The Talk of the Town Active Mud by George W. S. Trow. Talk story about Macy's where they are showing "body-conscious fashion." They are also showing "active mud" as another sign of spring--a product of Terme di Montecatini Skincare. Writer reports active mud feels slithery. Walking into a department store isn't the easy experience it once was. The floor is...

The Theatre by Edith Oliver.

The Talk of the Town Security by James Stevenson. Illustrated talk story about strolling in midtown and noticing various objects that are chained for security. For example, a "Journal of Commerce" vending box attached to a parking sign near Third Avenue, and a "Times" box is bound to a street light on Lexington. A real estate sign in front...

Books by Whitney Balliett.

Fiction Good Gossip by Jacqueline Carey. Everyone was suprised when Dee Kilmartin first passed around the news that Susannah was marrying Harry Tierney. Harry was a senior associate at a Wall Street law firm, and worked about 80 hours a week. Susannah had complained that he was so boring. At first people said she was marrying...

The Sporting Scene NICKLAUS: ALL THE WAY BACK by Herbert Warren Wind. THE SPORTING SCENE about Jack Nicklaus's quite urbelieveable drive to victory on the final 10 holes at the Augusta National Golf Club in the Master's Tournament... Along with the defending champion, Bernhard Langer, of W. Germany, there was Severiano Ballesteros of Spain, and an unprecedented number of other foreign golfers...

Comment Comment, Pt. II by William McKibben. Difficult thought it is to remember, there was a time when people thought pesticides were magic, a penicillin for produce; that black people naturally were second-class citizens and that women naturally belonged in the home; that a rapidly growing population was a sign of the world's vigor; that nuclear...

Around City Hall AROUND CITY HALL EGO SANE STUPEO by Andy Logan. Title(meaning"I am shocked"in Latin) refers to Koch's public attitude towards corruption. Murray Kempton, declaring that for 300 years NYC's great seal had not had a civic motto, said that the mayor had now supplied one... Tells about the continuing effects of corruption investigations...some 2 dozen city...

The Current Cinema FIZZLE/A*L*D*A by Pauline Kael.

Comment Comment, Pt. III by Andrea Lee Fallows. A friend of ours, an American living in Rome, writes...she and her husband walked down Via Cavour at the tail end of an anti-nuclear march, the largest ever in Rome (about 100,000 people) and saw a crowd of about 25 people in front of a store. Her husband...

Our Far-Flung Correspondents A GOOD LITTLE VESSEL by Anthony Bailey. OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS about a little basket boat called a coracle.Thewriter, who lives in England, received one from his wife, Margot, for his birthday two years ago. These boats have been in use since Roman times & were used in many way. The writer's boat was perhaps four feet...

Fiction Pants on Fire by Nicholson Baker. Writer remembers the day when his life as an adult began. He was four months into his first year as a businessman, and he had only five shirts. He describes the details of getting dressed in the morning, especially his struggle with a starched shirt, and how clever he was...

Poetry The Web by Jorge Luis Borges. Which of my cities...