THE BEST OF TIMES

A former New York Times reporter compares the paper he worked for in 1 968 and the one he reads today: ''The Times may be better-I think it i s-but now only parts of it are necessary as opposed to nice. Who needs pages of recipes, suburban lifestyles and shopping hints! In the good old days, the paper was predictable, first as a newspaper of record a nd later a paper of continuity.''