What was going on when I was born?

The Administration is still refusing to intervene strongly in foreign exchange markets to moderate the dollar's rise - or, when it happens - its fall. Officials insist the move would be costly and largely ineffective.

The Rangers, confused and listless today after two of their top three scorers were benched, fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-0, at the Civic Arena. With Ron Greschner playing center for the first time since the 1977-78 season, the Rangers were uninspired except for spurts in the third period. While Pierre Larouche and Mike Rogers sat on the bench, they suffered their third consecutive loss as they continued their struggle with the Penguins and the Devils for the last playoff spot in the Patrick Division. The Rangers, who lead the Penguins by 3 points and the Devils by 5, are obviously going through a hard time. They have 11 games left in the regular season. The Rangers didn't have any legitimate answers for their collapse against a team that had won only once in its six previous games.

The metal is back in the news again, with the fabled Hunt brothers of Texas reportedly down to their last billion - and under investigation by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission for some of their practices when they tried to corner the market in 1979 and 1980. The Hunts pushed the price of silver above $50 an ounce in their heyday. Today it is trading at about $5.60.

Everything spoke of a mismatch, the kind of thing the Nets have needed in a stretch drive full of uncertainty. But there was none for them. While the Philadelphia 76ers licked their wounds and bemoaned the loss of Moses Malone, Clint Richardson and Clemon Johnson to injuries, the Nets simply crumbled at the worst time. They might have played one of their most distasteful games of the season tonight in losing, 127-107, at the Spectrum.

Perhaps the ingenuity of America's college basketball coaches has been overrated all along. Ever since the U.C.L.A. Invitational was abolished when the Bruin dynasty reached its end, we have been led to believe that in the category of competitive resourcefulness the big-time college basketball coach should be ranked up there with international mercenaries, light-fingered jewel thieves and fast-talking used-car salesmen. We are talking about imaginative people, these coaches. Or are we? As the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament completes its second round today, the likelihood is that, despite the best efforts of the greatest basketball minds, a team will successfully defend a national championship at Lexington, Ky., on April 1 for the first time since U.C.L.A. in 1973. In an age of well- documented academic abuses committed in the desperate hope of reaching the Final Four, can it be that a team representing a Jesuit university where players earn diplomas is just that much better than everyone else?

The Book Review asked a number of first novelists how it feels to be writing a second novel. Their replies follow: Jayne Anne Phillips Machine Dreams THE writer believes there is a great difference between the attempts to write a first and second novel. The writer believes he or she has learned certain inalienable things during the long struggle with the first novel; he or she is an older, wiser being. The writer thinks hard about the issue of control, of bringing plans to bear, carrying on like a professional. Makes detailed lists, conceives of a plot that is definitely not autobiographical, schedules the actual writing time according to the outline of the book. The writer starts working out in a gym, begins taking, perhaps, vitamins B-50 and B-6, which are meant to improve memory. If the first novel has been successful, the writer buys a serious, writerly object that bespeaks investment and confidence - a word processor, a new bookshelf, reams of white paper. Or empty notebooks. In any case, a new and bigger wastebasket. Meanwhile, life goes on. There are new love affairs or no affairs, a loss of employment, a move to another apartment. The writer grows desperate, quietly or not so quietly, is a failure or a has-been, unprotected even by ignorance of the process to come. Finally the writer digs in, with plans that are, admittedly, only pretexts. As before, there is a great silence, with no end in sight.

''Oh, god! It's here again,'' one prominent figure in the art world blurted out when reminded that it is Whitney Biennial time. No exhibition in the United States unleashes as much emotion as the Whitney Museum of American Art's ongoing effort to make some order of the confusing, chaotic and inspiring world of contemporary art. Some art professionals love the show. Others hate it. One of the few generalizations that can be made about the Biennial is that almost no one is indifferent to it. Part of the problem is that it has often been difficult, if not impossible, to decide just what the Biennial is. Is it about topicality or about quality? Should it be understood as a curatorial search for a medium through which the Zeitgeist can be enticed to speak, or as an attempt by curators to fight actively for art they believe in? What does the Biennial's by now longstanding commitment to ''cutting edge'' art mean for its even longer commitment to the achievements of older artists?

AS more suburbs legalize the creation of rental apartments in single-family houses, many owners are considering remodeling their homes to take advantage of the more liberal rules. Carving an apartment out of a house is not a simple matter, however. The owners must consider how to maintain their own privacy and shut out noise made by a tenant. They must be prepared to meet unanticipated costs after remodelling work begins. And many also must find ways of financing the work.

WASHINGTON THROUGHOUT his Presidency, Ronald Reagan has viewed a meeting with the Soviet leadership like a bridegroom reluctantly contemplating marriage to an ungainly bride. Mr. Reagan has been publicly critical of detente and, in private, uncharacteristically stern and bitter about the Soviet system - an attitude shaped, he has acknowledged, by the Hollywood years when he tangled with Communists in the film industry. But last year's re-election campaign produced pressure for a more accommodating stance. In June, he said he was ''willing to meet and talk anytime'' with the Soviet leader and in September, at the United Nations, he called for ''a better working relationship'' with Moscow. The selection of a new Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the start of arms control talks in Geneva and an increasingly powerful concern about what history will say of him came together last week to accelerate this change of course and tone. Mr. Reagan not only sent a personal invitation to Mr. Gorbachev to visit the United States at a convenient date, but said that he believed the Soviet Union was now in ''a different frame of mind'' and was ''really going to try and, with us, negotiate a reduction of armaments.'' The change of Presidential thinking was undoubtedly influenced by political need. Congress has begun to take up the Administration's proposal for the release of $1.5 billion, frozen last year, to procure 21 MX missiles. The votes are expected to be close, with Mr. Reagan pushing hard his assertion that the prospects for achieving an arms agreement are improved with the missile.

THE Federal Trade Commission last week gave its final approval to Chevron's $13.3 billion acquisition of Gulf. At the same time, the Standard Oil Company (Indiana) asked its shareholders to approve a long list of predator repellents and continued preparations to spin off its wobbling mining subsidiary; Texaco announced the closing of yet another large refinery, and Exxon continued to support its stock price with huge purchases of its own shares in the open market. From high-rise corporate headquarters to the massive rigs that dot the Gulf of Mexico, it is clear that a shakeout is in full force in the oil industry. The persistent oil glut, which has brought on weak prices and falling profits, has sent companies scurrying to cut costs, shut down capacity and sell off assets. As last year's frantic merger activity seems to have eased, many companies are focusing their attention on debt- burdened and weakened balance sheets. Concentrating on what they know best, they are selling off non- oil subsidiaries, turning instead to a questionable ''back to basics'' strategy that increases their dependency on weak and uncertain core petroleum businesses.

For all the talk of intimidation and strong- arm tactics that had shadowed them throughout their reign as the nation's most formidable team, the Georgetown Hoyas proved today that they can win just by playing better basketball. In a stunning display of the proficient execution of a game plan on both offense and defense, the Hoyas eliminated the Temple Owls from the N.C.A.A. tournament with a systematic 63-46 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 14,897 at Hartford Civic Center. Georgetown will next play Loyola of Illinois (27-5), which eliminated Southern Methodist (23-10), 70-57, and stretched the nation's longest winning streak to 19 games, in Thursday night's East Regional semifinals in Providence, R.I. Georgetown (32-2), except for a four-minute stretch of the second half in which the Hoyas missed all four of their field-goal attempts and committed two turnovers when the score became 44-36, was nearly flawless in winning for the 14th consecutive time. The Hoyas outplayed the upset- minded Owls (25-6) in every phase, rallying after trailing by 4-0 with a 9-2 run and were never in jeopardy. They led by 26-16 in the first half and by 42- 26 after allowing the Owls only 3 points in the first 7 minutes 15 seconds of the second half. It was a display that left the loquacious Temple coach, John Chaney, with few words.

River views sell. That's an old story in New York, but river views also sell fast, and that is what made Manhattan Place, a condominium overlooking the East River at 37th Street, exceptional.