What was going on when I was born?

An article yesterday on the import- ing of antiquities did not fully specify the United States Customs policy. Cus- toms officials said they would continue to seize objects and prosecute art deal- ers in cases involving direct violations of American laws, such as undervalua- tion and misdescription. They say they are still debating a policy on material deemed stolen under foreign cultural property laws but brought into the United States in accordance with American laws and regulations.

At the end of a long night of political stories, before he put the last cigar to rest, Stanley M. Friedman remembered a line that had been recurring in his mind lately. ''We're the two smartest men in politics,'' Mr. Friedman recalled City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin saying to him a few years ago. ''Why can't we get along?'' The answer is simple, according to Mr. Friedman, the Bronx Democratic chairman and a former Deputy Mayor. ''I lived with him for four years under Mayor Beame,'' Mr. Friedman said. ''He has all the attributes of a masterful politician: He is clever, unscrupulous, vicious, articulate and for his own survival at all costs.''

The owners of the two buildings whose front walls collapsed near the Port Authority Bus Terminal Monday had filed suit in September 1979 against the authority and its contractors, charging negligent blasting in the area over more than four years and seeking $1.75 million in damages, the owners' lawyer said yesterday. The City Buildings Department ordered the demolition of a third building at the site where one person died and four were injured because of hazardous conditions. The suit by the owners of the buildings in the collapse contended that on various occasions between December 1976 and March 1980, explosives used in excavating and other work for the terminal extension, tunnel and roadways had damaged foundations, walls, cellars and other parts of 567, 569, 568, 570 and 574 Ninth Avenue and 355 West 41st Street, according to the laywer, Harold J. McLaughlin.

The Reagan Administration has told the Soviet Union that any future arms-control accords will have to include onsite inspection and other direct means of verification, according to Administration officials. This message was conveyed to the Soviet charge d'affaires in Washington, Aleksandr A. Bessmertnykh, by Eugene V. Rostow, director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, in a meeting on Aug. 21. Moscow has generally opposed such demands in the past on the ground that they constituted intrusion into Soviet society and a pretext for spying. Awaiting Soviet Response A high-ranking official said the Administration was now waiting for a reply to the proposal to begin informal meetings immediately in Washington or elsewhere on the subject of verification.

Factory orders for new goods rose 1.3 percent in July from June, the biggest jump this year, the Commerce Department reported today But the increase was concentrated in aircraft and related parts, with many industries not sharing in the gain. Factory inventories also rose substantially during the month as shipments fell for the first time in more than a year, the report said. Orders for durable goods - cars, furniture and other items expected to last at least three years - accounted for the entire orders gain, rising 2.5 percent. Orders for nondurable goods, however, were virtually unchanged, the report said.

DURING her youth, fancy food was not important to Barbara Tropp; she never so much as scrambled an egg, and her mother's abilities in the kitchen had merely been ''adequate,'' she recalls. Her German grandmother offered a bit of inspiration, but it was mostly along the lines of sauerbraten and apple strudel. Miss Tropp came by her present calling - lecturing, catering, writing Recipes are on page C6. and demonstrating the refinements of Chinese cooking - by way of Chinese poetry and art history. ''Until I left college,'' said Miss Tropp, who studied at Barnard and Princeton and now makes her home in San Francisco, ''my conversance with Chinese cooking was not much beyond barbecued ribs and egg drop soup. I had never pondered the difference between spring rolls and egg rolls or one end of a pair of chopsticks from the other.''

Human rights in Bolivia gain , but torture goes on A2 Mitterrand calls for aid to the poorest nations A3 Latins try to bury differences to pursue outside aid A3 Latin nations to criticize French- Mexican stance on Salvador A4 Around the World A5 General takes power in Central African Republic A7 Eight Indian unions join to fight ban on strikes A10 Government/Politics Reporter's Notebook: The Presi- dent's Men A16 Koch, Goldin get ''preferred'' rat- ings by Citizens Union B6 Pentagon aides confirm shift in budget thinking B7 General Around the Nation A14 Street abandonment plan stirs Alabama racial dispute A14 Controllers' union assails admin- istrative law judge A15 Messenger arrested in theft of $50 million in bonds B2 Witness says boat owner in L.I. crash was near panic B4 Obituaries Vera-Ellen, dancer on stage and in motion pictures A17 Dr. James Z. Appel, former A.M.A. president, dies A17 Dr. Robert A. Kann, historian A18 Prof. Elias J. Bickerman, Hel- lenic scholar A18 Education/Welfare Strike by Philadelphia teachers still seems likely A15 Teachers go to school to learn how to help students who fail B3 Religion Moral Majority denounces attack by Yale's p resident A16 The Living Section Food A sampling of the world's olive oils, from the pure to the purely sublime C1 Chinese poetry, on page and plate C1 Surmain, still the restless res- taurateur C3 Lemon ice king keeps his recipe secret C12 Making the chili hotter yet C13 Of table manners, bad habits, food C18 Living Twenty children write a book on divorce C1 Metropolitan Diary C2 Kitchen Equipment C2 60-Minute Gourmet C3 Best Buys C9 New Yorkers, etc. C12 Personal Health C16 Wine Talk C19 Arts/Entertainment Serious movies due in fall posing a marketing challenge C21 Tom Verlaine, one of the very few guitar heroes C22 Robert Quine and Jody Harris, encyclopedic guitar stylists C22 Gelsely Kirkland won't dance with Ballet Theater C25 Fran Lebowitz's ''Social Studies'' is reviewed C26 Features/Notes About New York B3 Notes on People B4 Going Out Guide C21 Health/Science Bacteria produce flu vaccine after genes are manipulated A14 Sports Stephens makes the Jets' final roster A18 Caster and Bahr among final cuts by N.F.L. teams A18 McEnroe wins in 4 sets; Connors, Lendl, Tracy Austin gain A19 Yanks beat Twins, 11-6, for fifth straight; Dent out A19 Mets lose to Astros on wild pitch in 9th, 3-2 A19 Winfield has a nice homecoming in Minnesota A19 Cosmos are worried on eve of playoff game A21 Ali says he'll fight Berbick Dec. 2 A21 George Vecsey on Dick Howser, new manager of Royals A22 U.S. beats Sweden, 3-1, in Canada Cup hockey opener A23 Edit orials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A26 Wrong kind of atom power Why kill The Car Book? Diplomacy against drugs Letters A26

The Soviet Union seems to be facing a poor grain harvest for the third straight year. If it is as bad as Western experts expect, Russian purchases on world grain markets could soar to a record total of 40 million metric tons. For American farmers, that could mean some of the biggest sales ever to Moscow. (Page A1.) Canada reached an oil price accord with Alberta, its chief oilproducing province. The agreement, after more than a year of wrangling over questions of federalism, permits Canadian oil prices to rise no higher than 75 percent of the world price and provides for a series of staged increases through 1986. (A1.)

The obituary of the author Anita Loos on Aug. 19 gave her birth date incorrectly in some copies. She was born on April 26, 1888, and was 93 years old at her death.

A unit of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the nation's largest borrower with a blue-ribbon credit rating, sold debt securities yesterday at a record yield, exceeding 17 percent for the first time. As the first corporate debt issue to reach the public market in more than a week, the sale dramatized the recent surge to record yields - on Treasury and tax-exempt bonds as well as corporate issues. The Indiana Bell Telephone Company's $75 million of 39-year debentures were priced at 99.40 to return 17.10 percent to investors. A group led by Warburg Paribas Becker Inc. beat two competing syndicates with its bid of 98.849 and 17 percent interest coupons.

ACOUPLE of years ago, only a handful of brands of olive oil were on the market. Nowadays literally dozens are available, and many cooks are becoming as choosy about their olive oil as wine drinkers are about fine Bordeaux. And they should be, considering the prices some extra-virgin olive oils - those made from the first pressings of the best olives - are commanding. A one-liter bottle of Poggio al Sole, from the Italian province of Tuscany, sells for $20! ''It seems that when you put out another brand of oil all the others sell a little bit more, plus that one,'' said Bill Hyde, manager of Balducci's. ''Prices are high, but it's astonishing. The olive oils sell so fast that anyone would think they were a bargain.'' Stores such as Macy's, Dean & Deluca, Bloomingdale's and Zabar's are competing so hard for the attention of the discerning olive oil user that they dispatch buyers to Europe to scout the small groves for the finest oils. ''People's palates are becoming more refined,'' said Pamela Krausmann, a buyer for Bloomingdale's, where 15 more olive oils will be on the shelves this fall - bringing the total to 23. ''Our customers aren't bothered by having to pay, if the quality is there.''

When the history of the air traffic controllers' strike is written, August will be remembered as the month in which the major airlines cut their regularly scheduled flights by an average 20 percent, laid off thousands of workers and watched their earnings plummet in tandem with their stock prices. It will also be remembered as the month when Air Florida made more money than ever before. Like many other small regional airlines, Air Florida is emerging from the chaos of the controllers' walkout with its profitability well intact. While the major trunk carriers such as United Airlines, Braniff, Eastern and Pan Am are paring their operations, the lowbudget, high-margin, cost-efficient little regionals are operating as though the air controllers' strike were taking place in Canada. Wall Street analysts say that some of the best bargains on the stock market can be found among the regional air carriers - Southwest Airlines, Frontier, Ozark, Piedmont, Texas International Airways, Air Florida, PSA, Midway, New York Air and People Express - whose shares have been oversold in the general stampede out of airline issues.