Jane Kramer. LETTER FROM EUROPE about the career of Kurt Waldheim, from his work in the Balkans during WWII, through to his most recent and successful campaign for the President of Austria. Waldheim had lied about a past that included 3 years of service to a Nazi general who was hanged for...

Books by John Updike.

The Talk of the Town More Than Doodads by Mark Singer. Writer visited the Statue of Liberty Gallery and Shop, on Hudson Street, in the West Village. Howard Goldstein is the owner, along with his partner, Mervin Bendewald. The store opened in April, 1985 and sells Statue of Liberty memorabilia---from signed original etchings to postcards. The owners traveled to Colmar...

Dancing by Arlene Croce.

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Sanctuary by Paul Brodeur. Talk story about the church-based sanctuary movement and a trial in Tuscon, Arizon where a federal jury convicted 6 of its leaders of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens from El Salvador and Guatemela into the U.S. In the pre-trial hearing held in May and June of 1985, Judge...

Comment by Burton Bernstein. A friend in Connecticut writes: Something strange & wonderful happened here in Fairfield County the day after Benny Goodman died. It was an exquisite June Saturday--sunny & dry with a sweet, fresh breeze. My family & I were delighting in the weather--just sitting around outside, doing next to...

Poetry Equations of the Light by Dana Gioia. Turning the corner, we discovered it...

Poetry The Klipsan Stallions by Linda Bierds. Just one crack against the sandbar...