February 10, 1985

PRESIDENT REAGAN paused a few minutes in the chambers of the Speaker of the House last Wednesday night before making his State of the Union Address. Typically, he passed the time not in solitary reflection but swapping jokes and stories with Congressional leaders, downing a glass of Perrier to wet his throat. Others found him in an easy, genial mood. That infectious buoyancy soon gave a lift to his performance before the television cameras, and bolstered his confident promise of ''a second American Revolution.'' In a classic bit of political theater, the President laid claim to having changed the nation's assumptions about government - ''forever I hope.''

AT first glance, it appears to be an ordinary playroom, similar to those found in most schools or institutions. Jack-in-the-boxes, toy clocks, musical instruments and hundreds of other popular children's toys are neatly arranged on shelves, ready to be set into motion by eager children. Other toys, with missing or broken parts, sit in a pile in the corner of the room, awaiting repairs. Upon closer inspection, certain differences become apparent. All of the toys in the room - known as the United Cerebral Palsy of Westchester/Adriel and Evelyn Harris Toy Library for the Disabled - have been adapted, with the addition of special switches, to meet the needs of children and adults who have severe handicaps and would otherwise be unable to work the knobs, pulls and buttons used on ordinary toys. ''We are the first toy library that I know of in the United States to deal with the severely disabled,'' said Martin Stone, program coordinator of United Cerebral Palsy of Westchester, in Rye Brook, where the toy library is located. Established in 1982, the toy library and its two mobile units lend toys, free of charge, to 2,000 handicapped children and adults at 150 locations throughout the New York City area.

WHEN one of the Island's leading aerospace concerns, the Fairchild Republic Company, a year ago built the last A-10 Thunderbolt II attack plane for the United States Air Force, it was as if a dark cloud had draped the sprawling complex in Farmingdale. But tomorrow, the 54-year-old aerospace manufacturer will roll out the first of a new line that promises to bring relief from employee layoffs and nose-diving earnings: the T-46A jet trainer. The twin-engine, two-seat aircraft is the first of a potential 650 planes that Fairchild is to produce for the Air Force to replace Cessna's T-37 as the basic trainer for student pilots. It is the first aircraft to be designed using technology developed under Fairchild Republic's five-year, $100 million modernization program, which began in 1982. Recalling when Fairchild Republic was awarded the T-46A contract in July 1982, Dr. Robert J. Sanator, the company's president, said: ''It was a very big win for us then. We saw it as a program that would carry Republic as a viable outfit well into the 90's.''

When the restaurant now being created in Manhattan's Carlton House opens its doors later this year, some patrons, no doubt, will recognize its stained-glass ceilings, deep-red upholstery, fleur-de-lis sconces and framed Sem cartoons as signatures of Maxim's de Paris, one of France's best-known restaurants. Work is now in progress to recreate the turn-of-the-century Parisian eating establishment in a 2,100-square-foot space on the first and second levels of the Carlton House, a residential hotel on Madison Avenue at 61st Street.

TWO seconds remain on the clock of the oddly - shaped scoreboard that hangs high above center court in Boston Garden. Time has been called with the Portland Trail Blazers ahead, 127-126. In the huddle, Coach Jack Ramsay of Portland, certain the Celtics will go to Larry Bird for the last shot, is mapping a defense. Play resumes, Dennis Johnson inbounds the ball to Bird and the 6-foot-9-inch Celtic forward, double- teamed, hits a 20-foot fallaway jumper from the left corner at the buzzer. Another Celtic victory and yet another defense that failed to stop Bird.