Comment by William McKibben. Comment about attending a session of the United Nations dedicated to preparing for June's Rio de Janero Earth Summit. Tells how each nation was allowed to place parts of the ecological declaration in brackets. The US led the world in bracketing passages it did not like. In the end, the...

The Talk of the Town Dream Life by Mark Singer. Talk story about Dr. Elieser Kaplinsky, the chief of cardiology at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, in a suburb of Tel Aviv. Four years ago, "The American Journal of Cardiology" reported that Dr. Kaplinsky diagnosed severe angina with left-main-coronary artery stenosis in a patient who happened to be...

The Talk of the Town Small-Scale War by James Lardner. Talk story about Jamie Delson, who collects and sells toy soldiers, and may be the world's largest toy-soldier retailer. He was 4 when he received his first set of toy soldiers--a Scottish marching band that his father had brought home from a business trip to Europe. The rest...

Fiction Naked Ladies by Antonya Nelson. Laura Laughlin, 17, and her family attended the annual Easter frolic of the Houses, the family her mother worked for in Eastborough, Kansas, a rich, incorporated city in the middle of Wichita, while Laura's father was away showing his paintings. Laura's mother took care of the House children, especially 4...

Profiles THE STORYTELLER by Harvey Sachs. PROFILE of Glorgio Strehler, Italian theater director. The Piccolo Teatro, Strehler's compnay, is located in Milan. Describes his being stagestruck at the age of 15 there, and his resistance activties in Milan during WWII. Strehler has produced two seperate stagings of Goethe's "Faust," called "Faust Fragments" there. Tells how he...

The Theatre DEADPAN MAGNIFIED by Edith Oliver.

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Current Cinema by Terrence Rafferty.

Letter from London by Julian Barnes. Article about Glenda Jackson's successful campaign for Parliament as a Labour candidate from the London district of Hampstead and Highgate. Writer was surprised in midMarch when Jackson rang his doorbell and introduced herself, canvassing the district. Labour and the Conservatives were neck and neck in the polls throughout the campaign...

Books by Louis Menand.

The Film File Sirens by Michael Sragow. John Duigan removes the sting—and the thrill—from the concept of épater les bourgeoisin this smug period comedy inspired by the life of painter Norman Lindsay (Sam Neill). Set in Australia’s Blue Mountains in the thirties, it lavishes attention on Lindsay’s nude models, who are amazons with attitude (bohemian, feminist,...

Poetry Lines for the Winter Recess (Washington, D. C.) by Joseph Brodsky. A hard-boiled egg cupped by the marble cold holding a portico tight...

Poetry Labrador by Mark Strand. The mist clears. The morning mountains...

Poetry Requiescat: Western Union by Philip Booth. The yellow pads. The cream walls...