The Talk of the Town Gravitational by Alan P. Lightman. Talk story about a lecture given bu the physicist Rainer Weiss at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA, on gravitational waves. The theory that gravitational waves exist was propounded by Einstein in 1916, but they have not yet been directly detected. Their effects are estimated to be...

Fiction The Third Party by William Trevor. Two men in Ireland agree to meet at the bar in Buswell's Hotel. They are both in their early 40's. Through the course of their conversation, reader discovers that Boland, who is tall and slightly older, has agreed to meet his wife's lover, Lairdman. Boland owns a small bakery...

Fiction Machinery by Janet Kauffman. The narrator begins, "I don't have a heart of steel. I try to explain this to my son Harry, who is sixteen and in trouble. "She and her husband, Claude, own a 35-acre farm. Narrator describes how she and Pat, a man she hires every year, do the combing...

The Talk of the Town Youth by Alex Shoumatoff. Talk story about Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso. Writer had heard him in Rio de Janeiro in 1984 and went back recently to interview him. He is a folksinger who accompanies himself on an acoustic guitar. Tells about him and his music...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. When American sea & air, forces attacked the Libyan boats in the Gulf of Sidra recently, some Libyans, it is generally believed, lost their lives, but anyone who would like to know how many will have difficulty in finding out. The ascertainable facts, insofar as we have been able to...

The Talk of the Town The Monument by William McKibben. Talk story about Paul Hawks, and his project: "The United States of America--In God We Trust" spelled out in fifty-foot-high letters on an Oregon hilltop. The monument will be built of 67,640 concrete blocks, each of which can be inscribed, and will be sold. Mr. Kinsley will...

Profiles SEARCHING FOR GREGORIAN by Philip Hamburger. PROFILE of Vartan Gregorian, president and chief executive officer of the New York Public Library. He came to this post in 1981 from the University of Pennsylvania where he had been provost. He holds a Ph.D. in history. He is known for his magical work in restoring the library to...

American Chronicles Black or White by Calvin Trillin. AMERICAN CHRONICLES about the tribulations of Susie Guillory Phipps, who, when she applied for a birth certificate in 1977, discovered that the Louisiana Division of Vital Records had, in 1934, issued her a birth certificate which described her as "colored" or black. H.M. "Jack" Westholtz, chief of the New Orleans...

Books by Naomi Bliven.

Letter from Europe by Jane Kramer. The French voted out the Socialist government in the recent elections. The Pres. of France lost control of his country's policies for the first time in the 28 years of the Fifth Republic, & had to choose a Prime Minister from his opposition. Pres. Francois Mitterand's Socialists were still the...

The Theatre AIRBORNE AND EARTHBOUND by Brendan Gill.

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Trouper by William Franzen. Talk story about Mr. Jiggs, who is billed as the World's Smartest Chimp, and about an appearance by Jiggs in the auditorium of the Franklin Elementary School in Rahway, New Jersey. His appearance at the school was paid for ($350) by the school's PTA, which raises money through regular cupcake...

The Art World Medicis, Inc. by Calvin Tomkins. Complete column on art collecting by corporations...

Poetry David's Watercolor by James Merrill. Dusk. The old cloaked shepherd of terra-cotta...