Comment by Mark Danner. On Nov. 8th, two days after the American elections, and without consulting Congress or the American people, President Bush announced that he was nearly doubling the American force in the Gulf and would, in effect, rely on the threat of military attack, rather than on sanctions, to expel Iraq from...

The Talk of the Town Permanent Grin by James Lardner. Talk story about John Gerst who is a subway station manager on the IRT local's last 7 stops on the Bronx end of the line. He has been greeting passengers since the beginning of the year. Writer spoke with him at the 238th St. station and later at 225th St...

The Funnies Rabbi Jokes by Mark Singer. Talk story about the Funniest-Rabbi Contest at Stand-Up New York, a comedy club in the West Seventies where amateurs perform. Eight rabbis participated in the contest, including Rabbi Ronald Brown, of Merrick...

Journals I-FROM THE SIXTIES by John Cheever. JOURNALS detailing the writer's unhappy marriage; his strained relations with his children Susan, Benjamin, and Federico; and his relations with several young men, who are identified only by initials. He records his problems in writing such works as The Wapshot Scandal and "The Swimmer." He struggles with alcoholism, and with...

Profiles A PLACE AND AN ATTITUDE by Emily Hahn. PROFILE of David Bamberger, Texas rancher and breeder of an exotic antelope called the oryx. After a TV "60 Minutes" segment showing hunters killing endangered species on the ranches of Texas, writer became curious. She phoned Bamberger, whose name she got from the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums...

The Theatre RETURN ENGAGEMENT by Edith Oliver.

Letter from Tokyo by Patrick L. Smith. The coronation of Akihito as the 125th emperor of Japan took place over a period of weeks in Nov. & Dec. For the past two years since Emperor Hirohito's death the Japanese have been feeling their way. No one has known how an imperial transition should proceed. In 1945, a...

Books by Edward Hirsch.

Poetry Homage to Gerolamo Marcello by Joseph Brodsky. Once in winter I, too, sailed in...

Poetry Traumerei by Linda Bierds. All I have done in music seems a dream I can almost...

Poetry Outside, In Fact, There Wasn't Any Change by Patrizia Cavalli. Outside, in fact, there wasn't any change...