What was going on when I was born?

Representative Les Aspin, the Wisconsin Democrat, once said that if you give Congressmen a chance to vote on both sides of an issue, they'll do it every time. Last week Mr. Aspin had another example. With the House of Representatives facing an excruciating choice over whether to halt production of the MX missile or forge ahead with a full-scale procurement schedule, Mr. Aspin found a way for the lawmakers to settle somewhere in the middle. His compromise, approved 229 to 199, provides $1.8 billion for only 15 missiles; that compares to 40 requested by the President and 30 approved by the Armed Services Committee.

Boil 1 lb. shrimp shells with strong lye for a whole day. Strain it through cheesecloth and wash the residue with a lot of water. Dissolve residue in vinegar to a maple syrup-like consistency. Definitely not to put on pancakes. This is the varnish that Joseph Nagyvary of Texas A&M University has developed for violins. He thinks that the great Cremonese violin makers must have used something like it. Prof. Nagyvary's theories are the subject of an article by Joseph Alper in the March issue of Science 84. Like so many in the past, the good professor has been searching for the secrets of the great Cremonese violin makers, from Nicolo Amati in the mid-16th century through Stradivari, Guarneri, Bergonzi, Guadagnini and the other violin makers who lived and worked in the little Italian city of Cremona.

Gate Dancer, the colt who ran so erratically only two weeks ago that he became the first horse ever disqualified for interference in the Kentucky Derby, straightened out under Angel Cordero Jr. today and won the 109th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in track-record time. Sporting his usual pair of purple earmuffs that are designed to keep the roar of the crowd from bothering him, Gate Dancer came from off the pace under a brilliant ride by Cordero to beat Play On by 1 1/2 lengths. Fight Over, who set a scorching pace, tired but held on for third, 3 1/2 lengths behind Play On and three-quarters of a length in front of Taylor's Special. Swale, the Kentucky Derby winner and the 4-to-5 favorite today, finished seventh.

WHILE voter registration drives are in progress around the country, a similar effort in Bridgeport is stuck at the beginning: getting permission to go out and sign up new voters. A coalition called Alliance for Justice in '84 last week launched what has become an annual battle in Bridgeport between coalition members and city officials over the deputizing volunteer voter registrars. State law permits a municipality's elected registrars of voters to authorize volunteers to register citizens outside of government offices. But so far, the registrars in Bridgeport, one Democrat and one Republican, have refused to deputize the coalition's members.

YEARS ago, when officials at the State University of New York at Purchase approached Brooks Jones to, as he describes it, ''evaluate the viability of a theater built in the middle of a field in a town that had a population of 1,000,'' he told them very simply that it was ''a silly idea'' that ''didn't make a whit of sense.'' ''The operation is ill-advised,'' Mr. Jones, who had just established two large theaters in Cincinnati, wrote in his report and he cautioned against undertaking a venture that ''just wouldn't work.'' The college officials went ahead anyway, constructing a four-theater cultural complex, the Center for the Arts, that opened in 1978. And the center has grown to be a success - not, ironically, in spite of Mr. Jones but because of him. For the last five years, since coming to Purchase, he has been the artistic director of the Pepsico Summerfare, an extremely popular campus arts festival credited not only with securing the center's reputation but also with changing the nature of the arts in Westchester.

The Deficit Five weeks and 111 hours of debate later, the Senate finished a mere $3 billion away from where it started when it first took up President Reagan's $144 billion compromise ''down payment'' on the deficit. Last week's healthy margin of approval of a $141 billion package was a reflection less of enthusiasm with the plan than of a careful reckoning with assorted political realities. On the part of the Senate leadership, there was a symbolic $2 billion bow to hold-out moderate Republicans unhappy with cuts in education, health and environmental programs. On the part of the moderates, there was the pull of party loyalty - and the President's promise that he would veto major deviation from the plan he already approved. Senator Lawton Chiles of Florida, ranking minority member on the Budget Committee, spoke for many Democrats. ''At some point,'' he said, ''I'm for deficit reduction.'' The point he had in mind was Election Day; after a number of close calls, the President's plan was the only one left on the floor, and few Democrats wanted to be on the record as against bringing the deficit down, even if only by one-fifth over three years.

ALTHOUGH Francesco Galesi was not certain exactly what use to make of Clam Island on Noyack Bay when his development company, Northeastern Industrial Park, bought the land three years ago, he found the site exceptionally attractive and knew he wanted to reserve at least part of it for himself. He turned over the problem of how to develop the property to Inter-Science Research Associates, a Southampton consulting firm. The consultants studied the area for more than two years. They drew up what Richard Warren, the firm's director, called ''a small master plan'' aimed at leaving the island as undisturbed as possible. The study's major recommendation was that Mr. Galesi keep the entire property as a single homesite rather than seek further subdivision and development.

Inflation: Up Again It's no wonder that some people are worrying about a revival of inflation these days. The nation is well into the second year of recovery and the economy, judging from the latest flurry of statistics, is still as energetic as a newborn lamb. For those worried about the price outlook, next week's news from the Labor Department could be disheartening. The Consumer Price Index for April will be announced Tuesday and, according to Jack W. Lavery, chief economist and director of economic research at Merrill Lynch Inc., inflation probably rose by four- tenths of 1 percent last month, about double the March increase. According to Mr. Lavery, the April uptick was caused almost entirely by higher gasoline prices. If they ''had not exceeded the usual seasonal rise in April, the C.P.I. figure would more or less duplicate the March increase of two-tenths of 1 percent.''

Whatever other inequalities continue to afflict the nation, no American, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual predilection or physical or mental distress, need be deprived these days of public insult. Generous compensation for years of neglect is available, with insults being doled out according to incapacity, affinity and heritage. The goods, available at convenient locations such as television sets, radios and drugstore book racks, are arousing distaste, concern and protest. But let's have a look at the beast before considering whether it should be shackled or permitted to slouch on through the nation. A glance at the table of contents of the first of several volumes of ''Truly Tasteless Jokes,'' a super-selling paperback compendium, gives the range of beneficiaries. There are jokes about Poles, blacks, Jews, WASPs, homosexuals, handicapped persons, women, animals, dead babies and Helen Keller. No one has brought charges that the book's title is false advertising.

BACK in the days when the word ''apple'' only meant something to eat, a Connecticut lawmaker foresaw the need to cope with computer- related crime. So, the legislator, Richard D. Tulisano, a Democrat from Rocky Hill who is chairman of the State House of Representative's Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill in 1978 that would have established stiff criminal penalties for computer crimes, and began the legislative procedure. ''I held a public hearing, but nobody came,'' Mr. Tulisano recalled. ''I got nowhere.''

State Department officials said today that a Panamanian-registered cargo ship had sunk in the Persian Gulf after being attacked by Iraqi jets Friday. It was the first reported case of a merchant vessel's being sunk in the war between Iran and Iraq, which began in September 1980. Officials said they received first word about the 17,000-ton bulk carrier, Fidelity, from ships in the northern Persian Gulf that picked up survivors southwest of Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export terminal in the gulf. Shipping sources in Bahrain said the vessel went down today, 60 miles south-southwest of Kharg Island. The Fidelity, according to American officials, was apparently carrying steel for Bandar Khomeini, another Iranian port.

HIM WITH HIS FOOT IN HIS MOUTH AND OTHER STORIES By Saul Bellow. 294 pp. New York: Harper & Row. $15.95. A CONCORDANCE, a reprise, a summary, all the old themes and obsessions hauled up by a single tough rope - does there come a time when, out of the blue, a writer offers to decode himself? Not simply to divert, or paraphrase, or lead around a corner, or leave clues, or set Cynthia Ozick's most recent books are ''Cannibal Galaxy,'' a novel, and ''Art and Ardor,'' essays. out decoys (familiar apparatus, art-as-usual), but to kick aside the maze, spill wine all over the figure in the carpet, bury the grand metaphor, and disclose the thing itself? To let loose, in fact, the secret? And at an hour no one could have predicted? And in a modestly unlikely form? The cumulative art concentrated, so to speak, in a vial?