The Theatre Off Broadway by Edith Oliver.

Fiction Exotic Nile by Frederick Barthelme. The narrator is living in an apartment building called the Nile. He has separated from his wife, Theo, and while she lives with a new boyfriend he now lives by himself. His landlord, Dewey Nassar, had liked Theo because she used to clip stories about Egypt out of the paper...

Comment by James Stevenson. Writer describes the scene at 6 AM on a street on the upper West Side. He then goes into a store that is a luncheonette-card-shop-stationery-toy-news-stand place. Half a dozen customers -- black, white, Hispanic -- are at the counter. He then describes the shop and the...

Books by John Updike.

The Talk of the Town Firsts by William McKibben. Talk story about the preview of an exhibit on the deep sea, which will stay at the American Museum of Natural History through mid-May...

Profiles NOBODY BETTER, BETTER THAN NOBODY by Ian Frazier. PROFILE of Ponce Cruse Evans, who writes "Hints from Heloise", the syndicated household hints column that appears in more than 500 newspapers in 20 countries. Ponce's mother, Heloise, founded the column in 1959. Ponce began to write for it occasionally in 1975 and took over in 1977. Heloise, who had...

The Current Cinema TORRID ZONE by Pauline Kael.

The Talk of the Town Mood and Rumor by William McKibben. Talk story about a visit, over two consecutive evenings, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to see Laurie Anderson and her remarkable multimedia performance cycle entitled "United States". She spoke or sang her words and music, played her unconventional, highly electrified fiddle, or summoned sounds and video images with a...

Jazz by Whitney Balliett. Tells about the life and career of pianist and composer Joe Bushkin. He is currently at the Cafe Carlyle, with a quartet...

Fiction Maybe You Can Too by Garrison Keillor. Parody of a typical get-rich story. The author begins by telling about how various friends of his suddenly came up with ideas which they put into effect and made millions on. Janice Johnson, for example, decided to make skirts for computers with elastic bands to fit any console. She...

A Reporter at Large EN VITESSE TO ROME by Berton Roueche. REPORTER AT LARGE about riding high-speed trains from Brussels to Rome, including the T.G.V. (Train a Grande Vitesse) from Paris to Lyon. Writer flies to Brussels, where he recovers from jet lag and then takes the Etoile du Nord to Paris. Writer eats lunch in the dining car and...

Fiction Statistics by Saul Steinberg. Four drawings showing various forms of statistics. The first shows huge circular mountains with small trees on them; each is labelled with a different year and each is of a different width. The second shows pillars of different sizes labelled with words like: artists, models, philistines. The third shows a...

Books by John Updike.

Dancing Ordinary People by Arlene Croce.

Musical Events By Compassion Made Wise by Andrew Porter.

Books How the Other Half Lives by John Updike.

The Talk of the Town The Prune Principle by William McKibben. Talk story about the Prune Taste Challenge, a promotion sponsored by the California Prune Board and staged by Ketchum 'Public Relations in Grand Central Terminal. Writer enumerates a 7-point method of promoting the forgotten fruit. 1. Identify your problem: F.W. Davis of the C.P.B. says that the industry's difficulties...

Poetry Four Poems by Czeslaw Milosz. A dark building. Crossed boards, nailed up...