Following a series of shoplifting arrests in East Hampton, detectives have been on the watch up Main Street and down Newtown Lane for suspicious-looking shoppers. On Saturday, they said, they caught yet another consumer taking a five-finger discount.

Louis Anthony Hillen, 44, of Fairview, N.J., reportedly told police he was headed to Montauk and decided to do some Christmas shopping along the way.

Detectives said they found him with $4,928 worth of ill-gotten booty, including a pair of three-and-a-half-foot-high sculptures valued at $2,000.

An Odd Bulge

The sculptures, elongated stainless-steel depictions of Adam and Eve by William King, were on display at the Arlene Bujese Gallery at 66 Newtown Lane.

Detectives staking out the street said they saw an odd bulge running down the back of Mr. Hillen's jacket and into the seat of his trousers, and decided to question him.

They said they found in his car a $139 pair of women's shoes from Coach Leather, a $119 brown suede vest from Mark, Fore and Strike, and a $195 gold-trimmed mirror from Rumrunners. All three shops are on Main Street.

Southampton Galleries

Four other items - a still life painting, an American Indian "dream catcher," and two sculptures tagged at $800 and $900 - are believed to have been taken from two shops in Southampton Town: Legendary Collectibles and the Sundance Gallery.

Mr. Hillen was charged with possession of stolen property and grand larceny, both felonies, as well as three counts of petty larceny. Bail was set at $750. Unable to raise it, he was sent to the county jail in Riverhead.

East Hampton Village Police Chief Glen Stonemetz said his colleagues in the Southampton Town Police Department were pursuing their own charges.

Local Men Charged

East Hampton Town police, meanwhile, charged three local men with cocaine and marijuana possession Saturday afternoon after a traffic stop on Montauk Highway in Montauk.

After clocking a 1990 Chrysler allegedly going 53 miles an hour in a 40-m.p.h. zone, police signaled the car to stop. As it pulled over, the police report stated, the driver, Rodney Spearmon of Whalebone Village, East Hampton, and his two passengers were observed making "overt movements" inside.

Two officers approaching the car allegedly noticed a strong odor of marijuana. The three were asked to step out of the vehicle.

Officers spotted a plastic bag and tinfoil on the floor of the car, both containing marijuana, police said. Searching further, police allegedly found a film canister containing more marijuana and a small amount of crack cocaine.

Police said an additional piece of crack was found in the possession of one of the passengers, 24-year-old Harold E. Breault of Hildreth Place, Springs.

Mr. Breault, Mr. Spearmon, and the third man, Emory J. Jones, 31, of Springs-Fireplace Road, East Hampton, were charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of a controlled substance, both misdemeanors.

Car Registration

Mr. Spearmon was additionally charged with operating a vehicle with a suspended registration. Police said a computer check revealed the car's registration was suspended in October.

Mr. Jones was later released on $500 bail; Mr. Breault was released on $350 bail, and Mr. Spearmon was released on his own recognizance.

Southampton Town police made a drug-related arrest of their own a week earlier, charging a Sag Harbor man Nov. 3 with crack possession and loitering.

Turnpike Arrest

An officer observed Robert Joseph Wilson, 33, of Dartmouth Road stop his car at Huntington Crossway around 7:20 p.m. and pick up a passenger, then drive north on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike to the corner of Scuttlehole Road and stop again, letting the passenger out.

Police spoke with Mr. Wilson, who allegedly revealed he had been trying to buy crack and that he had a small quantity in his possession.

He was charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and first-degree loitering, misdemeanors. Allegedly driving his car up the alleyway next to Estia restaurant and knocking over a street tree in the process earned an East Hampton man a criminal-mischief charge on Nov. 12.

The incident occurred around 1:30 a.m., police said. At around 4:30 that afternoon, 25-year-old Gene E. Lamonda of Springs-Fireplace Road turned himself in at town police headquarters on the advice of his lawyer. He was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, and released on his own recognizance to appear in court.

Angry Letters

Aggravated harassment was the charge for an East Hampton man accused of continuously harassing his estranged wife with angry letters.

Kathleen Bennett called police on Nov. 8 after finding one such letter in a plastic Ziploc bag under her car's windshield wiper. The letter, from her husband, Ronald L. Bennett of Joshua Edwards Court, contained "obscenities" directed at Ms. Bennett and her children, police said.

Ms. Bennett provided other letters to police, and an arrest warrant was issued. Police picked up Mr. Bennett on Friday and charged him with second-degree aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor.

He was released on his own recognizance.

Police Take A Trip

In other arrests, Jeffrey W. Krouse of Hampton Bays was picked up on Friday by village police in Harrison, N.Y., on a warrant issued by East Hampton Town Justice Court.

Mr. Krouse, 25, reportedly failed to make an appointment with his probation officer and then failed to answer the resulting charge in court last month. He was on probation after pleading guilty to a charge related to "the health and safety of the environment."

Justice Roger W. Walker released him on $300 bail, with a new court date next month.

Stroll Sag Harbor's Main Street and you might happen upon an elderly man selling T-shirts, trinkets, a rubber ducky wearing a fireman's hat, and more in front of the Sag Harbor Fire Department.

Tom Horn Sr., a former chief and a volunteer fireman for 54 years, sets up shop on evenings in the summer, selling the souvenirs and small gifts to tourists, especially, to raise money for the department's Fireman Museum.

The museum, which opened in 1978, is in a building that dates to 1833 on the corner of Sage and Church Streets a few blocks away from the village's busy Main Street. The two-story structure was built to hold parish meetings and Sunday school for the Old Whalers Church, which at the time was in a building across the street.

Mr. Horn has dedicated much time and energy to the museum since its inception. "I enjoy the history of the village," he said recently while standing amid the museum's artifacts, which include a 1926 Model-T fire chief's pickup truck, donated in 1998 by the Archi family, and a hand-pulled hose cart used in the 1800s - pulled by men, not animals, Mr. Horn said.

The village's Fire Department is one of the oldest in New York State, having received its charter on March 26, 1803. The department bought its first piece of motorized equipment in 1913, and after a lot of training and time spent getting used to it, Mr. Horn said, the department became completely motorized seven years later.

During the summer, he opens the museum from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. The amount of time he spends there and vending on Main Street does not phase him, he said, as he doesn't consider his hours volunteering to be work.

Mr. Horn said teaching and retelling history excites him, especially when it is "the history of the village from a different direction." The museum's contents offer "a different perspective about life in the village after whaling was long gone."

Two young children, their parents, and an uncle ventured into the museum on a Friday afternoon. As Mr. Horn gave the tour, his voice carried over those of the chatty youngsters, and he showed no sign of annoyance at an uninterested parent text-messaging on a cellphone. Instead, he captured the children's attention with an invitation to ring the old bell. And he got the parents to listen with anecdotes. For example, if volunteers "didn't show up with a bucket . . . they were fined 50 cents."

A lifelong village resident, Mr. Horn knows quite a bit about his hometown. In particular, he said, he knows so much because "I listened to people talk." Also, his father, Thomas Horn, was a longtime member of the Gazelle Hose Company, and his mother, Anna Horn, was, in 1954, a charter member of the Ladies Auxiliary. Mr. Horn's son, Tom Horn Jr., is an honorary member of the Fire Department.

Various pictures, including one of his mother with her fellow charter members and his father with his company, decorate the museum's two floors. An enormous collection of antique trophies lines the shelves. There are firemen's patches and old booklets, including the first volunteer firemen's training manual to be published by the Suffolk County Board of Supervisors.

The building was home to the Montauk Hose Company for more than 80 years, until the company moved to the Brick Kiln Road complex on Columbia Street in 1976. Restored soon after, the museum's large doors that open on Sage Street are reminiscent of the garage doors on an old firehouse.

Before it was a firehouse, Mr. Horn said, the building served as the village hall and the village's first jail - an iron cell remains. Though it was a schoolhouse from 1866 to 1871, the school moved and became the Union School in what is now the Municipal Building. The village has owned the museum, which covers most of its small lot, since 1856.

A walk through the museum is a lesson in technological advances. Loudspeakers, trumpets, an air horn used from the 1920s to the early 1990s, alarm bells, and an old portable radio are all on display. A potbellied wood stove, used by volunteers to keep warm during cold winter nights while waiting for the call, is tucked away in a corner. A replica of a drying tower for linen hoses, which needed to be hung to dry to avoid rot, is on the second floor.

Mr. Horn has something to say about each item in the museum. He jokingly asked if a visitor knew what they did with a shiny silver foreman's trumpet, awarded to a Gazelle Company member in 1853. "They yelled at you!"

What he called a "true" 1876 centennial American flag hangs on a museum wall. It was donated by a onetime fire chief, but Mr. Horn wouldn't reveal who. "He never told me where he got it, because he probably shouldn't have gotten it!"

The museum gets 3,000 to 5,000 visitors a summer, ranging from out-of-town groups on bus tours to children whose parents bring them in on rainy days to watch fire prevention videos. Those under 10 years old are admitted free; admission for older children costs 50 cents. Adults are charged $1.

Whatever the age of the visitors, Mr. Horn said he enjoys taking them back into Sag Harbor's past.

What item he likes to show off the most is debatable. But if you ask him to show you the antique toy fire truck collection, which includes a few he played with as a child, you're sure to get a smile and a good story from the former chief.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy issued a fire warning on Monday for all parks and public lands within Suffolk County. With hardly any rain on the East End in August and only 1.3 inches in July, conditions are similar to those that preceded the catastrophic Pine Barrens brushfire 10 years ago.

It was in 1995 that 6,000 acres of the Pine Barrens burned. It took firefighters from all over Suffolk and Nassau Counties almost two weeks to put out the fire. The barrens comprises 102,000 acres covering portions of Brookhaven, Riverhead, and Southampton Towns.

Similar events have occurred on the South Fork. In 1986, a brushfire in Montauk burned 2,500 acres in Hither Woods.

"We are on a heightened state of alert," said George Gorman, director of operations for New York State Parks on Long Island, a division of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. "My understanding is that Montauk is one of the driest areas on Long Island right now," he said.

As of Tuesday night, his office had yet to close any of the Montauk parks, although it will do so if the "dryness alert" continues, Mr. Gorman said. The Parks Department has increased patrols, put up fire prevention signs, and posted warnings notifying campers that campfires are prohibited in Hither Hills.

Charles Grimes, chief of the Montauk Fire Department, said that most brushfires in Montauk are caused by burning cigarettes, and Mr. Levy has cautioned people not to throw cigarettes on the ground or out of car windows.

Two Montauk brushfires this spring were caused by smoke bombs, Chief Grimes said. He added that smoke bombs once topped the list of fire hazards, along with lighted cigarettes, but the department has been discouraging Montauk businesses from selling them.

The chief advised that bonfires be built far from dunes and beach grass, and said that they should be doused with water and covered with sand or dirt before the site is abandoned.

Those who build campfires, particularly in wooded areas, should take extreme care, Chief Grimes said. Only fires in approved containers - metal barrels used for grilling, for example - are allowed in Suffolk County parks, according to Mr. Levy.

Daniel Lester, chief of the Amagansett Fire Department, said that still-burning or smoldering charcoals should not be placed on the ground until they have been extinguished with water. Chief Lester reported that there have been just two small brushfires in Amagansett this summer, both of which were quickly extinguished.

"Carelessness is the real problem," Chief Grimes said. He advised exercising caution whether building fires or using matches, lighters, sparklers, or anything else that can ignite a fire.

Judy Jakobsen of the Central Pine Barrens Wildfire Task Force said that "fire danger" ratings - low, moderate, high, very high, and extreme - are based on weather forecasts and the measure of moisture in grass, twigs, sticks, and other "fuels" on the ground.

The fire danger rating in the Pine Barrens is now "high," she said.

The Eastern Long Island Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and more than a dozen others representing the Huntington Crossway neighborhood in Bridgehampton, held a press conference Tuesday morning on the steps of Southampton Town Hall to criticize the methods used to arrest and prosecute street-level drug dealers.

Those who spoke repeatedly said they approved of the yearlong attempt by the Town Police Department's street-crime unit and other agencies to rid the neighborhood of drug dealers.

However, during the conference and in telephone interviews, the group had three complaints: that police strong-armed the families of suspected dealers, that prosecutors aimed for long prison terms and denied those arrested - some of whom were teenagers - any chance at rehabilitation, and that neither complaint would be the case in a white neighborhood.

"Terrorized"

"Children and adults are being terrorized in their homes. We object to these late night and predawn drug raids . . . so reminiscent of the Klan night riders," Lucius Ware, president of the local N.A.A.C.P., told reporters from three newspapers, a radio station, and two television stations.

He and others charged that the police and prosecutors had become overzealous recently. Henry Lee Hodge, who lives on the Sag Harbor Turnpike and is the youth director of the Bridgehampton Child Care Center, recalled that two years ago Capt. Anthony Tenaglia of the town force had attended a community meeting to answer complaints from residents about too few patrols.

This had been followed by a series of sweeps that has netted some 100 arrests in Southampton Town since October of 1996.

Early Morning Question

Now, residents want the early morning house raids to stop and police to limit their surveillance and arrests to the streets where dealers are known to hang out and where some have been videotaped selling to undercover officers, Mr. Hodge told The Star last week.

Captain Tenaglia, reached Tuesday afternoon, called the press conference a case of "grandstanding."

"If the intent is to air concerns and have them addressed, then they should have come first to this department. . . . Our only purpose is to rid neighborhoods, not just in Bridgehampton, but all over town, of drug dealers. We make no distinction as to skin color," he said.

In telephone interviews, residents said police had raided houses on Hampton Court, the Turnpike, and Huntington Crossway looking for suspects who live elsewhere.

Wrong Man

"These houses have small kids living there. What if someone makes a wrong move and someone gets shot? It could end up being a child," Mr. Hodge told The Star.

William Street, Dock White, Paulette Harding, Bridgette Myrick, and other residents said at the conference that their children had been awakened during the raids by police officers shining flashlights into their bedrooms. They said the children remained frightened that police might come back.

Evelyn Harris said police came looking one morning for her son, who does not live with her, but instead took her boyfriend, Alejandor Diaz, away in handcuffs. He was released hours later, without an apology she said, after fingerprints, questioning, and a lineup revealed they had the wrong man.

Morning's Defended

"We did not violate anyone's rights," asserted Captain Tenaglia. He and Lieut. Tom Talmage, a spokesman for the state police, said that early morning arrests were safest for everyone involved, that suspects and their families were "asleep, quiet, and there's less of chance of resistance," as the captain put it.

William (Curly) Street, who has relatives who have appeared in the police news from time to time, said his house had been the target of predawn visits four times. Once, police came looking for and found his brother, but the other times left empty-handed.

"They were looking for my nephew. He visits his mother here sometimes, but he hasn't lived here in 10 years or more," said Mr. Street. He said that he had asked to see a warrant each time and that each time police refused.

Out In Boxers

On the third occasion, he claimed, a state trooper put a gun to his face when he asked for a warrant. "I was so nervous looking down the barrel of that gun, I was shaking," he said. The fourth time, he found the telephone wires outside his house "fresh cut" after police left.

"There was 15 or 20 cops surrounding my house, banging on the windows and doors. I opened the door and said let me put some clothes on, but they said no. They made me stand out in front in my boxers," he said.

Mr. Street also said police used abusive and obscene language. "I don't have any problem with them arresting people who went the wrong way. . . . Show me a warrant and I'll cooperate. The police act any way they want but I'm not going for it anymore," he said.

No Warrants

"There's no Al Capone living in this neighborhood. You don't need 20 cops to arrest one person. And, if they've been investigating so much, why don't they know these addresses aren't any good?" Mr. Hodge said.

"I understand they're doing their jobs but they could go about it in other ways. There's no need to be ransacking people's houses and scaring small children," he added.

Police do not carry arrest warrants when they are looking for suspects, although arrest warrants allow them to search a given premises, said Captain Tenaglia. He added that none of the raids mentioned had involved search warrants. If they had, police would have been required to show them.

Captain Tenaglia and Lieut. Talmage said they had not heard any complaints from neighborhood residents before being questioned by The Star. Both agreed that the department uses the most recent address listed for a suspect in police and motor vehicle records, and that their officers follow the letter of the law when executing a warrant.

Absent from the press conference were those residents who asked police to clean up the neighborhood.

The Concerned Citizens of Huntington Crossway formed last year to address drugs in the neighborhood. Members "asked for the support of the police and community activists," said Joyce Crews, a member who is a secretary at the Bridgehampton School. Since then, she said, there has been measurable change for the better.

"It's Better"

"It used to be that we couldn't even go outside our front door without having to interact with this stuff. There's still some of it going on, but it's better and I appreciate it," she said.

Ms. Crews said she believed there were "good and bad" police, that any complaints against them should be brought to light, but that they generally were doing what needed to be done.

"The people whose houses are getting raided should clean their houses if they don't want the police there. I'm not saying my house is cleaner than anyone else's, but, if there's something in my house that shouldn't be, then the police are welcome," she said.

Poverty The Root

Those who spoke out against the raids acknowledged that police were not at the root of the problem. They say poverty is.

"These kids don't want to choose drug-dealing as a career," said Mr. Hodge, who called jobs, not prison, the answer. Sending someone to prison puts a financial burden on the entire community, added Mr. Ware.

"When these young men are taken away from the community, their families are then being supported by the general public. . . . Until we reach the time when we have recovering people in the community, rather than addicted people going to prison and addicted people returning to the community, rehabilitation is cheaper," he told The Star.

Mr. Ware said community leaders would open talks with police and intended as well to speak to the judges who approved the warrants.

On Saturday night we ate at the Three Mile Harbor Inn in East Hampton, and it provided a salutary lesson: A restaurant is only as good as its chef, and, in the musical-chairs world of East End eating, you can never be sure which chef is where.

Also, one should never have preconceived notions about a place. I had eaten at the inn a couple of times in the past and had it pegged for basic prime-rib-and-two-veg - stomach-filling but unpoetic.

So, taken by surprise, my conversation during the meal consisted of variations upon "Hey! This is really good!"

Eye-Openers

If the food was an eye-opener, so were the prices. The Star has reviewed a restaurant a week this year, and a certain resignation had set in that good entrees average between $18 and $28.

Not down at Three Mile Harbor, they don't! A roast Long Island duck in a fruit glaze, which could not have been bettered, leaves the starting gate at $14.95 and romps home an unchallenged winner.

Starters begin at the reassuring prices of $2.50 for a house salad or $1.75 for a bowl of soup, with the highest price being $8.95 for steamed clams in a white wine or tomato sauce.

Pastas range from $9.95 for a linguine marinara to $16.95 for linguine frutti di mare, entrees from $11.95 to $16.95 (though a big filet mignon may cost you a little more).

Highly recommended as a night-before-paycheck bargain is the tuna steak on a bun, with comes with french fries and cole slaw and only costs $7.95. Now these are good prices.

The Three Mile Inn is a cozy, '50s sort of place with sheet music by Nat King Cole and Perry Como on the walls. When you're in the wood-ceilinged dining room you could be just about anywhere - it certainly doesn't have a Hamptons feel.

No Glitz

There's no Hamptons glitz about the waitresses, either, who greet regulars by name and keep a motherly eye on their customers.

So, what the chef, Steven Orban, had to do when he took over was keep the home-cooking atmosphere while at the same time introducing some zing and excitement to the menu. He seems to have done very well.

The entrees come with a choice of soup or salad, and the cream of broccoli soup of the day was excellent. It makes one thoughtful. A fresh-broccoli soup can contain only so many ingredients and take only so much time to make, so why should it cost $1.75 here and so much more elsewhere?

Wings Of Fire

The shrimp cocktail was shrimp cocktail - no surprises. The salads were fresh and crisp and unpretentious. The Manhattan clam chowder was full of clams and avoided any bitterness in the broth.

The wings of fire, we were warned, were not particularly fiery on this occasion. They weren't fiery, but they were certainly delicious, and, served with celery and blue cheese, fun and kind of silly.

The entrees were beautifully served on broad-edged white plates prettily drizzled with a latticework of different sauces and finely chopped parsley. This kind of appetite-arousing touch makes a world of difference in the enjoyment of the meal, but is, particularly in the less expensive places, often neglected.

Regulars Vouch

Two members of our party are regulars at the Inn and they say the chef has a particularly good touch with fish. Certainly the salmon, which was one of an extensive list of specials on the board, was very good.

They also spoke warmly of the lamb chops and the pot roast and the turkey pot pie and the meat loaf. And, as mentioned before, the duck was terrific.

The juicy garlic-pepper pork chops were really good, without a hint of the fibrous dryness that so often sends them to the stomach floor like a plummeting Titanic.

Desserts, too, were a mix of the homey and the imaginative.

There was a strawberry gateau made with an angelfood cake that was frankly too dry and a nice creamsicle sundae, made with orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream. The tiramisu was delicately original and had obviously been prepared with care and thought.

A rumor suggests that the Three Mile Harbor Inn may close for the winter months, which would be a pity. We really need good year-round restaurants like this that don't charge an arm and a leg.

Five 18th and 19th-century houses and the Sag Harbor Methodist Church will be featured on a Sag Harbor Historical Society walking tour of Main and Madison Streets on Friday, Nov. 28. The structures are the latest Sag Harbor landmarks that have served as models for miniature replicas, a series of ornaments created by the Headley Studio in Sag Harbor annually since 1994.

Stops will be made at the Victorian Beaux-Arts-style house where F.B. Hope, a clock maker, resided in the 1860s, and four houses built and owned by Sag Harbor whaling captains: the 1790s Federal-style Sybil Douglas House; the New York townhouse-style house built by Samuel L'Hommedieu, a whaling expedition financier, for his bride; the Napier House, which has been transformed from a small 18th-century house to a Georgian mansion-style structure with a hipped roof to its current Italianate look, and the Union Street house that was owned by Jared Wade, a whaling captain and prominent 19th-century resident.

The 1835 Italianate Methodist Church will be the last stop before a reception at the Headley Studio, a co-sponsor of the tour. A raffle of the five new ornaments, which will be on display, will be held, along with a tasting of wines from Duckwalk Vineyards.

Three one-hour tours will depart from Headley Studio on Madison Street at 3, 4, or 5 p.m. Advance purchase of tickets, which cost $8.50 and are available at the studio, has been recommended.

Three weeks after the Suffolk County Health Department served East Hampton Village with a violation for operating a bathing beach at Two Mile Hollow Road without a permit, the future of the beach continued to be debated at a village board meeting on Friday.

Several regular beachgoers objected to the village's plan to build a bathroom and station lifeguards at Two Mile Hollow, while others said the changes were long overdue.

"We feel it will ruin the culture of the beach," said Annette Kunin, a town resident who has been going to Two Mile Hollow for 30 years. She wondered why the Health Department had singled out Two Mile Hollow and seemed unconcerned with the lack of facilities or protection at Wiborg's Beach. "This seems like retaliatory, discriminatory action based on what happened two years ago," Ms. Kunin said.

In 2003, some Two Mile Hollow neighbors calling themselves the Further Lane Association began to complain to police and the Health Department about problems at the beach. They hired private investigators to patrol the beach, which has long been popular with the gay community, and to videotape evidence of public urination, public sex, littering, and trespassing on the dunes.

Police stepped up patrols and in one night charged a number of people with public lewdness and disorderly conduct. There was an outcry from the gay community and a number of public meetings on the issue, but since then there has been little conflict over the beach until recently.

Early this month, the Health Department told the village that it would take legal action if it did not actively and regularly enforce its no bathing policy and immediately install bathrooms at the beach.

The department claims its concern is triggered partly by the fact that there are so many parking spaces at Two Mile Hollow. "When you have a 200-car parking lot and hundreds of people on the beach and dozens of people in the water . . . people are using it, and they're entitled to protection," Martin Trent, acting chief of the department's office of ecology, said last week. To qualify for a bathing beach permit, a beach needs lifeguards and bathrooms.

Mr. Trent said that Wiborg's Beach, which has neither lifeguards nor bathrooms, is considered mainly a surfers' beach, so is exempt from those state sanitary code rules.

"How many people drowned at Two Mile Hollow?" asked Ginny Hennenberg, another longtime beachgoer. "I would like to see the facts that back up the claims. I, too, think this is retaliatory action."

She and others opposed to lifeguards at the beach suggested that complaints be filed against Wiborg's Beach for not having bathrooms or a lifeguard. "We want to be consistent."

Michael Rosenbaum, who lives near the beach with his family, disagreed. "I find it ironic that some people feel they ng protection. I would ask why we have been discriminated against for so long by not having a lifeguard and a bathroom." If the village waits until someone drowns before putting a lifeguard on the beach, "we'd hang our heads," Mr. Rosenbaum said.

Dolores Danzig, who lives on Further Lane, said bathrooms and lifeguards are a good idea, but wondered what the village would do about the potential for more traffic and more people at the beach.

"I think there are a lot of us on Further Lane that don't necessarily agree with everything the Further Lane Association has proposed," Douglas Danzig said. He urged the board "not to change the character and nature of the beach from what it has been for 30 years. . . . You have the ability almost on any weekend to drive in and find a parking spot there."

Without bathrooms, "it literally smells like a urinal there," Mr. Rosenbaum said.

"Why is it I'm sitting here feeling like Two Mile Hollow is being offered up as the sacrificial lamb?" Ms. Kunin asked.

"Unfortunately, the board of trustees has been put in a very unique situation," Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said.

"The Health Department has said to the village, you have two options - run this as a public bathing beach, install a bathroom, and provide lifeguards," said Larry Cantwell, the village administrator. "The other option is essentially shut the beach down, prohibit people from bathing there, and enforce that prohibition. Those are really the two choices that are currently visible to the village."

"The Village of East Hampton, rightly or wrongly, has been taken to task by the board of health," Mr. Rickenbach said. "You pick your battles. There's a time when you litigate and a time when you sit down and try to do the best for all involved."

While the village had already complied with some conditions contained in a consent order from the Health Department, the mayor had not signed that consent order.

"Although the charges relate specifically to Two Mile Hollow, the order provides that the village enforce the no bathing policy on all nonbathing beaches," the village's attorney, Linda Riley, told the board. "The village can sign or proceed to a hearing. If the hearing goes against you there could be civil penalties and fines of $2,000 a day."

The village board passed a resolution on Friday authorizing the mayor to sign the consent order.

"I support the idea of having a facility down there," Edwin L. Sherrill Jr., a board member, said, "This time they really mean business. I understand the people like to go there and see kind of a natural beach, but the whole climate has changed."

Barbara Borsack, another board member, said she would hate to have to provide lifeguards and bathrooms at Wiborg's and Old Beach Lane "because the tax implications are huge and they're going to have to be reflected in the cost of beach stickers at some point."

Also at Friday's meeting, the board formally rescinded a 25-mile-per-hour, villagewide speed limit. The speed limit was changed earlier this summer before the board realized that such blanket changes are not allowed by the state when the speed limit is to be reduced to under 30 miles per hour.

The village also gave commendations to Rebecca Mikan and Vincent Tuths, teenagers who work for the Maidstone Club and came to the aid of a woman who was being assaulted on the beach near the club on June 28. They were recognized for their "judgment and character." The assailant, who was tied to similar attacks in the village and in Southampton, was arrested that day.

Hands, in every imaginable interpretation, are the subject of an exhibit of photographs that opens this weekend at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton.

"Collection in Context: Selected Contemporary Photographs of Hands From the Collection of Henry Mendelssohn Buhl" will open on Saturday and run through Jan. 4.

The photographs, dating from 1947 to 1995, are by 67 artists, including such masters as Richard Avedon, Judy Dater, William Eggleston, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Annie Liebovitz, Sally Mann, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, and Cindy Sherman.

Contemporary Spirit

According to the show's curator, Marianne Courville, "In 'Collection in Context,' the image of the hand reflects the spirit of contemporary photographic art, a spirit defined by disparity and integration among an expanding range of styles from the traditional, with its sense of formal training and documentary concerns, to the conceptual, in which photographic techniques are used to challenge the veracity of conventional representation."

There are famous hands - Mick Jagger, Leon Golub, Picasso - and the tragic hands of murder victims and hookers. There are hands rolling cigars, hands plucking chickens, hands blessing, and hands damning. And perhaps the most chilling image is Gilles Peress's photo of a Bosnian child, a casualty of war, who has no hands.

Mr. Buhl, the collector, will join Ms. Courville for a discussion of the photographs on Saturday at 5 p.m. The talk will focus on Mr. Buhl's motivations and interests as a collector and Ms. Courville will discuss the collection's content and historical significance. A reception will follow from 6 to 8 p.m.

When the Fortuna II miraculously righted herself, all that was left on deck was Rich Voorhees, the youngest and most recent addition to the crew. Everything and everybody else had gone overboard in the split second it took a freak wave to break and stand the 50-foot longline fishing vessel on its port beam more than 100 miles at sea on Friday.

At the Deep Water Seafood docks in Montauk on Monday the three-man crew of the Fortuna gathered again on deck before packing out the catch from their rudely interrupted trip. Capt. Richard Wright and Frank Guire, a deckhand, unabashedly indulged in hero worship before the third member of their crew, Mr. Voorhees, the hero himself.

Winter Weather

They had already thanked him from the bottom of their hearts many times, and over a few drinks - "sea breezes," said the captain with a look and smile that communicated the appropriateness of the vodka and cranberry mixture. The look also said that the word "breeze" didn't do justice to what the Fortuna was out in on Friday.

The boat is based in Northport but has fished out of Montauk for several years during tuna and swordfish season. Captain Wright has been in the habit of taking her south when the weather turns cold and when the migratory species he fishes for head south too. It's around this time of year that the weather can fool.

The Fortuna is not large for offshore fishing when the winter storms arrive. And they have arrived: Two weeks before, she was caught offshore in 70-knot winds that built seas large enough to break six of the boat's wooden ribs.

Last week's trip was the first after the boat underwent repairs at the Montauk Marine Basin. The National Weather Service had called for the storm, but Captain Wright thought the severest weather would be inshore of where they would be fishing in Atlantis Canyon.

Pulling In Line

The boat had left Montauk the previous Monday, Nov. 10. Early Friday morning, the crew was retrieving a section of 20-mile-long line which was buoyed at intervals with round plastic balls called dobs. They were midway through the trawl.

Captain Wright and Mr. Guire were at the hydraulic hauler that pulls gear and fish back to the boat. Mr. Voorhees was aft of them, rebaiting the hooks and attaching the dobs so the line could be set back into the sea to fish again. The first two men were on the port side of the boat and facing away from it. Mr. Voorhees was at the stern.

"We were heading down sea," Mr. Voorhees said, but angled slightly so the waves were passing diagonally under the boat, lifting the aft-starboard quarter first.

"Hold On!"

The ocean was white with breaking waves and spray - a force nine day, according to the Beaufort Scale of marine weather conditions.

"We were about halfway up a wave when the top broke. That's what pushed us over. I shouted, 'Hold on,' Mr. Voorhees said.

Neither crewman heard him. "I'm part deaf anyway, and I had the hood of my oilers up," said the captain. "I fully expected to see the boat overturned when I came to the surface.

"The green stick was in the water," he said, referring to the long pole used by boats under way for rigging trolling gear. It stands perpendicular to the deck of an upright boat, but was lying flat in the water before the Fortuna rallied. Stacks of boxes with their supply of hooks and the short "snoods" or leaders that attach them to the longline went overboard, as did all the butcher knives, gaffs, gloves, and paraphernalia that make up the deck of a fishing boat.

Mr. Guire was also in the water, caught up in one of the hook boxes and struggling to cut himself free. Both he and the captain were wearing layers of winter gear and heavy boots. "After the boat righted," Mr. Voorhees said, "I ran to the wheel and put it into reverse and let the boat drift down on Richard. He was 15 yards away. I lifted him in." The boat has a low freeboard with a gap in the bulkhead through which fish are hauled aboard. This time it received the captain.

But Mr. Guire, the deckhand, was 25 yards away and still drifting. Mr. Voorhees said that when the wave hit he was in the process of attaching a dob to the line, but let go to hang on to the three-foot-long, stainless steel rod with an eye on top that guides the longline when it pays off the stern.

Dropped The Dob

It was this handhold that probably saved Mr. Voorhees's life. It was the dob he dropped that probably saved the life of his fellow deckhand. Mr. Guire was able to grab it and stay afloat.

"It was like the Lord was pushing it right toward him," said Mr. Voorhees. "Without question it makes you believe - yes," he added. "I threw him a line, but he was so weak he couldn't grab it."

Neither could he fend off the Fortuna when she got within reach. He was being dragged under the boat. "I was trying to stay afloat with my boots on," said Mr. Guire. I was looking up at Rich from under water. I said, 'Don't let me go, please don't let me go.' "

Mr. Voorhees was able to pull his fellow crewman aboard. "He knew just what to do," Mr. Guire said on Monday. "If it hadn't been for his strength, I wouldn't have . . ." he said, unable to finish the sentence he didn't need to.

"There was nobody left on board but him," Mr. Guire repeated, as though awestruck at the thought that everyone might have gone over. The engine had been in gear.

"I lay on the deck for an hour puking water," he said. After recovering, he said, he joined the others in bringing in the rest of Fortuna's gear which had been set earlier. It took 13 hours. Mr. Guire said he worked with two dobs tied to him.

No More

"That ended my fishing career," he said on Monday with a wan smile. He said he planned to go back to making a living as a steel worker. "I did that for 15 years, worked on the convention center, and four high rises. If you go, at least it's fast," he reasoned. He'd been with the Fortuna off and on for two years. It was his rescuer's third trip offshore.

Captain Wright said that as soon as the Fortuna II off-loaded its albacore tuna and swordfish, he would prepare to head south.

The three fishermen stood on the deck that had been at right angles to the sea far from shore less than two days before. They laughed nervously. They talked about time, about how it all had happened so fast. The entire drama, from near broach to Mr. Guire's rescue, lasted no more than 10 minutes, they said.

"At least it had a happy ending," said the captain. All nodded in agreement, but written on their faces, between the smiles, was the knowledge that the story might never have been told.

Then And Now

East Hampton

November 16, 1997

Dear Helen:

Patsy Southgate is right that today's sitcoms have changed our view of young people's lives, although I often wonder if Seinfeld et al. are mirroring what's happening or making up a model for the young in the suburbs to follow when they move to the city.

However, the fact that so much is different is one of the reasons "Barefoot in the Park" is fun to see. Rather than deja vu (as in "So what else is new?") it is a comic view of the way we were before Kennedy's assassination, the march on Washington, antiwar demonstrations, the rise of feminism - all the things that have changed the world so drastically. "Barefoot" is a window on a giddy, simpler past.

The set is very like the rooms pictured in women's magazines in 1963. The drapes, screens, and paintings may be a bit much, but you could make wonderful finds in the trash at curbside in those days. A friend of mine once found a bentwood rocker in perfect condition.

Foreign food was still regarded with suspicion. Ideas of dressing for company were more formal. Drinking habits were not like now.

Girls were still afraid of their mothers' opinions. Part of the celebrated romance of Manhattan was finding an affordable apartment with a fabulous feature, never mind the inconveniences. The view through the skylight here is certainly fabulous.

I never knew anyone who wanted to walk barefoot in the park, but did know people who went to Central Park to make angels in the snow. The carefree, lighthearted approach was admired. Drugs had not yet tainted the scene.

You weren't afraid to park your car on the street (although you could rarely find a space close by), and a trip to another borough for dinner wasn't out of the question.

What about now? Well, walkups still exist wherever a brownstone has become apartments, and people still laugh at anyone who would live six flights up, but some do and for much higher rent. Being inventive with bizarre living spaces is still the name of the game.

Today few people in their 50s feel old or out of it.

Dueling among newlyweds is probably different because expectations have matured, living together in advance is common, and therapists are around to run to. (Therapists are never mentioned in this play.)

Your own sensations of recognition enhance the viewing of "Barefoot," but just the pleasure of seeing an attractive cast perform a funny play with panache - and they do - is a fine reward.

MILDRED GRANITZ

On Sacrifice

East Hampton

November 11, 1997

Dear Mrs. Rattray,

Yesterday, Monday, Nov. 10, 1997, I visited Robert Keene in his small office on South Main Street, Southampton. I hadn't seen him since he closed his bookstore on Hampton Road. He is the Southampton Town historian. He remembered me after I jarred his memory a little. We talked of many things as two old men are wont to do. He is 80 years old and I am 74 years old. He spoke of Miss Dorothy King of the East Hampton Library.

Today being Veterans Day and with people arguing over the value of one vote, I am thinking of my two brothers, Willard Norton Jr., a marine in World War II, and Gerald Norton, an army private in World War II. Also Wilmot Petty, a friend of mine and a marine who died in the Pacific on his second tour, and Robert Hudson, an army medic who died in Europe. They in effect died that I might live. If Nazism had triumphed I would be dead because I am both mentally and physically impaired.

By "one vote," Adolf Hitler took over the Nazi party in 1923, the year I was born. Who knows, maybe he would have faded from the scene if he had lost. But he didn't, and millions died that we might live. Those who lament that life isn't fair are usually those who have never sacrificed too much. To give your life that others might live - that's sacrifice.

Sincerely,

DONALD NORTON

Poor Bird

New York City

November 1, 1997

To Whom . . .

I am writing to you about a problem, and I hope you can help.

I visit my niece in East Hampton often (she teaches school there), and I find my enjoyment of your beautiful town is muddied by a lovely, huddled swan in the pond.

I will contribute $100 to bring a companion to the poor bird, and I'll do whatever is needed to support this cause.

All creatures need us to make their lives just a little bit better.

Thank you,

KATE C. BUTLAR

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