July 13, 1986

I MET Jorge Luis Borges in 1981, when I returned to Buenos Aires from a job at the BBC in London and began working for La Prensa. He received me very kindly, remembering that during the 1920's, when he was not well known, La Prensa had been the first newspaper to publish him. Later I returned to see him frequently. Sometimes he would dictate a poem that he had been composing during a long night of insomnia. After typing it, I would put it in his desk near his collection of Icelandic sagas, a precious gift from his father. Sometimes we would walk to a nearby restaurant, where he would eat something very simple. Or we would go to a bookstore, searching for yet another book by Kipling or Conrad in an English edition for friends to read to him. People would stop to greet him, and he would jokingly tell me they must have mistaken him for someone else. His fame as a writer seemed to burden him, and he often regretted that he had to go on living so that Borges the writer could weave his literary fantasies.

Cocaine was news last week: Government reports attested to its popularity, politicians went to upper Manhattan to buy it and Pete Rozelle announced a plan to curb its use in the National Football League. Citing the recent deaths of two athletes, Len Bias and Don Rogers, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported a sharp increase in cocaine-related deaths and emergency-room admissions in the last few years. The officials said, nonetheless, that they had no evidence of a recent rise in cocaine use. ''What we are seeing in 1986 are the consequences of drug use which began years ago,'' said Donald I. Macdonald, head of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration.

Eleven years ago, when BMW AG, the West German manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles, started its United States subsidiary, it placed its headquarters in Montvale, N.J., largely as a matter of convenience. Hoffman Motors, the independent importer who had exclusive rights to sell BMW cars in the United States, was already based in the Bergen County community, so the tiny subsidiary, BMW of North America, simply began operating there.

In the last several years, as Morris County, N.J., has become a focal point for Fortune 500 corporate offices, developers have struggled to keep pace with the growing demand for affordable housing. Traditionally, Morris County has been a suburban area of large, expensive homes.

MORE than ten years ago, the Hollywood production team for the movie ''Cinderella Liberty'' was seeking a street that would evoke the feel of a sleazy sailor haunt. The team settled on First Avenue, a string of strip joints, tattoo parlors and taverns with early-morning happy hours. But now, after a six-block, $125 million makeover, the old downtown neighborhood would need a dose of movie magic to look the part of its seedy past.