Comment by James Lardner. Comment about going to the big anti-war rally in Washington. Shortly before 6 a.m. on Saturday, the writer joined other protesters waiting for their buses, at 96th St. and Broadway. This group included far more elderly and middle-aged people than any Vietnam protest in his experience. In the...

The Talk of the Town Dream Come True by Robert Sullivan. Talk story about the New York singing debut of former world-heavyweight-champion boxer Larry Holmes. It took place at the Ballpark, on Steinway Street, just off Grand Central Parkway, in Astoria. This is a giant sports bar owned by the four Karalekas brothers: Chris, George, Pete and Gus...

The Talk of the Town Moonrocks by David Owen. Talk story about the moonrocks collected from the moon between July, 1969, and December, 1972, during Project Apollo. The author wondered what had become of the rocks, and if any were in New York. Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration informed the writer that slightly more than a...

The Talk of the Town Star Vehicles by Michael Stern. Talk story about the display of autographed celebrity photographs at the Danbury branch of the Connecticut Dept. of Motor Vehicles...

Fiction Waltz Time by Jonathan Treitel. The story is a humorous treatment of the Romantic atmosphere of old Vienna. The heroine, with her husband, Bedl, attends a rather staid ball given by the Lars Porsena Club. She resents his not taking her to more glamorous affairs, such as the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftsball. She meets her friend, Mitzi, who...

Fiction A Different Kind of Imperfection by Thomas Beller. During Christmas vacation, Alex comes home from Vassar to his mother's apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He is depressed about breaking up with his girlfriend, Sloan. His father, a psychiatrist originally from Vienna, died ten years earlier. Alex peruses his father's books. In Virginia Woolf's "To the...

Annals of the Cold War I - The Yellow-Rain Complex by Thomas Whiteside. ANNALS OF THE COLD WAR about chemical & biological warfare. Reports of chemical-weapons attacks began appearing in press dispatches from Southeast Asia in the mid 70s. They were mostly based on interviews with Hmong tribespeople in Thai refugee camps. In their villages, in Laos, clouds of poison had descended...

The Theatre POINT BLANK by Mimi Kramer.

The Current Cinema THE DOCTOR AND THE DIRECTOR by Pauline Kael.

Our Far-Flung Correspondents EARTHQUAKE FEVER by Sue Hubbell. OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS about an earthquake scare in the area of New Madrid, Missouri. Writer has a farm about 100 miles from New Madrid & she decided to cover the earthquake watch. The scare was started by Dr. Iben Browning, a business consultant, self-taught climatologist, and inventor, who...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL GULFS by Andy Logan. A few days before Desert Shield became Desert Storm, Mayor David Dinkins was asked by a reporter if he was greatly worried about the fact that, if war came to the Middle East, New York would be a prime target on terrorists' lists. The Mayor said with a smile on...

Books by Brad Leithauser.

Poetry Reconciliation by Czeslaw Milosz. Late, the time of humble reconciliation...

Poetry I Fail to Speak to My Earth, My Desire by Elizabeth Macklin. Having set my heart on you, I remove it...

Poetry Poem at the New Year by John Ashbery. Once, out on the water in the clear, early-nineteenth...