Anniversary Comment by Kay Cattarula. Comment about a woman who wanted to remind people that December 26th is the fortieth anniversary of the great snow of 1947--sometimes called the Blizzard of '47 although it wasn't a blizzard, because it wasn't accompanied by high enough winds. It began before dawn the day after Christmas, lasted...

Fiction Your Book Saved My Life by Garrison Keillor. Narrator is a writer who explains that all of his books, including Wagons Westward!!! Hiiiii-YAW! and Ck-ck Giddup Beauty! C'mon Big Girl, Awaaaaayy! and Pa! Look Out! It's --Aiiiiieee! have been difficult for his readers. He cites variosu examples of people not recognizing him, or not remembering which...

Greetings, Friends! by Roger Angell. Good friends, God bless! You've found your way...

Fiction Horatio's Trick by Ann Beattie. Charlotte had moved to Charlottesville 6 years ago. This Christmas, Nicholas, her son, was visiting, and he brought Horatio--his girlfriend's dog (Andrea, his girlfriend, was visiting her parents in Florida). Nicholas was a junior at Notre Dame. Charlotte worked as a legal secretary for a law firm in town...

Onward and Upward with the Arts BUGS by Sue Hubbell. ONWARD AND UPWARD WITH THE ARTS about bug art. The writer's friends send her newspaper clippings about insects. Among the clippings were those from art magazines & newspaper art columns which indicated the critics were taking the individual artists--people committing art with insects--too seriously. Writer has discovered a...

The Talk of the Town Made in New York by Lizbeth Rosenberg. Talk story about the Made-in-New York store of Ithaca, NY... Here is a partial list of what the writer found: Bags of grapevine cuttings from the Knapp Vineyards, in nearby Romulus; 6-packs of Manhattan Special coffee soda; vegetarian baby soap & folding metal chairs from the Adirondacks...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL LIFE IN THE PROVINCES by Andy Logan. Writer tells about newspaper stories in the early part of December, which were, generally, bad news for Mayor Koch. On Dec. 8 there were stories about Bess Myerson, Carl Capasso, & Mario Biaggi, all involved in criminal activity. On Dec. 6 Koch flew to Washtington & marched and spoke at...

The Current Cinema by Pauline Kael.

The Talk of the Town D.T.H. by Mindy Aloff. Talk story about attending a recent luncheon at La Famille in Harlem, anticipating NEC's telecast of the Dance Theatre of Harlem's ballet "Creole Giselle" on December 27. Writer was delighted to sit across from Bill Cosby--onscreen obstetrician, off screen doctor of education. He was seated among a flock of...

Books by John Updike.

Comment Comment, Pt. I by Mark Singer. Comment proposing they entry of Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev into the race for the U.S. Presidency... "'He can walk in and take over, 'said Harrison Hickman, a Democratic polltaker in the capital.' He's new news & Reagan is old news." So reported the "Times" the other day, in the process...

Jazz by Whitney Balliett.

Letter from Beijing by Fred C. Shapiro. China's first obesity-research clinic & its first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant have opened in Beijing almost simultaneously. A recent letter in the English-language "China Daily" urged the establishment of coffeehouses in Beijing. In the same paper there was a letter deploring the damage in wear & tear that...

Poetry Chimes by Laura Jensen. But the vines are alien in leaf...