The Talk of the Town Letting Off Steam by Rogers E. M. Whitaker. Talk story about steam engine vehicles. At the midtown Manhattan Lexicographers Club, E.M. Frimbo, the world's greatest railroad buff, talked with John Bunyon from near Walmer, in Kent, about steam cars, steam farm engines, steam railway engines, and steam engines for industrial purposes. Tells where in Vermont a Bicentennial steam...

The Talk of the Town Sark by Anthony Hiss. Talk story about the Electra-Bar at Big Julie Tantleff's new restaurant-bar-disco-cabaret, called Big Julie's. The Electra-Bar puts together an NCR (formerly National Cash Register) 250 electronic cash register and the computerized drink-pouring system developed by Electro Measure in Menasha, Wisconsin. By pressing a button...

The Talk of the Town Crusade by Mark Singer. Talk story about Harold Willens, one of the founders of Citizens for Energy Action. This group wants to combat the economic and political powers of the big oil companies. They want to become the legitimate counter-opinion on energy matters. Mr. Willens is chairman of the board of the Factory...

The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

Comment by Donald Barthelme. Comment on spring in Greenwich Village. The budgets of the Jefferson Market and Hudson Park Libraries may be cut another ten per cent in July by the city, and an especially strong commando has been mustered (49 members) to rush into the breach...

Books Truth and Consequences by Naomi Bliven.

The Art World (The Art Galleries) Ideal and Real by Harold Rosenberg.

Musical Events Household Tales by Winthrop Sargeant.

The Race Track Bold Forbes All the Way by G. F. T. Ryall. A statue of the Meadow Stable's Secretariat was unveiled in the paddock walking ring at Belmont Park. Done by John Skeaping, R.A., an Englishman, it is the gift of Paul Mellon to the National Museum of Racing, at Saratoga Springs...

Fiction The Duel by William Saroyan. The narrator is a young boy of Armenian heritage growing up in Fresno, California. He idolizes his 12 year old first cousin, Artarash(nicknamed Trash) Bashmanian Trash is daring, popular, and good at public speaking. He is a smooth orator who speaks clearly, although, as the narrator says, he says...

Comment by Calvin Trillin. Comment about the Negative Boast and the Negative Thrust. The best-known Negative Boast of recent times, of course, came from Richard Nixon, who, while he was President of the United States, told a group of editors, "I'm not a crook." Spiro T. Agnew said, "I'am not a bigot." They...

Fiction Love Song, For A Moog Synthesizer by John Updike. Tod relates the history of his relationship with a woman, whom he calls Pumpkin or Princess, from the time he met her to the time she became his wife. They were both married, she a "parody of a respectable housewife," but he could tell her heart wasn't in it. She...

Cartoon Bob Tooley At The Cannes Festival by Pierre Le-Tan. Every year I come to the Festival. My tuxedo is a bit old...

The Current Cinema Fassbinder by Penelope Gilliatt. Review of this German director's 1972 film "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant". Also mentions his 1975 film "Fox and His Friends". Gives biographical facts on Fassbinder...

A Reporter at Large JERUSALEM JOURNAL by Francine du Plessix Gray. REPORTER AT LARGE about Israel. Writer and her family stayed in an apartment in Mishkenot Sha'anamin, a residential complex for artists & writers. Tells about visiting various Israelis, meeting Teddy Kollek, the Jewish mayor of Jerusalem, speaking with Israeli students at Hebrew Univ. Writer went to the Knesset--the Israeli...

U. S. Journal SCOUTING SLEEPERS by Calvin Trillin. U.S. JOURNAL: WASHINGTON, D.C. The writer became a book scout for Marcia Carter and Larry McMurtry, who are partners in a Georgetown rare-book shop called Booked Up. For a number of years, McMurtry has made a living as a writer-mostly of novels set in Texas, where he grew...

Poetry The End Of Words: An Election-Year Thought by Howard Moss. Drive past in the night: the two white lions...

Poetry Start Again Somewhere by Tess Gallagher. Don't let her stop you this time, Miguel...