Comment by James Lardner. Comment about taxes. Taxes--a big theme of every Presidential election since 1980--are big once, again this year. To President Bush and his advisers, no problem looms as too large to be solved by a tax reduction, a tax credit, a tax-free zone, or some other rejiggering of...

The Talk of the Town Hallelujah by Amy Clyde. Talk story about Ars Femina Ensemble, and about women composers in history. The other day, writer noticed a new record lable--Nannerl Recordings, from Louisville, Kentucky --and made a few calls to find out who had named a record company after Mozart's sister, Maria Anna, known as Nannerl, and why.Susan...

The Talk of the Town Real Dogs by Richard Cohen. Talk story about U.S. Customs Service dog trading cards. The Cards which are distributed by Customs to schoolchildren, show canine agents sniffing tires, standing in pickups, and straining in the glare of the midday Texas sun. Tells about the cards, which are also put out by Nabisco, and which depict...

The Talk of the Town A Hug by Owen Phillips. Talk story about accordions. Writer interviews Guy Klucevsek, an important accordion composer and player, and artist Max Miller, who has 120 accordions. Klucevsek is 45, and lives with his wife on Staten Island. He is one of only two or three important accordion composers and has worked with such groups...

Fiction Stalin, Stalin, and Stalin by Jonathan Treitel. Story about 4 meetings of the Stalin's Doubles Association, which took place from 1953 just after Josef Stalin died, until 1956, when Stalin was denounced by Khrushchev. Most of the doubles did not look exactly like Him, but since His image was only known through idealized portraits, touched up photographs...

Fiction How to Give the Wrong Impression by Katherine Heiny. Gwen (in the 2nd person voice) and Boris, graduate students, are roommates, but Gwen pretends and lets people infer that they are romantically involved. On her change-of-address card she writes Boris and Gwen; she helps him buy a bed; her parents take them out to dinner--Boris holds...

Annals of the Former World III-ASSEMBLING CALIFORNIA by John McPhee. ANNALS OF THE FORMER WORLD about California, earthquakes. and the geology of the region. Writer visits Napa Valley with Eldridge Moores, a geologist, and samples rock & wine there. Tells about how plate tectonics formed California from a large number of disparate pieces. If writer had to summarize all he...

In Fashion by Holly Brubach.

The Current Cinema GETTING OLD by Terrence Rafferty.

Letter from Europe by Jane Kramer. Tells about the efforts of Antonio Di Pietro and other prosecutors to expose the Mafia and other corruption in Italy. Using computers to track fraud, Di Pietro has had 600 Milanese politicians & bureaucrats under investigation for corruption, & 250 convictions. Among them was Mario Chiesa, who collected bribes from...

Books by Verlyn Klinkenborg.

Poetry The Lazy Girl Was Never Scolded by Elizabeth Macklin. Then: New-painted ceilings shed light, in our place, as if they were...

Poetry The Resurrection (Piero della Francesca by Gertrude Schnackenberg. In the 1550s a lantern-maker, Marco, testified...

Poetry The Paternal Side by Rustin Larson. 1840: bespectacled...