March 12, 1984

BARBARA MAHONEY was immediately aware of the consequences of the birthday gift she gave her husband, Brian, last December. She had been married to a basketball coach for too long to have any doubts. For two years, cable television had been available to the residents of Rockville Centre, L.I. For all that time, Brian Mahoney, an assistant coach at St. John's University, wanted the cable installed in their home. His wife said nothing doing. But basketball coaches are a resourceful lot, and Mahoney knew that his mother-in-law, who lives nearby, had the cable. So every now and then he would mention to his wife that it had been a very long time since they had visited her mother--it had been a day or two, at least--and off he would go. Barbara Mahoney teaches gifted children. She is nobody's fool. ''He was always at my mother's, and I'm home.''

It flashes through Margaret Swinchoski's mind, each time she walks past the Kew Gardens, Queens, train station: This was where Kitty Genovese met her killer. Even in the small town in Vermont where Miss Swinchoski grew up, Catherine Genovese's case became a shocking symbol of apathy. Now Miss Swinchoski lives in the same quiet, middle-class neighborhood where Miss Genovese was slain 20 years ago as she tried to make her way from her car, parked in the train station lot, to her apartment on Austin Street. 'What Might Happen' For more than half an hour that night, Miss Genovese's killer stalked and stabbed her, again and again, as 38 of her neighbors silently turned away from her cries.

Charles Griffis came to California in 1977 when he heard he might be able to buy a McDonald's franchise in Santa Barbara. He had completed a training program for the restaurant chain, but was operating his own gasoline station in Michigan at the time. It turns out, though, that the store was in Los Angeles, ''on Santa Barbara Street, right in the middle of the ghetto,'' says Mr. Griffis. ''It was an old store in real bad shape.''

The credit markets seem increasingly convinced that pressures are building in the economy for higher interest rates but not so high that the economic recovery would end soon. Economic data have been better than expected, showing what Paul A. Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, last week called a ''strong economy in a number of directions.'' The improving data have fundamentally changed the outlook for interest rates. As the durability of the economic recovery has been proven, the debate about whether interest rates might rise or fall has been replaced by discussion about how large the rate increases will be.

Vigorous economic growth throughout 1983 has shaken up the rankings of the nation's 25 largest nonfinancial corporations. And, as a result of regulatory changes and merger decisions, the list of America's biggest companies is almost certain to undergo even more dramatic change this year. As in years past, the names of big oil companies continued to dominate the overall rankings in terms of revenues and net income. But after a second consecutive year of soft prices, the petroleum industry's grip on the top spots has weakened.