Musical Events A Serious Matter by Andrew Porter.

Books Lord Byron's Financial Difficulties by William Maxwell.

The Talk of the Town Columbia Art by Geoffrey T. Hellman. Talk story about art at Columbia University, and interview with Jane Sabersky, the university's curator & doyenne of its Office of Art Properties, established in 1965. The chairman is Dr. Adolf K. Placzek, the head of the Avery Architectural Library. The university recently sold a Rembrandt - "Man with Arms Akimbo...

The Current Cinema PASSION by Penelope Gilliatt. Review of "The Middle of the World", Alain Tanner's film, written by him with John Berger, the English art critic and novelist...

The Talk of the Town Muggs at 23 by Anthony Hiss. Talk story about J. Fred Muggs, the chimpanzee who made 50 million dollars for NBC & saved the "Today" show from the axe in 1953. He made his first network appearance in 10 years. The "AM America" show, ABC's new early-morning entry, was celebrating Fred's 23rd birthday. Most chimps...

The Talk of the Town Last Lunch? by Anthony Hiss. Talk story about a marketing-research discussion on air travel led by Karen from Davidson-Peterson Associates, Inc., a marketing-research outfit. Some man called the writer and asked if he worked on the West Side took a plane somewhere ten times a year, usually leaving from the office, and...

Fiction The Lists of the Past-III: Gardening for Pleasure by Julie Hayden. Story about a family getting together at a big house for a "garden party." The garden is described as needing constant care, pruning, and clipping, and fertilizing, etc. It is mid to late May. Cornelia, the daughter who now lives in the big house with her mother, is out in...

A Reporter at Large THE HAITIANS OF NEW YORK by Jervis Anderson. A REPORTER AT LARGE about Haitian exiles in N.Y. No one knows how many are now in N.Y., but the number has been placed as high as 300,000. Many came here to escape poverty, but the vast majority have come since 1958, a year after the late Francois Duvalier began...

Profiles THE ANSWER IS YES by Whitney Balliett. PROFILE of jazz guitarist Jim Hall. Hall and bass player Jack Six will be performing together in April at Sweet Basil, on 7th Ave. Writer interviewed Jim's wife Jane, who spoke about herself, how she met Jim & her impressions of him as a musician and a man. When Hall...

Comment by James Stevenson. A sorehead of our acquaintance writes: Rubbish, claptrap, blather, and mush! I refer to a full-page ad in Sunday's "Times" a couple of weeks ago headed "A Bicentennial Declartion". Writer goes on to deplore the way the Bicentennial is being celebrated suggesting the 200th anniversary be a time of...

The Race Track No Day for Favorites by G. F. T. Ryall. He is the trainer of Forego...

Fiction The Eighty-Seventh(Nearly) Annual Tournament of Roses by Calvin Trillin. Jack Dennis and Kathy Galloway are two television reporters covering the 87th annual Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, Calif. It is held only four months after the 86th parade because the President has decided to end the year eight months early to fight the annual double digit inflation rate...

The Theatre ONLY CONNECT by Brendan Gill.

The Talk of the Town Pediatric Party by Jane Kramer. Talk story about Dr. Milton Levine, the famous pediatrician who is dean of N.Y. pediatricians. Writer attended a festive party at the Walden School thrown by several hundred children & ex-children for their favorite baby doctor. Dr. Levine, 72, is famous for bringing love back into child care. He...

Poetry Hymn of Returns by Robert Pack. The odor of pine branches, Lady, shimmers your hair...

Poetry Belle Isle, 1949 by Philip Levine. We stripped in the first warm spring night and ran down into...

Poetry Pieta by Louise Gluck. Under the thin fabric...