Comment by Ellen Pall. Writer attended a luncheon at the headquarters of Helsinki Watch, on Fifth Avenue. The speaker was Zdenek Urbanek, an energetic, rosy man of 72. He is a Czech -ranslator, best known for his versions of Shakespeare. His is also an essayist and a novelist; one of the original signatories of...

Annals of Politics THE JOHNSON YEARS: BUYING AND SELLING by Robert A. Caro. ANNALS OF POLITICS about Lyndon Johnson and how he used political influence to amass wealth. The instrumentality was a radio station-KTBC in Austin, Texas, which he bought for his wife. In 1942 the owners of KTCB had requested permission from the F.C.C. to operate 24 hours a day and...

The Theatre MIXED MEDIA by Mimi Kramer.

Letter from the Philippines by Susan Blaustein. After almost a week of heavy fighting and the deaths of more than 100 Filipinos, President Corazon Aquino and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, with the help of American fighter jets and anti-tank weaponry, appear to have largely quelled the most serious and protracted coup attempt her government...

The Talk of the Town Glorious! by Adam Gopnik. Talk story about an interview with Englishman Peter Phillips, the leader of the phenomenally successful Oxbridge vocal group called the Tallis Scholars. They gave a concert of Renaissance polyphonic sacred music at St. Mary's church on 46 St., near 7th Ave. In addition to leading the Tallis Scholars, Phillips began...

Fiction Thanks for the Memory by Ian Frazier. Two quote from two autobiographies of Bob Hope telling wildly variant stories of a hole-in-one he made with a broken clavicle.] People always seem surprised when I tell them that Dan Quayle was the man who introduced Coca-Cola to Asia in 1906. But it's true. I was...

Books by Judith Thurman.

The Talk of the Town Best Dress by Mindy Aloff. Talk story about attending a demonstration at the Asia Society of how to get into a juni-hitoe or multi-layered kimono. The demonstration was given by the Hakubi Bridal Kimono School of Kyoto, an organization dedicated to promoting traditional native dress. Tells about the makeup job applied to the...

Fiction The Good Fight by Janet Desaulniers. It's a week past New Year's. Liza & Dutton, her friend of ten years, are in a bar in Chicago. Dutton, who is 43 years old is in love with a 20 year old girl. His love for her makes him feel like a victim. Dutton did not lie to...

Poetry Incarnated by Czeslaw Milosz. In that country he was an officer of cavalry...

Poetry Man, That is Born of Woman by Rosanna Warren. It is in slow choking...