August 1, 1982

Spirits & the Law Arcade Now Is a Street New York State says you cannot sell alcohol for consumption on the premises if your premises are on the same street and within 200 feet of a church. Now, the Cafe Galleria - in the covered arcade of the Galleria building that runs from East 57th to East 58th Street - and the Chapel of Saints Faith, Hope and Charity, at 128 East 58th, are more than 200 feet apart.

The Soviet Union, in response to an American proposal at the Geneva talks on reducing strategic nuclear arms, has offered to make substantial cuts in its long-range missile and bomber forces, according to Administration officials. But in return, the officials said, Moscow is demanding that the United States agree to forgo the deployment of new medium-range missiles in Europe and to accept stringent restrictions on all future cruise missile deployments. Administration officials called the Soviet proposal unacceptable, noting that it fell far short of the proposal made by President Reagan in May for considerably deeper reductions in long-range, or intercontinental, missiles. But the officials said neither side had formally rejected the proposals of the other. The talks began in Geneva on June 29, and the first round is expected to be adjourned in mid-August.

MANY mortgages written today have a feature called negative a mortization or deferred interest - or, as one confounded New Jersey h ome buyer recently dubbed it, ''a mortgage with mirrors.'' With negative amortization, the home buyer is borrowing not only the money he needs to purchase his house but also the difference between what the payments would be at the going interest rate and what he can conveniently pay. Each month's shortfall is added to the principal of the mortgage and thus, instead of amortizing it - that is, paying it off - the borrower is making it larger. Hence the name, negative amortization.

Although I haven't yet found out where drama critics go to die, I do know where they go to be reborn. The place is The O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn., a sprawling complex of stages and dormitories nestled against Long Island Sound, a few miles from the family home of America's greatest playwright. It is here each year that critics, among many others, come to see a dozen or so new plays, mostly by unsung authors, in staged readings performed during a month-long National Playwrights Conference. And it is here where even the most hardened theatergoers, beaten down by the disappointments of the previous New York season, can suddenly be revivified by the sound of a vibrant dramatic voice, crying out insistently into a midsummer's night.

'Fact Book 1982' Eye Opener Ripley's ''Believe It or Not'' it is not, but the ''Fact Book 1982'' that is about to be published by the Real Estate Board of New York will contain in its charts and tables some information that may raise eyebrows. For example, there are those who believe the ratio of housing to population has never been worse in the city - only 2.95 million units for 7.02 million people, as counted in the 1980 census.