AUSTRIA: Fairies by Phone

Not many bubbles still remain of the champagne that once was life in Vienna, but one surviving reminder is the telephone system. With a languorous turn of a dial finger, the Viennese can evoke by telephone the latest weather reports, football pool results, stock and commodity exchange quotations, train or bus schedules, a complete daily dinner menu with recipes, or a perfect Atone for his violin.

Last week the Austrian post office, administrator of the telephone system, proudly announced that the service would be expanded. Beginning Sept. 1, a lazy parent may dial A-0-60 and tune his child in on a complete five-minute bedtime fairy tale. Different story every night, too.