The Talk of the Town Backgammon by Francine du Plessix Gray. Talk story about Tim Holland, the world's champion backgammon player. He is in his early forties, a game enthusiast in general who has taught the game to groups for very high fees, has won more backgammon tournaments than anyone else in living memory. Among those tournaments are: the World's Championship...

Profiles THE OUTSIDER by Joseph Wechsberg. PROFILE of Willy Brandt, 61, Chancellor of West Germany & chairman of the German Social Democratic Party. He is more a European statesman than a German one; his enlightened internationalism earned him the Nobel Prize in 1971. He is from Northern Germany, where he changed his name from Herbert Ernst...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL AULD LANG SYNE by Andy Logan. Tells about celebrations during the last part of Mayor Lindsay's term as mayor. The most elaborate farewell party was a $105 a ticket affair at Lincoln Center to pay off the last hundred thousand dollars of the debt incurred during his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Tells about the...

The Talk of the Town Dead Ringer by George W. S. Trow. Talk story about "The C.B.S. Radio Mystery Theatre," produced & director by Brown, who has been a radio a long time--he did the "Inner Sanctum Mysteries." The "C.B.S. Radio Mystery Theatre" is the 1st new drama program to be produced for radio since the demise of the "N.B.C. Radio...

Landmarks Facades Protected by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about a recent hearing of the Landmarks Preservation Commission at City Hall that considered 23 new candidates for landmark status. Few attended, but 9 out of 11 commissioners were present. Discusses the jurisdiction of the commission & cites those who spoke before the commission. Some of the candidate...

The Current Cinema by Pauline Kael. This actor is discussed at some length, in review of "Magnum Force" in which he stars. Also discusses his role in this film's predecessor, "Dirty Harry...

Letter from Thailand by Robert Shaplen. An astonishing upheaval took place in Thailand in mid-October when a spontaneous surge of student power exceeded the modest expectations of its leaders & ended in the overthrow of the country's military dictatorship. More than 60 students were killed. Gives details of what happened & what led to it...

Fiction Ethiopia by John Updike. A young American couple visit Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They are soon the only guests in their hotel. Prester John, the desk clerk, meets them slong a river bank one day - & raises a clan of hippos from the water so that the young man may photograph.them. The couple return to...

Fiction Erika by Joyce Warren. Erika had been born to a science professor & his wife, in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1935. She was an only child & both of her parents were killed in a street riot. She was adopted by a jolly British couple, the Bullens, whose own children were grown. The couple hoped...

The Theatre VIEWS OF HOME by Brendan Gill.

Musical Events by Desmond Shawe-Taylor.

Comment by Jonathan Schell. This winter, two powerful Russian voices have made themselves heard around the world. One is that of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose account of Soviet forced-labor camps is now appearing in the West, and the other is Nadezhda Mandelstam, widow of Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, in an autobiography "Hope Abandoned". These...

The Talk of the Town Party by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about a reception in honor of Abe Beame, our new Mayor, on his inauguration day, Jan. 1st. It was a mammoth affair, held at the Metropolitan Opera. Four thousand people turned out for it. At the top of the house, in the Family Circle, there was a receiving...

Poetry The Grandfather Poem by Stephen Dobyns. He is something he is falling into...