What was going on when I was born?

The Department of Health and Human Services is proposing to change its procedures so that new rules for Social Security, Medicaid, welfare and other programs could be issued without advance public notice. The proposal, which has drawn fire from some who receive benefits from those programs, would also permit the Government to change the rules for these programs without receiving comment from the public. Department officials said that in most cases they would continue to use the ''notice and comment'' procedures they have been following for 12 years. But under the proposal, the department could choose to ''omit the use of notice and comment procedures for rules relating to public property, loans, grants, benefits and contracts if, in its judgment,'' the delay ''would impair the attainment of program objectives or would have other disadvantages that outweigh the benefits'' of public comment.

The Chase Manhattan Corporation announced yesterday that it lost $16.1 million in the second quarter of 1982 as a result of its dealings with a small New York securities firm and an Oklahoma City bank that failed. The bank holding company also disclosed in a memorandum to its officers that it had reshuffled its senior management as a result of its transactions with the Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma City and Drysdale Government Securities Inc. In the reorganization, an executive vice president and a senior vice president were asked to resign, another executive vice president was demoted, and resignations were accepted from seven lower-ranking officers. Assets of $77.8 Billion It was the first time, at least in recent history, that one of the nation's 10 largest banks reported a quarterly loss. The Chase Manhattan Corporation, with total assets of $77.8 billion, is the third-largest banking organization in the United States, following the BankAmerica Corporation and Citicorp. It owns the Chase Manhattan Bank, the nation's third-largest bank.

Paul A. Volcker, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said today that the nation's central bank would stick to its relatively tight monetary targets for this year despite the continuing slump of the economy and the strains on the nation's financial markets. But Mr. Volcker, in a break with past policy, said that the Fed had tentatively decided not to tighten the money supply growth rate next year, a move that would allow the Fed some flexibility in helping a recovery continue into next year. Mr. Volcker outlined his monetary targets for the rest of this year and next as he presented the Fed's midyear review of policy to the Senate Banking Committee. Although short-term interest rates have declined in the last two weeks, analysts did not interpret the Fed's announcement, especially the higher-than-expected tentative target for 1983, as a major change in the Fed's overall tough anti-inflation policy.

After a week of heavy fighting, Iraq appears to have achieved a limited but important military victory in its war with Iran by blunting a major Iranian offensive and forcing a standoff in the battle, according to American officials. While cautioning that the eventual outcome of the war remains in doubt, Reagan Administration officials who have been monitoring the fighting said today that Iraq's successful defense of its territory had turned the momentum of the war in its favor. They said that Iranian setbacks in the field were likely to rekindle political dissent about the war in Teheran. Some senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, initially opposed the invasion of Iraq for fear that it might overextend Iran's military and lead to a costly, protracted battle for foreign territory of debatable strategic importance to Teheran, according to State Department officials.

AFEW months ago Pierre Franey and I were invited to plan a menu and supervise the preparation of quintessentially American food that was to be served to nearly 200 French chefs visiting this country. The vast majority of these chefs had never sampled the native fare of the United States. The dishes we proposed covered the country - the Creole cooking of Louisiana; crabs from California, Florida and the Chesapeake Bay; New York-style pastrami and corned beef with rye; a barbecue from Kansas City, and desserts, from Southern pecan pie to Yankee-style cheesecake. We also wanted to have Mexican-style food from Texas. When we canvassed our contacts for the best cook of the region, we were told that person was, hands down, Zarela Martinez-Gabilondo. She prepared the Mexican-American segment of the meal and her contribution was memorable. A short while ago Miss Martinez-Gabilondo was back in New York for a brief visit, so we invited her into our kitchen to watch her preparation of Mexican food. She arrived, arms loaded with corn tortillas, fresh and dried chilies and sundry other items that, she said, are easily obtainable in the East as well as the West and Southwest.

An article Sunday about the Nether- lands Dance Theater was accompa- nied by an incorrect photograph. The Netherlands dancer shown was Karen Tims.

After the tumultuous tenure of Alexander M. Haig Jr., the State Department has been placed in the hands of a group of men noted for their calm, conservative and self-assured authority. They are consummate old boys of the country's political/corporate network, who today are flying to northern California's exclusive Bohemian Grove to relax and confer on the future course of the State Department. Probably no one personifies the personality shift on the seventh floor at Foggy Bottom more than W. Allen Wallis, the economist and chancellor of the University of Rochester who has just been named Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. Mr. Wallis, 69 years old, is a longtime friend and colleague of his new boss and fellow economist, Secretary George P. Shultz. Like Kenneth W. Dam, the University of Chicago provost who was Mr. Shultz's choice as Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Wallis is expected to provide the administrative experience and, above all, the personal loyalty that Mr. Shultz will need to dominate the department.

The Syrian and Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministers outlined a new plan to President Reagan today for breaking the Israeli siege of west Beirut, Administration officials said. Under the plan, the 6,000 Palestine Liberation Organization fighters there would be temporarily moved to northern Lebanon before being evacuated to several other Arab nations. Administration officials said the Foreign Ministers - Abdel Halim Khaddam of Syria and Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia - were in agreement with Mr. Reagan that it was urgent to move the P.L.O. forces from west Beirut before the Israelis carry out their threat to use force.

International A new plan for breaking the siege of west Beirut was outlined to President Reagan by the foreign ministers of Syria and Saudi Arabia at a 90-minute meeting at the White House, according to Administration officials. They said the proposal called for temporarily moving the 6,000 besieged Palestinian fighters to northern Lebanon before they are evacuated to other Arab countries. (Page A1, Column 6.) Soviet support for withdrawal of the Palestinians from west Beirut appeared likely. Leonid I. Brezhnev endorsed the use of a United Nations force to end the impasse as he restated opposition to any involvement by American forces. (A9:1-2.)

Reagan Administration officials said today that the President had decided to set aside efforts to negotiate a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing until verification measures of existing testing treaties can be strengthened. The decision not to resume talks with the Soviet Union and Britain on a comprehensive ban brought sharp criticism from leading Democrats and expressions of concern from the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Two senior Administration officials, who confirmed a report in Tuesday's New York Times, said President Reagan still supported the goal of negotiating a comprehensive ban with adequate verification. The President's decision was ''strongly condemned'' by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, the key Senate sponsor of a proposal urging a freeze in Soviet and American atomic arsenals. Mr. Kennedy said he would introduce a resolution in the Senate calling for immediate resumption of negotiations with Britain and the Soviet Union.

WHEN Kay Koplovitz called her parents in Milwaukee to tell them that she had just been named president and chief executive officer of the U.S.A. Cable Network, whose prime-time schedule consists mainly of live sports coverage, her mother wanted to know if the title meant she was the network's top sportscaster. ''I told my mother it was simple,'' said Mrs. Koplovitz, who was appointed two years ago after a career in sports and children's programming. ''I'd gotten myself into the board room before most women sports reporters had gotten themselves into the locker room.'' Mrs. Koplovitz's career reflects the status of women in the highpressure, high-intensity business of cable television. Cable's long lead in the lucrative pay-video market has created what industry officials say are hundreds of new jobs at all levels - from production assistants to vice presidents to Miss Koplovitz, the only woman in the nation at the helm of a cross-country television service. But several women in the industry expressed doubt about how much actual power they wielded.

Only four months after acquiring the Chicago-based Marshall Field & Company, Batus Inc. has begun to dismantle the retailer's management, industry sources said yesterday. The move is aimed at improving links between the various Field divisions and Batus headquarters in New York, the sources said. To accomplish the streamlining, Batus, the United States arm of B.A.T. Industries of London, is expected to announce today that Angelo R. Arena, chairman and chief executive officer of Marshall Field, will relinquish those posts and assume the title of vice chairman of the Batus Retail division. The resignation of Field's vice chairman, Rudolph L. Hirsch, is also expected to be announced by Batus.