Dancing Ballet vs. Theatre by Arlene Croce.

Fiction You Are Cordially Invited by Donald Barthelme. The writer, having nothing else to do, goes to a party celebrating the calving of a publisher's cow, and converses with a very old lady. The lady, seeing the writer gazing vacantly, tells him to wake up, since "Things are not that bad!" She belongs to a self-supporting organization...

The Current Cinema A Genius and Something Less at Large on the Subcontinent by Penelope Gilliatt.

The Talk of the Town Mr. Cotten in the U.S.S.R. by Hendrik Hertzberg. Talk interview with Joseph Cotten, the actor. Cotten recently spent time in the Soviet Union doing the narration for a TV film called "On Stage-U.S.S.R." The two-hour film was produced jointly by an American company, Contemporary Films, in association with Five Star Productions of Chicago, and Noyosti, the...

The Talk of the Town Great Expectations by Edward Stevenson. Everybody's jumpy. A friend who runs a large business enterprise tells us that he called in one of his junior executives the other day & informed him that he was about to receive a substantial raise. The young man eyed him coldly for a moment. "And what's the bad news...

Fiction Marta and Leni by Robert Henderson. Two women work in a hospital in the small city of Kitzenbach, in southern Austria: Marta, a stocky, brisk nurse's aide, & Leni, the nurse in charge of the floor. Leni is Marta's niece; she was born after WW II, & Marta, thought poor, cared for her devotedly. Leni left...

A Reporter at Large CONVERSATION WITH A CITIZEN by Elizabeth Drew. REPORTER AT LARGE about an interview with John Gardner head of Common Cause, the citizens' lobby. He wants to reform the American political system. A former Sec. of H.E.W., under Pres. Lyndon Johnson (with whom he broke in 1968 over the Vietnam war & its domestic effects), he became head...

Around City Hall SURVIVORS by Andy Logan. AROUND CITY HALL about the mayoral campaign, & the Democratic primary & runoff elections. Tells about the candidates for the November election--Beame, Biaggi, Blumenthal, & Marchi, & discusses the low incidence of fresh ideas in this campaign, the preoccupation with matters that seemingly have little to do with solving...

The Talk of the Town by Lillian Ross. Overheard in a line waiting to get into a movie on Third Avenue: ONE YOUNG WOMAN WEARING BLUEJEANS: I just got a letter from my grandmother in New Orleans, & it made me very homesick. ANOTHER YOUNG WOMAN WEARING BLUEJEANS: Gee, that sounds like a real, genuine feeling...

The Talk of the Town by Nathan Finkelstein. Overheard in a line waiting to get into a movie on Third Avenue: ONE YOUNG WOMAN WEARING BLUEJEANS: I just got a letter from my grandmother in New Orleans, & it made me very homesick. ANOTHER YOUNG WOMAN WEARING BLUEJEANS: Gee, that sounds like a real, genuine feeling...

The Race Track A Greentree Habit by G. F. T. Ryall. His West Coast Scout won the Amorty L. Haskell Handicap at Monmouth. Wilson also owns the Buffalo Bills football team...

Comment by Richard Harris. Comment about foreign commentary on the Watergate case, particularly a long quote from an article on the editorial page of the London "Times" by Richard Crossman, a Labour M.P. & former minister in the Labour Gov't. In the column, Crossman traced the origins of the Watergate affair to the "inner...

The Talk of the Town Sculpture Turned Loose by Calvin Tomkins. Talk story about Breer's moving sculptures, currently being exhibited in Hammarskjold Plaza, that serves as a sculpture garden (with changing exhibitions every 3 months). The sculptures are 3 large white cylinders (3 outdoors, 2 indoors), 5 ft high & 3 ft. in diameter. Each had a concealed undercarriage with wheels...

The Talk of the Town Some Dazzle for the Garden by George W. S. Trow. Talk story about the commencement of plans for a big new hotel in Times Square. L.P. Himmelman is chairman of Western International Hotels, the company that will operate the new hotel. He spoke at Mayor Lindsay's press conference announcing the plans...

Books by George Steiner.

Poetry The House Growing by John Updike. The old house grows, adding rooms of silence...