Fiction Somebody's Death by Sergei Dovlatov. Dovlatov is a newspaper reporter on the staff of The Soviet Estonia. Because another reporter, Shablinsky, is busy, Dovlatov is asked to give a speech at the funeral of Ilves, the director of the TV station. Dovlatov knows nothing about Ilves, and dislikes funerals because he feels they are hypocritical...

The Theatre Margaret and Alan and Christine and John by Edith Oliver.

Musical Events Curiosities by Nicholas Kenyon.

Concert Records / Popular Music Virtuosity by Winthrop Sargeant.

The Sporting Scene THE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1881-1981 by Herbert Warren Wind. THE SPORTING SCENE about the history of tennis in America and the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Open, our national tennis championships, won this year by John McEnroe, in men's singles, and Tracy Austin, in women's singles. Lawn tennis was invented in England, in 1874, by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield...

Fiction La Vie Parisienne by Mavis Gallant. Parody in the form of various letters received and notices seen, by someone living in Paris. E.g., "To All Tenants: The intoloerable and discordant sounds echoing at all hours throughout the building have been narrowed down to five apartments.... So that the Nuisance Committee can complete its dossier before the...

Books Convulsive Merriment by Whitney Balliett.

The Talk of the Town Dinner by Alec Wilkinson. Talk story about the Fourth Annual Crab and Beer Festival, sponsored by the Village Visiting Neighbors (a group that organizes volunteers to visit homebound elderly people). Writer talks with Yvonne Morrow, a member of the board of directors of the V.V.N., who tells him a story about the leftover crabs...

The Talk of the Town Remembering Picasso by Lillian Ross. Talk story about an exhibit of photographs of Pablo Picasso, which will open on October 25th at the Gallery of Sidney Janis, the 85-year-old art exhibitor who was one of Picasso's first American friends, and who helped bring Picasso's "Guernica" to this country from France in 1939. Carroll...

The Talk of the Town Justice Stewart (Retired) by Lincoln Caplan. Talk story about Justice Potter Stewart, who retired from the Supreme Court in July. A few hours before Sandra Day O'Connor, his successor, was sworn in, writer interviewed him in his new office in the Supreme Court Building. In 1954 President Eisenhower appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals...

Comment by Ved Mehta. Obituary of President Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, of Egypt, who was assassinated on Tuesday, Oct. 6. He will be remembered as a hero in an era of anti-heroes. He crossed, in his words, "a gulf of bad blood, violence, and massacres" to go to the house of his enemy...

A Reporter at Large NUCLEAR WASTE by Fred C. Shapiro. REPORTER AT LARGE about radioactive waste. In the thirty-eight years since the first nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project was buried, nuclear waste has been stored or deposited all across the country and in oceans off both coasts with only slight concern for environmental effects from radioactive isotopes, some...

Poetry The Art of Cruel Colors by Sherod Santos. At the touch of a match, the neighbor's raked...