Around City Hall Balancing Act by Andy Logan. Last Nov. 19, the N.Y. State Court of Appeals overturned two lower-court decisions and declared unconstitutional the Legislature's imposition of a moratorium 12 months earlier on the payment by the city of its short term notes. By last summer, the holders of such notes had either voluntarily agreed to...

The Talk of the Town 4 A.M. by James Stevenson. Talk story about visit to the Fulton Fish Market at 4 A.M. The fish, packed in boxes in ice, were being hurled into trucks after being unloaded from ships. Describes the different fish and the activities of the men near the docks. There were many bonfires in oil drums in...

The Theatre Irish Woman by Brendan Gill.

Fiction Royal Beatings by Alice Munro. Royal beating. That was Flo's promise. "Nadine, you are going to get one royal beating." Actually, it was Nadine's father who was the king of the royal beating. Flo was her stepmother, and the beatings she gave never amounted to much. Nadine and her father and Flo and Brian, who...

Books Beating the Game by Harold Rosenberg.

The Talk of the Town Presidential Roots by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about President Carter's geneology, found in two articles, one in "Georgia Life," by Kenneth Thomas, and the other, in the "Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine," by Margaret Shannon. The articles trace President Carter's family, in detail, back to the 18th century, in Georgia. Mentions President Carter's father, James...

The Race Track The Big A Warms Up by G. F. T. Ryall. In the Santa Anita Handicap King Pellinore, top weight under 130 pounds, ridden by McHargue, made a good try...

Profiles SOMETHING I COULD DO by Winthrop Sargeant. PROFILE of Barry Tuckwell, the finest French horn player of the present generation, and one of the finest horn players who have ever lived...

A Reporter at Large CHINA II-THE FACTORY AND THE FARM by Orville Schell. A REPORTER AT LARGE about China. On a recent trip to China, the writer and 23 other Americans worked in the Shanghai Electrical Machinery Factory, situated in the industrial suburb of Minhang, on the Whangpoo River, and spent three weeks at work in the countryside, in the village of Tachai...

Fiction Ancestral Voices by H. F. Ellis. to evolve rapidly. Now, a colleague of mine from the Shanidar Cave, in Iraq, had an arm amputated around 46,000 years ago... CRO-MAGNON MAN: This is becoming ridiculous... It is as the first artist that I confidently claim to be the original representative of True Man. CHAIRMAN: Thank you...

The Talk of the Town Annie by Mark Singer. Talk story about Andrea McArdle, 13, who has the title role in a new musical comedy called "Annie," based on "Little Orphan Annie." The show opens on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre next month, after a five-week run that is now under way at the Kennedy Center in Washington...

The Current Cinema Stag Show by Pauline Kael. Discussion of Heminway in review of "Islands in the Stream", the movie version of his posthumous novel...

Comment by Lis Harris. A letter has arrived from a friend of ours in the Village: Last summer, in the months before my son was born, I spent part of every day giving Washington Square Park the once over. It is the only park of any size in the Village and, like every others...

Musical Events Fragments of the House of Usher by Andrew Porter.

Poetry Eyes Of The Heart by Andrew Glaze. A granite city is, vertically spattered with balconies...

Poetry Notebook Entry (Pau), 1971 by Stephen Yenser. Oh, yes, that week. Remember how one day...

Poetry Three Poems on Japanese Paintings by Katha Pollitt. An anecdote has it that Esshu painted orchids almost...