The Week

■ Christmas in New York. Salvation Army Santas ringing their bells. The spectacular window displays of the great department stores—Altman’s and Lord & Taylor’s —rivaled by that of KLM Airlines. The gigantic Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, with its brilliant numberless lights. The easy, cozy strains of Bing Crosby wafting, as if eternally, over the shoppers. The Times’ Anthony Lewis doing his annual lament over the 1972 Christmas bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.

■ Bella Abzug, who in a single year was defeated in her attempts to become U.S. senator from New York State and mayor of New York City, will probably soon be floating around the city like a balloon escaped from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. With Ed Koch’s elevation to Gracie Mansion, the 18th Congressional District is going to have to elect a new Representative, and so far Bella is the front-runner. This is a lamentable, but very interesting, phenomenon. The 18th is popularly known as the “Silk Stocking District” because it contains within its boundaries the posh East Side, with its rich clam-bed of bluebloods, celebrities, and tycoons. Through the 1950s, the 18th behaved like a silk-stocking district by returning relatively sober Representatives to Congress. But its last conservative was Fritz Coudert; after him came John Lindsay, and the rest is history. Now it is eyeing Bella, with palpable intentions of going all the way. Sad but true: another illustration of the fact that the so-called Best People, who used to be conservative, now tend to go in for New Class chic.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

■ Christmas in New York. Salvation Army Santas ringing their bells. The spectacular window displays of the great department stores—Altman’s and Lord & Taylor’s —rivaled by that of KLM Airlines. The gigantic Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center, with its brilliant numberless lights. The easy, cozy strains of Bing Crosby wafting, as if eternally, over the shoppers. The Times’ Anthony Lewis doing his annual lament over the 1972 Christmas bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.

■ Bella Abzug, who in a single year was defeated in her attempts to become U.S. senator from New York State and mayor of New York City, will probably soon be floating around the city like a balloon escaped from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. With Ed Koch’s elevation to Gracie Mansion, the 18th Congressional District is going to have to elect a new Representative, and so far Bella is the front-runner. This is a lamentable, but very interesting, phenomenon. The 18th is popularly known as the “Silk Stocking District” because it contains within its boundaries the posh East Side, with its rich clam-bed of bluebloods, celebrities, and tycoons. Through the 1950s, the 18th behaved like a silk-stocking district by returning relatively sober Representatives to Congress. But its last conservative was Fritz Coudert; after him came John Lindsay, and the rest is history. Now it is eyeing Bella, with palpable intentions of going all the way. Sad but true: another illustration of the fact that the so-called Best People, who used to be conservative, now tend to go in for New Class chic.