Books Superlatives by Berton Roueche.

The Talk of the Town What Happened? by Ian Frazier. Talk story about what went on outside the main entrance to Madison Square Garden, while a packed house watched the closed-circuit telecast of the fight between Larry Holmes and Muhammad Ali. Quotes from the overheard conversations and tells about other activities. Some people listened to radio reports on the...

Fiction Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason. Leroy Moffitt, a truck driver in Kentucky, injured his leg in an accident. He has been home for three months. His wife Norma Jean works behind the cosmetics counter at the Rexall Drug Store. She plays the organ and has started taking adult-education courses. Leroy builds things from kits...

Letter from Baghdad by Joseph Kraft. On a recent visit to the Middle East, the writer stopped off in Baghdad expecting to find in Iraq the successor to Egypt as leader of the Arab world. It has abundant oil reserves, a strong leader in Saddam Hussein, and the second most potent military force in the Middle...

The Talk of the Town Great by Jamaica Kincaid. Talk story about a party given to celebrate the publication of Merv Griffin's autobiography. He is that great bonvivant television-talk-show host extraordinaire Richard E. Snyder, the president of Simon & Schuster (and the publisher of Merv's book) threw the party in his penthouse suite at the St. Moritz...

Annals of the Former World I-BASIN AND RANGE by John McPhee. ANNALS OF THE FORMER WORLD about geology and how it reveals the earth's past history. Writer tells about examining rock along the roadcuts of the Palisades Sill in N.J. with geologist Karen Kleinspehn. Geologists consider themselves lucky to be living in a period of great road building as roadcuts are...

Comment by Jonathan Schell. If anyone has failed to notice the increasing importance of public-relations images in our world, he has only to glance at a recent front-page headline in the Times, which read, "UNRULY YOUTHS SHATTER SWISS IMAGE"-a manner of speaking which seemed to suggest that a band of Swiss...

Fiction Conversations with Goethe by Donald Barthelme. In diary form, a 19th century writer records conversations with his friend and mentor, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Quotes Goethe's bon mots. Youth is the silky apple butter on the good brown bread of possibility. Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of History. English is the shining...

The Theatre Nonconformists by Edith Oliver.

The Talk of the Town Grand Marshal by Mark Singer. Talk story about the 6th annual Atlantic Antic parade, and its grand marshal Charles Ziff. The parade was to begin at noon on a recent Sunday and was to proceed a mile down Atlantic Ave. from Boerum Hill to Brooklyn Heights, past an audience of 200,000 people. Planning for the...

A Reporter at Large 1980: THE PRESIDENT by Elizabeth Drew. REPORTER AT LARGE about Pres. Carter's campaign trip to Detroit, Flint, Mich., and Niagara Falls, on his birthday, Oct. 1st. Carter has been trying to establish the theme that it matters whether he or Reagan gets elected because it is "a choice between two futures." This strategy, designed by Patrick...

The Talk of the Town From England by Mark Singer. Talk story about a lecture and slide show by Honor Godfrey at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, about silver mustard pots. 150 of them, from England, are on view at the museum, courtesy of Colman Foods. Eight years ago, Colman hired Miss Godfrey to do historical research on old packaging and...

Musical Events Hall by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Your Dreams and You by Ian Frazier. Talk story about a dream and its interpretation. Writer dreamt that he was in Gimbels, after seeing an ad about a Dream of a Sale on Bed Pillows. On the store's 5th floor, in the bedding dept., was the international clairvoyant astrologer Frederick Davies, talking about dreams and interpreting dreams...

Poetry Golden Retriever by Carol Muske-Dukes. She was the one who put her tongue...

Poetry The Seasons in New York by Howard Moss. Swordsmen at play have left the sun...