October 5, 1982

International Israeli jets attacked missile positions of Syrians in Lebanon, reportedly destroying a number of sites along the Beirut-Damascus road. The attack followed Sunday's ambush of an Israeli bus in which six Israeli soldiers were killed and 22 were wounded, 11 seriously. (Page A1, Column 6.) Lebanon's Premier was asked to stay by President Amin Gemayel. The President, a Maronite Christian, had to choose a Sunni Moslem under rigid Lebanese tradition, and he decided to ask Shafik al-Wazzan to remain at the urging of Saeb Salam, the 77-year-old former Prime Minister, who is probably the most influential Moslem leader in Lebanon. (A1:5.)

You half expect the thing to take a jerky step on its gawky tubular steel legs and fire a laser blast vaporizing the neighbor's charcoal grill. The unearthly looking structure - a satellite earth station 12 feet in diameter with a rotating eight-foot tripod in the center - sits on a suburban lawn, near the swing, whirring as it moves left and right, up and down, searching the stars for Regis Philbin. The earth station, more commonly called a dish antenna, locates Mr. Philbin in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the Equator on the Satcom F-3 satellite and draws him into the living room of the Burt Lerner family of Tenafly. Other residents of this tidy suburban neighborhood did not know what to make of it when the Lerners installed their television dish antenna about three months ago. Most of them treated it as a UFO come to roost. ''I don't know what it is,'' said one neighbor who telephoned the Lerners. ''But whatever it is, it moved.''

To a backdrop of skepticism, criticism and delays, a public timetable was installed in the New York City subway system yesterday. The timetable, showing a 24-hour schedule of train movements through a station, was posted at Cortlandt Street, a station beneath the World Trade Center. About 700 subway locations will have the timetables by the middle of 1984 at a cost of $2 million, according to the Transit Authority. ''Bet you any money, they're not going to be right,'' said Emanuel Blandina of Sussex County, N.J., as he rushed past workmen installing the new timetable. ''Instead of doing that, they should get the trains running right.''

Glenn Gould, the Canadian pianist who retired from a flourishing concert career in 1964 to become a recording artist best known for his Bach interpretations, died yesterday in Toronto General Hospital. Mr. Gould suffered a severe stroke last Monday, two days after his 50th birthday. He went into a coma Thursday and never regained consciousness. Mr. Gould was always an unorthodox pianist, choosing isolation over society, recordings over live concerts and idiosyncratic reinterpretations over respect for musical ''authenticity.'' He was best known to the public, perhaps, for his eccentricities - wearing gloves, scarf and overcoat in summer weather; soaking his hands in hot water before playing the piano and humming and singing while playing. But beyond his eccentricities, his legacy of nearly 80 CBS recordings is among the most significant and challenging musical documents of our time.

Not all top executives are eager to plunge into the high risk and excitement of a takeover battle. James H. Evans, chairman and chief executive officer of the Union Pacific Corporation, prefers a lowerkey approach to expansion. His company's forthcoming friendly merger with the Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific railroads is typical of the steady, methodical course that Union Pacific set for itself in the 1970's. Union Pacific management has always felt more comfortable avoiding hostile takeover situations. The company's only major previous acquisition was also a harmonious deal.