The Talk of the Town Harrowing Walk by Susan Lardner. Talk story about a telephone call from Janet, who wanted to talk about her harrowing walk and a taupe sweater. She went to a place called the Hors d'Oevrerie with her brother and sister-in-law, who were going to see a show on 45th St., and the three shared...

Fiction Wood by Alice Munro. Roy Fowler has a good business in Logan, Ontario, as a sign painter. Everybody knows that he also does wood-cutting but nobody knows how important it has become to him and how much he thinks about it. His wife, Lila, suspects that he is more interested in cutting wood...

The Theatre WRONG WAY, RIGHT WAY by Brendan Gill.

Profiles I-THE IMPOSSIBLE PROFESSION by Janet Malcolm. PROFILE of a psychoanalyst called Aaron Green (not his real name) who practices classical Freudian psychoanalysis in the East 90s. Traces the history of psycho analysis from Freud's discovery of transference--our invention of each other according to early blueprints- to neo-Freudian revisionists such as Heinz Kohut. Uses the...

Musical Events Temperaments by Andrew Porter.

Comment by Sara Lippincott. A friend writes that she stayed home Tuesday afternoon last week to watch the first publicly transmitted live pictures of Saturn and its biggest moon, Titan, provided by Voyager 1 and sent through space to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, and into her television set. She was anxious to...

Books Cold Warriors by Berton Roueche.

The Talk of the Town Lists by Elizabeth Hawes. Talk story in the form of a list made by Martha Stewart, a caterer in Connecticut, of all the food and cooking equipment she and her staff brought to Pier 57 in Manhattan for the Preview Night Benefit of the Fall Antiques Show, called Celebrate the Hudson. It includes: 5,500...

Fiction Polvo by Paul Theroux. Parody of a travel sketch about the South American town of Polvo. It is at the very end of a mule track, pop. 87, Census of 1933. Mutton, lanolin, wool and cactus fibre are the main products. Many travellers regard Polvo as the true Gateway to Patagonia. Description of the...

The Talk of the Town Whitmania by Stanley Mieses. Talk story about country-and-Western singer Slim Whitman, who began his career 32 years ago on live radio. Thanks to a TV ad featuring Slim lip-synching old-fashioned songs like "Indian Love Call" in a tenor voice with lots of yodels, there has been a resurgence of interest...

The Current Cinema The Civilization of the Rump by Pauline Kael. Lengthy review of "Every Man For Himself", a Jean-Luc Godard film, with comments on his work...

The Talk of the Town Local by James Stevenson. Talk story about the first fierce wintry day. Describes people battling the wind on W. 44th St. and on Sixth Ave. They chased their hats, clutched their lapels, anticipated unanticipated falling objects. In the office, the wind found its way through cracks around the air conditioner. Tells how the wind...

Poetry Elegy In An Abandoned Boatyard by Dave Smith. Here they stood, hour after hour, whom the...

Poetry Nature Study by James Scully. Young man in a bathing suit...