September 30, 1983

The ceiling on interest rates for certificates of deposits is to be lifted tomorrow, and banks all over the country will be free to pay whatever they want to attract consumers. The indications are that rates will increase about one percentage point. This will mean, for example, that the rate on the popular six-month certificate will grow to 10 1/2 percent. But introductory rates could climb far higher, as banks compete for the funds. And with federally imposed minimums on such accounts abolished as well, banks will be offering an array of new types of cccounts. The result, at least at first, is expected to be long lines of confused customers at bank branches around the country.

Congress completed action tonight on landmark legislation that would authorize the continued deployment of American marines in Lebanon for 18 more months. The legislation also declares that the War Powers Act now applies to the conflict in Lebanon. This is the first time the act has been invoked since Congress adopted it 10 years ago, over the veto of President Nixon, as a way of imposing Congressional restraints on the war-making powers of the Presidency. This afternoon the Republican-led Senate adopted the resolution in a 54-to- 46 vote that was largely along party lines. In less than 10 minutes the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which approved a nearly identical version on Wednesday, agreed to accept the Senate bill by a vote of 253 to 156.

SLIDE into the saddle, slip your shoes into the stirrups and dream of reaching for the ring - fall is a wonderful time to gallop off to nowhere on a carousel. This weekend, stout rainbow-color stallions and ornate jeweled jumpers will make their rounds on more than a dozen historic carousels that are all within about 90 minutes of Times Square. With their painted ponies and tooting mechanical organs - never call them calliopes; organs have pipes, calliopes have whistles - these carousels are flashy reminders of the days when the metropolitan area was the carousel crossroads of the world. They somehow manage to be gaudy and graceful at once, a cross between two incongruous worlds: the cushiony pomp of a vaudeville theater and the ordered elegance of an equestrian pageant. But whether you bounce in the saddle like a Texas cowpoke on a bucking bronco or sit straight and stiff like a riding master, a jaunt on a carousel is more than just five minutes of going around in a circle. Carousel enthusiasts insist it is a trip to another era, a time when craftsmanship mattered. Those are not just wooden horses, they say; those are intricately carved statuettes that have become pieces of folk art and command thousands of dollars at auctions.

A Pentagon official who disclosed wasteful military contracts in 1969 testified today that the Government was still often paying inexcusably high prices and getting ''horrible quality'' in return. The official, A. Ernest Fitzgerald, began his testimony to a House subcommittee by recalling: ''Some years ago I made an appearance similar to this and ended up offending the then- largest defense contractor in the United States, the President of the United States, the President pro tem of the Senate and a majority of the whole Congress, along with the rest of the defense industry.'' Mr. Fitzgerald and Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, the retired head of the Navy's nuclear propulsion program, appeared before the Subcommittee on General Oversight and Renegotiation of the House Banking Committee to express their support for a bill to reconstitute the Renegotiation Board, killed by Congress in 1976, a body that had the authority to attempt to recover unjustified or excess profits on Government contracts.

From the four continents to which they had dispersed, from stardom and from unemployment lines, 332 dancers who once appeared in ''A Chorus Line'' gathered last night to share in the performance that made the musical the longest-running show in the history of Broadway. With its 3,389th performance, ''A Chorus Line'' surpassed the mark held by ''Grease.'' Many theater experts say that ''A Chorus Line,'' more than setting a performance record, altered the direction of American musical theater with its use of a realistic book and ensemble rather than individual acting. The show's moment of triumph arrived at 12:45 A.M., when all 332 dancers flooded the stage of the Shubert Theater for the finale, a song called ''One.'' A sustained standing ovation resounded, as it had at the conclusion of a black-tie dress rehearsal in the afternoon.