The Talk of the Town Last Ups by William Franzen. Talk story about the last game of the season at Shea Stadium. Last home game of the decade, really. Autumn equinox has come and gone. Nights begin earlier. First Mets pitch to visiting Phillies delivered an hour after sunset. no bugs around lights. Crisp, chilly night has Honolulu-born Ron...

The Talk of the Town Intention by Robert Morris. Talk Story about a young New Yorker who was in Santa Fe, New MExico during Rosh Hashanah. He attended a reform service at the local synagogue that reminded him of the services he'd gone to back on Long Island. He had planned to go to the final services for the...

Fiction Prowler by Elizabeth Tallent. Dennis is an architect whose ex-wife Christie is back from Europe, her boyfriend of the last two years nowhere in sight. She's come unannounced & the tortoiseshell glasses alert him that Christie has reinvented herself yet again. Her account of the last year smells of evasiveness. By a coincidence...

Annals of Justice IRAN-CONTRA by Frances Lanahan. ANNALS OF JUSTICE about details of the Iran-Contra affair, especially as brought out at the Oliver North trial. At the trial the defense lawyer decided to put North on the stand His strategy was to show that North was a loyal foot soldier who had made some mistakes but...

Books by Naomi Bliven.

Letter from Bogota by Alma Guillermoprieto. LETTER FROM BOGOTA about the faceoff between the Colombian government & the cocaine traffickers. Following the murder of Liberal Party Presidential candidate Luis Galan on Aug. 18th, President Barco revived extradition procedures for drug traffickers facing charges in the U.S. In Bogota the drug traffickers have responded with low-risk...

Fiction How the Savings And Loans Were Saved by Garrison Keillor. Vast hordes of barbaric Huns invaded Chicago, Illinois & & took over the savings & loan offices while President Bush was playing badminton in Aspen. Bush, though caught off guard by news of the invasion, said, "We're following that whole Hun situation very closely, and right now it looks enncouraging...

Comment by Garrison Keillor. Comment about not buying a jukebox, Mark Twain's "Letters", and the end of the 1980s, as well as about computers and about writer's son passing his driving test. Writer poked around in a bookstore and bought a copy of Mark Twain's "Letters"--a loose day brightened by the fact that...

The Sporting Scene MR. KRAMER AND MR. BECKER by Herbert Warren Wind. THE SPORTING SCENE about the U.S. Open, which was won by Boris Becker and about tennis great John A. Kramer. Mentions "The Game", Jack Kramer's richly detailed autobiography, written with Frank Deford and published in 1979. No one knows more about tennis, and its endless ramifications, than Kramer. Kramer was...

The Theatre A DEATH IN THE FAMILY by Edith Oliver.

The Current Cinema WHOOPEE by Pauline Kael.

The Talk of the Town Golden Girl by Mindy Aloff. Talk story about attending a show called "100 Years of Russian Ballet, 1830-1930" from the Leningrad State Museum of Theatre and Music which is now at the Nakhamkin gallery. Writer's guide was TamaraGeva-dancer, actress, director, writer-who was born and spent her girlhood in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg. Tells...

Poetry Room and Sun by Eamon Grennan. When the sun comes directly in this window...

Poetry Gardens by Mona Van Duyn. Someone once described the Japanese garden...

Poetry The Needle: For a Friend Who Disappeared by Franz Wright. Just one more time. Only one...