"I have a really bad mouth," chuckled Nancy Atlas over a plate of calamari one sunny afternoon last week. Taking a set break from her performance at Sharkey's on Napeague, the singer-songwriter mused about having to tone down her lyrics at such family-oriented places.

That might mean substituting "stuff" for its more familiar four-letter synonym, she said, or maybe mumbling a bit on a line like "lovers make me feel betrayed so I'm gonna give up love and just get laid."

Ms. Atlas can't help it. Her honest, straight-from-the-hip approach to songwriting lends itself to such frankness. The 26-year-old has been turning that approach into a solid body of stylized songs, and in the process has emerged as the newest star on the music circuit here.

Cultivating Confidence

With two record companies interested in her tape and a local following eager to spread the word, Nancy Atlas might be a name worth keeping in the back of your head. If there is anyone thoroughly convinced she has a shot breaking into the forbidding record business, it's the songwriter herself. Many of those who have seen her perform at Amagansett's Stephen Talkhouse or elsewhere share her confidence.

The Talkhouse has become a home base of sorts for Ms. Atlas. The club's coffeehouse-style "acoustic Mondays" have featured her and a number of aspiring songwriters for the past year, providing a valuable venue and exposure.

"The Talkhouse has been so awesome for me," said Ms. Atlas. "There are a lot of talented people out here, and Gene [Hamilton, the organizer of the acoustic showcase] has really opened up a credible venue for them. A lot of people pooh-pooh the open-mike thing, but it's really valuable."

Eludes Stereotypes

Ms. Atlas is clearly at the head of the class in the weekly showcase, and her powerful material has been called upon for more important appearances. The blond-haired performer has served as an opening act this summer for Richie Havens, Patti Larkin, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Mary Black - all formidable songwriters themselves. She has also performed in New Orleans and New York, including at the hot music club of the moment, the Mercury Lounge.

Part of Ms. Atlas's appeal - other than her attractive and easygoing stage presence - is her ability to elude stereotypes. She can play the fragile and introspective folk singer as easily as the swaggering rock-and-roller, but on stage she seems perfectly in the middle. Her songwriting displays the same versatility, a quality Ms. Atlas knows is important.

"There's a definite system to writing," she said. "You know there are going to be those hook songs that everyone's going to hum. Then there are those cerebral songs where you reveal your darkest secrets."

Travels Abroad

Some of the wisdom that Ms. Atlas draws from may have come from her years studying and traveling abroad. Having grown up in Commack, a "classic overachiever," Ms. Atlas decided after high school to do something different.

"I didn't think football games and frat parties were my speed," she said. Deciding to study abroad, she was accepted to Cambridge University in England. After only a semester, however, she found it too constricted and she went to study at the independent Richmond International College.

Through Richmond, Ms. Atlas took a year of study in Florence, where she studied painting and art history. During her time abroad, she also traveled more, visiting Morocco, Egypt, and other countries.

First Guitar

Though painting was, and still is, a love, it wasn't her calling. "I was one of those people. I was doing the best I could do. I had to choose something, and it wasn't field hockey," she said.

It wasn't until her last semester back at Richmond in London that she decided to pick up a guitar. "I've been musically inclined since I can remember," she explained. She had played viola for seven years in school and used that to teach herself piano. Songwriting had also been a high school hobby.

Yet it didn't all come together until Ms. Atlas bought her first guitar (yes, second-hand) at a shop on London's Portobello Road.

Self-Taught Singer

"I had always wanted to play guitar, and this was a rite of passage for me," she said. "I thought, I don't know where I'm going after this or what I'm doing. I don't know if I'm going to be washing dishes somewhere in France." So she taught herself guitar at 21, and began to put her long-simmering songwriting ideas into practice.

Though she never thought of being a singer (a "closet bathroom type" at best), "the more I sang the more people seemed to enjoy it," she said.

There's a lot to like in Ms. Atlas's voice. Complementing the range of her music, her voice moves easily between a gentle, melodic croon and a sexy rasp evoking Janis Joplin and Joan Osborne. All of it is pulled together by a breathiness that swirls around her lyrics and gives them added emotion. Like her guitar playing, her singing is self-taught.

By the time the songwriter returned to the States in 1992, she had abandoned painting for her new calling. "Painting, I love it, but it was never from the belly," she said. That same year she met a producer, who saw her potential but had different ideas for what to do with it. Although it never panned out, Ms. Atlas said she learned a good deal about the record business by working with him most important, not to lose your integrity.

"That's what happened with the producer I was working with," she recalled. "He wanted to make me into a disco girl. I said, 'You know what, let Janet Jackson be Janet Jackson.' "

Still Herself

Though she is still bent on being discovered, it won't happen by simply imitating what's popular in pop music today, she said.

"You write good music and do the best you can," she explained. "You can't go changing yourself every minute just to fill a niche. I'm not like 'Oh, Jewel is out now, maybe I should get more acoustic.' "

Jewel, incidentally, is a 24-year-old songwriter who was virtually unknown until she broke through this year to become one of the top female performers in the industry. Two years ago, she played at the Pike in Bridgehampton to a crowd of about a dozen. It only takes a listen to the radio these days to know the market is ripe for female performers.

Conflict Inside

That doesn't make getting heard by the record companies any easier. Yet Ms. Atlas has managed to interest two companies - Capitol and Arista Records - in her work. "I have a tape in and it's being listened to," she said, noting that that alone is an accomplishment. Representatives from Arista attended a recent performance at the Mercury Lounge, "and they loved it," she said.

As with any artist with ambition, there is a tug between Ms. Atlas the artist and Ms. Atlas the businesswoman. "I think it's important to have fun with it," she said. "It's important to take your writing seriously, but not yourself." That's not hard for Ms. Atlas, who considers it a prerequisite for a performing songwriter to be "half artist, half ham."

"You'd better have a tough skin and you'd better enjoy the ride, because it's a tough business," she said.

Atlas Donned

The songwriter is serious enough about her career to have adopted a stage name. Nancy Veprek, her real name, sounded a bit too common, she said. "Primarily, it was because people had trouble remembering my name."

Atlas arose partly from the songwriter's favorite book, Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Then, when she was watching the film "12 Monkeys" and saw "Atlas Productions" flash across the screen, that sewed it up. She tried the Nancy Atlas out for a set of gigs in New Orleans and it seemed to click.

Stage name or not, Ms. Atlas's music itself is memorable enough. She said she can spend a good three months on a song before feeling comfortable with it, and that attention shows in the careful phrasing of the lyrics and the epic feel of the music. Her songs seem easily adaptable to both the alternative-rock and folk genres - just put a band behind her and kick away the stool and Ms. Atlas can turn from soloist to frontwoman.

Confidence And Comfort

The best example of her versatility is in her would-be hit "Believe in Me." Melodic and pop-laced with a band behind it and melancholy with just a guitar, it describes a woman searching for lost confidence in another:

"Well, people say I've lost my cool/Others think that I'm just crazy/They think I've lost my mind/Yeah, well I know where I'm coming from/Insecurity's made my mouth into a pointed gun, cocked back by you."

"My songs are a lot about relationships and human experience in general," she said. "A lot of songs I'll write from watching my friends in turmoil."

In her more contemplative "Cold Comfort," she looks at those who can't find satisfaction in or out of love:

"I crossed my legs as it crossed my mind that I'm just fine even if I'm going nowhere/'cause love leaves me too much anger/love leaves me empty hangers/slammin' on the door as I leave again because/comfort keeps me and comfort kills me in the end."

Chucked Shucking

Ms. Atlas also tackles lighter subjects, such as her days dancing on bartops and losing her car keys, and, in "American Girl," vignettes from her traveling experiences: "Sticky sweet in the Spanish heat . . . the lights felt like paparazzi and the music felt like some Moroccan drug."

Living on Lazy Point, Ms. Atlas worked for several years as the manager of the Clam Bar on Napeague - a job that helped earn her the tenuous title of East Hampton's fastest clam shucker, "a title I'll gladly relinquish this year, because the only thing I want my hands being cut by these days are my guitar strings!"

Now, living with her boyfriend, Paul Hodges, in Southampton, she devotes her time solely to performing and writing, recording her material with the help of a small home studio.

"I'm never going to quit, because that's what I'm set on doing," she said. "In life, if you're lucky enough to find your calling, you have to follow it."

Getting up and to prepare for her next set at Sharkey's, she smiled. "I'm ready, I'm just waiting for Mr. Luck!"

"It's watermelon martini season again," was the gleeful reminder of summer on a postcard that the TriBeCa restaurant NosMoking used to mail to customers. Under this inscription the staff lolled on the restaurant's sidewalk, all puffing merrily on a variety of hookahs and other obsolete smoking implements.

Admiring its sheer looniness, I kept the card pinned on a corkboard to lighten up the workday. But never once did it occur to me to actually try a watermelon martini, or even contemplate its possibility.

Then last weekend, up in the far reaches of Columbia County, I was offered one. What a great idea for the Glorious Fourth, but perhaps one is enough - you don't want to miss the fireworks.

Forget Clambakes

Finding the fireworks dates for each of the South Fork towns can involve heavy sleuthing, since they are spread out over the long holiday. Vantage points should be scoped out well in advance, and if you're planning a pre-fireworks picnic or barbecue on a public beach, permissions are sometimes required.

(In the dear old days when 20 people constituted a Fourth of July crowd on the Amagansett main beach, we had bonfire cookouts, no permits or parking stickers necessary, and the only dress requirement was a sweater against the night fog that usually rolled in just in time to obscure the fireworks.)

Unless they have been an Independence Day custom for most of your life, an authentic clambake, replete with four-foot pit, stones, seaweed, and tarpaulin, should most likely be left to a hired professional. Four people who know what they're doing can usually get a full-dress clambake together in about half a day . . . with luck.

Hot List And Cold

Whatever festive menu you choose - and there are alternatives to sandy hot dogs - it absolutely must be served out-of-doors, unless a driving northeaster makes it impossible. Outdoor dining doesn't thrill everyone, especially if it's on the beach, but this is the one holiday when it is un-American to skulk indoors (I don't think it's even possible to skulk outdoors).

So the logistics of keeping things either hot or cold can get complicated. But if you make a "hot" list and a "cold" list, and assemble a sufficient number of coolers and a lot more ice than you think you need, the Fourth of July picnic can be managed almost painlessly.

Though I read recently about all these toddlers dining at Le Bernadin or Lutece with their doting parents, I think most of the baby gourmands will be happier to picnic on hotdogs and hamburgers (made with turkey, if necessary, to quell parental fear of preschooler obesity). The grownups can go in for a few more surprising victuals and maybe even a Watermelon Martini.

After all, watermelon in some form is mandatory on the Fourth.

Mako Shark Kebobs

These can be made hours and hours in advance, refrigerated, then brought back to room temperature for about 20 minutes while the grill master is firing up the Weber. Soak strong wood skewers in water for at least 30 minutes before threading on their ingredients, even if they are to be made ahead. Of course, you may substitute metal skewers; however, I find that most foods slide around on them after they're half-cooked.

Makes 20 kebobs.

3 lbs. mako shark

20 slices green zucchini, 1 inch thick

20 baby onions (pearl, or fat scallions)

20 mushroom caps, about 11/2-inch diameter

20 11/2-inch squares red bell pepper

Coarse salt

Marinade:

Juice of two lemons

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. minced garlic

Splash of hot sauce (e.g., green jalapeno sauce)

Tarragon Butter:

1/4 lb. unsalted butter

2 Tbsp. fresh tarragon leaves, chopped

1 tsp. coarse salt

1 tsp. freshly milled white pepper

Remove the skin and any dark flesh from the mako, then cut it in 11/2-inch cubes. You should have about 60 pieces. Saute the onions until half-cooked. Thread the shark on the skewers, beginning and ending with mako, the vegetables and one piece of shark in between, so that each skewer offers three pieces of mako. Lay the skewers flat in a shallow pan and drizzle the marinade over them. Let stand for 20 minutes, then salt lightly just before grilling.

Grease your grill generously with solid shortening (even if it claims to be non-stick, fish will stick to it) and grill the skewer over very hot coals or ceramic bricks for about five minutes on each side.

Arrange the skewers on a heated platter and brush with melted tarragon butter. Serve them with good, crusty peasant bread to mop up the juices.

Pork Tenderloin, Grilled Or Rotisseried

The long, thin muscle that makes up the filet mignon of a pig is ideal for grilling as it is extremely tender and cooks lightning fast. They are generally found in supermarkets packed two to a Cryopak. Since it's sort of upscale soul food, I like to serve it with a black-eyed pea salad.

Serves 10.

4 pork tenderloins (two packages)

Marinade:

1/4 cup lime juice

1/2 cup orange juice

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. red pepper flakes, pulverized

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Rinse and trim the tenderloins if necessary (it usually isn't). Pat them dry and roll them in the marinade; cover and refrigerate

overnight or at least six hours. Bring to room temperature, then thread them onto rotisserie skewers in a long curving shape and tie them on with soaked string. The string will burn off in the cooking. Alternatively, the fillets may be laid on a well-greased grill and cooked over hot coals, turning the pieces frequently to brown on all sides, for about five minutes. Brush with marinade while the cooking progresses in either mode.

When the meat is done, lay it on a carving board and cut in one-inch-thick diagonal slices. Arrange on a platter and pour the accumulated juices on top. Boil up the marinade and add some of that to sauce the pork tenderloin.

Black-Eyed Pea Salad

Fresh black-eyed peas are simply not available unless you live on a Southern farm. But the frozen ones are very good indeed, and for salad I prefer them to the dried peas, which tend to get mushy and unattractive if they are sufficiently cooked. Crunchy, an adjective beloved in our country, is not the objective when cooking dried legumes, which, when underdone, are both highly indigestible and unpleasantly crumbly on the palate. Fresh black-eyed peas develop great flavor and hold their shape admirably after about 40 minutes simmering with aromatics. Pay no attention to the package directions.

Serves 10.

3 packages frozen "fresh" black-eyed peas

Salt and red pepper flakes to taste

Small bunch fresh thyme, stems tied together

1 bay leaf

1 red Italian onion/to make 1 cup, chopped coarsely

1/4 lb. fresh sugar snap peas, blanched

Vinaigrette:

1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

1 tsp. prepared mustard

1 tsp. salt (sea salt for preference)

1 tsp. Balsamic vinegar

5 Tbsp. extra-virgin cold-pressed olive oil

Fresh coarsely milled black pepper to taste

Garnish:

2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley or cilantro

Put the frozen peas in a saucepan with enough water to cover and add a little salt. Bring to a boil. Add the red pepper, bay leaf, and thyme. Cook, loosely covered, about 40 minutes, or until tender but still shapely. Drain and discard the bay leaf and thyme. Blanch and cool the sugar snap peas. Set aside while you make the vinaigrette. Whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients until well emulsified. Add the red onion and sugar snap peas to the lukewarm black-eyed peas and mix with the vinaigrette.

This can sit at room temperature for some time without spoiling so it's best not to refrigerate it. Just before serving, turn the pea salad onto a Romaine-lined platter and sprinkle on the parsley or cilantro. (For an added Southern touch, ring the salad with spicy deviled egg halves, without which no real Fourth of July picnic is quite complete.)

Watermelon is the perfect dessert for this occasion. Daintier folk may prefer a watermelon sorbet, which is also one of the world's easiest desserts to make, either in an ice cream machine or frozen in a bowl and whipped. But be warned, watermelon sorbets melt almost instantly so aren't a good candidate for outdoor eating.

After seven consecutive Back at the Ranch concerts, an event that has raised millions for charity, Gardner (Rusty) Leaver, the organizer, announced last week that there would be no 1997 edition. Mr. Leaver, an owner of the Indian Field Ranch in Montauk where the concerts were held, said he had canceled the concert because of a shortage of big-name performers and a shortfall in the proceeds from last year's concert.

There had been rumors that Bob Dylan and Tracy Chapman were being recruited to perform this year. And, Mr. Leaver had said last year that Paul Simon, a Montauk resident and creator of the concert series who performed at it for its first six years, would return this summer. None of that was to be.

"I'm not going to go through the motions just to have a concert. I've always wanted the show to be impeccable musically, and, frankly, this is a weak year for touring," said Mr. Leaver.

Not This Year

Big-name acts on a par with Mr. Simon, such as the Allman Brothers, Jimmy Buffett, James Taylor, the Highwaymen, Don Henley, The Cars, Foreigner, and Billy Joel, all of whom have starred at past concerts, either were not touring or already were booked, he said. James Taylor is, in fact, coming to the South Fork to headline Southampton College's All for the Sea concert on July 28.

Mr. Leaver said the decision had more to do with needing to regroup after last year's concert, which featured James Brown, Ray Charles, and a dance performance by Savion Glover, star of the Broadway show "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk."

The event hit two major potholes. It drew a crowd of 5,000, roughly half the size of the previous year, and, while it was a critical success, it was not a financial one, said Mr. Leaver.

Withdrawals

Aretha Franklin was to be the headliner, but she backed out with three weeks to go, sending ticket sales into a tailspin. Then, the Retreat, which runs a shelter for battered women here and was to have been one of eight local beneficiaries of the proceeds, denounced Mr. Brown's participation and declined any donation. Mr. Brown has been arrested several times on charges he assaulted his wife, who later died of a drug overdose.

To make matters worse, there were grumblings among some of the concert's beneficiaries that its operating expenses had gotten out of hand.

The year before, the Nature Conservancy announced it would no longer participate, withdrawing from the concert the ability to operate under the agency's nonprofit designation. The conservancy had been the primary beneficiary and had acted as a clearinghouse for distributing gifts to other groups. Last year, the World Wildlife Fund took over that role.

Paul's Picnic

Mr. Leaver said that the concerts had raised $2.5 million over the years for good causes.

"The best way is to do the concert the way it was founded. I think it works best when it has Paul Simon hosting it. A local resident adds the right spirit. I like to think of it as Paul's picnic. I hope he finds his way clear to come back," Mr. Leaver said.

Last season, Mr. Simon was busy with other projects, including plans for a foray onto Broadway with a musical, and this year he is said to be occupied with rehearsals for that musical, "The Cape Man." His son, Harper Simon, and his band were the 1996 opening act, though.

Billy Joel, another local resident, was a surprise performer at the first event and headlined the second alongside Mr. Simon. He has not appeared since.

Lighthouse Rescue

Jimmy Buffett also performed once at Back at the Ranch, but last summer put his talent on the stage for the All for the Sea concert, a benefit for Southampton College.

The Back at the Ranch series began eight years ago when the Montauk Historical Society's Lighthouse committee went to Mr. Leaver with an idea for raising money to keep the Lighthouse from falling into the Atlantic. Over $200,000 was raised for erosion control that first year. Since then, the concert has underwritten nearly $500,000 worth of Lighthouse buttressing.

Mr. Leaver said Monday that he was relishing just being able to work on his ranch and the county concession he has across the street, at Deep Hollow Ranch. He said the big event had been "punishing to produce," hard on him, his wife, Diane, and the ranch's employees.

Nevertheless he has already thought of possible acts for next summer.

"I'd like to get Lyle Lovett or Bonnie Raitt. Or, I've been thinking about Bob Dylan. Dylan would be good with the Wallflowers," he said, referring to the popular band whose members include Mr. Dylan's son, Jakob.

Frederic and Robin Seegal live in a place that might never be called the Seegal house. It is the "old" Simons house, which, as history buffs know, is in the Tyson compound. Also theirs, for that matter, are the Baker silversmith cottage, the Tyson studio, and the Perla Gray cottage.

The Seegals scarcely mind. It is with respect for the former owners, James and Carolyn Tyson, and their contractor, Bill Simons, and with reverence for the old houses and their architectural details that Mr. Seegal joyously guides a visitor around the oceanfront property that is now his.

In the late 1940s the Tysons bought 40 acres of potato fields off Further Lane in Amagansett. The couple had a passion for historic restoration and scouted for old houses that were being torn down. Altogether they presided over the rejuvenation and construction of six buildings, two complete restorations, and the others built from the ground up using old materials.

The most famous was the old Baker house, which dates from 1690 and still belongs to their son, David Tyson. But many consider the gem of the compound to be the circa 1940s Simons house, which the Seegals now own.

Legendary Tenants

Mrs. Tyson, an artist and poet, leased the other cottages on her secluded property, often to celebrities - Ralph Lauren, Calvin and Kelly Klein, Itzhak Perlman, Gloria Steinem, Jann Wenner. The Tyson complex became legendary.

In 1988, the Tyson heirs put the Simons house up for sale. The Seegals, eager for a larger home, fell in love with it and made an offer, but the deal slipped through their fingers.

Expecting a child, they decided to add a wing to their own residence, not an easy task. Their award-winning Chalif house, on Terbell Lane in East Hampton, had been designed in 1964 by Julian and Barbara Neski as two halves of a saltbox joined together at right angles. With the help of the Neskis they persevered. They gained a view of the ocean from an upper deck, and snuggled in.

Three In One

James Tyson named the house the "old" Simons house in honor of the builder. There is a center saltbox with a living room on the first floor and three bedrooms upstairs. An adjoining wing on one side has a kitchen and dining room, and there's a master bedroom wing on the other. There are views of the ocean from all but three rooms.

In 1991 the Baker house came back on the market and the Seegals leapt for it. "It was destiny," Robin Seegal said. "It was the only other house I ever wanted." In the following two years they purchased two adjacent parcels, a total of five acres.

The downstairs Norman-style dining room has an A-frame ceiling with hand-hewn beams, barn siding, a large wood-burning fireplace, and a Pennsylvania Dutch farm table bought from Nellie's in Amagansett. "This room is very comforting," Mrs. Seegal said. "We eat all our meals here."

Window Upon Window

The small living room has two overstuffed sofas that surround a raised cooking fireplace, and a stuffed pheasant hangs over the mantle. Seven windows face the ocean, all 15-over-15 or 8-over-8. With the low-beamed ceiling they give the appearance of running from floor to ceiling.

The master bedroom has been kept sparse: a country Chippendale dresser, bed, lamps, a Pritam and Eames rocking chair from the Seegals' former house. The room has elegant proportions: three exposures and 10 windows - all 15-over-15.

The children's quarters are upstairs. A corner room with an old painted door and four more glorious double-hung windows that face south and southwest is breathtaking. "The best sunlight in the house," Mr. Seegal said.

From Old Stuff

Following a winding old brick path, past the original "old Simons House" sign and the working well, one comes to the garage. With four double barn doors, each opening out to a post, it surely looks like an old stable moved from somewhere.

"Nope," said Bill Simons, age 91, who still lives on Miller Terrace, where he grew up. "I designed it and built it all from old stuff," he said.

"The garage was Carolyn's exhibition space," recalled Tina Fredericks, a longtime East Hampton resident and real estate broker who knew both the Tysons well.

"She had wonderful art openings, and she'd lend the studio space to other artists too. She didn't miss a beat," Mrs. Fredericks mused. "She loved to swim in the nude."

Private And Glorious

Behind the garage and also facing the beach is "the Perla Gray cottage." Mrs. Gray, an adopted niece of Mrs. Tyson's, grew up in the cottage, and now rents it from Mr. Seegal.

Farthest east on the property is the old silversmith cottage. Surrounded by grape arbors and wisteria vines, it is small, simple, private, and has glorious views. Mr. Seegal calls it the most spectacular part of the property.

"Just look up the beach," he exclaimed, pointing east over the vacant expanse of double dunes. "There's nothing for at least a mile until Amagansett Main Beach. It's so quiet here."

No Architect

The Seegals use the cottage primarily as a guest house, but they once rented it to Steven Spielberg for the editing crew of the movie "Schindler's List." "They were great tenants," Mrs. Seegal said. The couple also rented their house to Barbra Streisand for one July.

"We've made no structural changes in any of the houses - just replaced some cork tile floors with wood," Mr. Seegal said. Mrs's father founded Kentile Floors.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Tyson houses is that there was no guiding architect.

"I was the architect," Mr. Simons said. "Me and Jimmy Tyson together. I've been building houses ever since I was old enough to hold a hammer."

Rare Genius

"Bill and Jim Tyson went to wrecking companies on the North Shore and bought old doors, mantles, windows, wide boards, lots of old lumber," said Cora Simons, Mr. Simons's wife of 63 years. "Bill built Fred Seegal's house from the ground up," she said. A historian and artist, Mrs. Simons says she drew up the plans.

"Bill Simons was Jim Tyson's amanuensis," Tina Fredericks said. "He was the caretaker, the builder. He put in the gardens and built the stone wall. He did everything."

"The houses sort of grew by themselves," Mrs. Fredericks went on. "A tenant would complain that he needed another room, and so Bill would add it. And he'd do it so you'd never know it was new. He was one of those rare wonderful geniuses."

Never Give It Up

Mr. Seegal is president of the Wasserstein Perella Group. His partner, Bruce Wasserstein, also lives on Further Lane. "My career has been in advising media companies as an investment banker," Mr. Seegal said.

Last year he bought the East Hampton radio station WEHM from Michael Schulhof and Leonard Ackerman, and two weeks ago he announced that it would merge with the Amagansett station WBEA.

The Seegals commute to Amagansett with their two young daughters from Rye, N.Y., where they also live on the water. "We'd never give up this area," he said.

"We still call it the 'old' Simon house," Mrs. Seegal said. When visitors ask for directions, she said, "I first ask if they know the old Tyson compound."

"More often than not," she said, "the answer is 'yes.' "

Daniel Stern, a fiction writer who spends the summers at his house in Sag Harbor, will read at Canio's Books on Upper Main Street there on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Mr. Stern is the author of nine novels, a play, and numerous essays. His short stories have been selected for "O'Henry Prize Stories" and "Best American Short Stories," and his collection "Twice Told Tales" was given a special award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The former director of humanities at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, Mr. Stern is professor of creative writing at the University of Houston. He will read from his latest collection of short stories, "Twice Upon a Time."

Bosworth Memoir

At Book Hampton in East Hampton on Saturday at 5:30 p.m., Patricia Bosworth will read from her memoir, "Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story."

To all outward appearances, Bartley Crum - a prominent activist lawyer of the 1930s and '40s, Truman adviser, and defender of the Hollywood Ten - and his wife, Anna Gertrude Bosworth, a former crime reporter turned novelist, had it all. An elegant couple, well-connected socially and politically, they entertained lavishly, spent prodigiously, and doted on their two small children, one of whom was Ms. Bosworth.

Her father's suicide at the age of 59 led Ms. Bosworth to re-examine the myth and discover the reality behind it. She is the author of best-selling biographies of Montgomery Clift and Diane Arbus, was managing editor of Harper's Bazaar, is a contributing editor to Mirabella, and writes frequently for The New York Times and The Nation.

New York Nightlife

On Sunday, Anthony Haden-Guest, chronicler of the Manhattan nightclub scene for many decades, will read from his book "The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night" at 5:30 p.m.

"The Last Party" tells the inside story of the last 20 years of New York's nightlife, touching on the cult of celebrity, pre-AIDS sexual abandon, the emergence of gay culture, and the era's general air of flamboyant debauchery. The book features celebrities but also the bartenders, drug dealers, drag queens, and party girls and boys who were part of the scene.

The Open Road

Mr. Haden-Guest is a journalist whose work has appeared in New York, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and other publications. He has published three other books.

At Encore Books in Bridgehampton on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Eva Morris, author of "Bad Girls' Bedtime Stories," will read from her new book, "Why It Is More Important to Have a CB Radio Than a Basset Hound on a Roadtrip - From the Standpoint of a Female Four-Wheeler." The book is about a young woman's growing need for the freedom of the open road.

Ms. Morris will also read "An Ode to Rover" from a work in progress, "The Adventures of Roadbabe," about her cross-country tours with two dogs in her vintage Alfa Romeo.

It came as a surprise last week when a Town Councilman slapped down a proposal to purchase permanent art for the East Hampton Town Airport as too ambitious and too expensive.

The Committee for Art in Public Places had asked the Town Board to earmark $15,000 in next year's budget to buy three large-scale works, to be designed expressly for the new terminal building. The recommendation, submitted after a year's study, had to have been expected; the committee was not operating behind closed doors. Democratic Councilman Pete Hammerle reported regularly on its progress at board meetings and Republican Councilman Thomas Knobel, who has devoted a great deal of time to overseeing the airport's major improvements, also had attended a few of its meetings.

Mr. Knobel nevertheless dismissed the plan as "absurd." He proposed the town buy just one permanent piece and display other art in the terminal on a rotating basis. "A lot of artists would like the opportunity to show their work there," said Mr. Knobel.

The Jimmy Ernst Artists Alliance disagrees. A solid investment in a few notable works of art would send a message to the entire arts community, alliance representatives told the board.

The terminal building is not a gallery. As far as it is from the center of things, we hardly think there would be scores of artists clamoring to have their work shown on its walls for short periods. Besides, the arts community has not asked for such a venue. It has more visible walls and locales to grace - galleries, cafes, gardens, even banks.

The town has tried the rotating approach before, on the Town Hall lawn some years ago, in an effort to be democratic. The sculpture displayed there was neither appropriate to the site nor well received.

Public art should not be allowed to become a pawn in a political tug-of-war, if that's what this is all about. Let's keep the debate focused where it belongs. First of all, $15,000 is not a lot of money for three works of art. However, if the town isn't ready or can't afford to make this symbolic investment, so be it. But if it's a question of buying works that will permanently enhance the airport and have a strong visual effect versus a changing array of art that may or may not even catch the eye, the former is surely to be preferred.

An anonymous letter is circulating among local officials that purports to come from a young woman whose family is unhappy about a house in their East Hampton Village neighborhood because an "incredible number of migrant workers [. . .] run in and out . . . like chickens."

Saying they "give me funny looks" and "stared at me," the letter-writer asks why officials have done nothing to make the landlord responsible for breaking the law that limits occupancy by more than three unrelated persons.

"Is this what our E.H. is coming to, just for fast-buck people who do not care about anything but money?" the writer asks.

This letter reeks of bias, but it also points to a growing problem that needs to be addressed. There are an estimated 600 or more workers on the East End this summer who have come here legally on short-term visas to work in the fields and gardens and on the estates. As a community, we ask these laborers to do the hard work by day. Do we also, as the letter-writer would like, expect them to disappear when the work day is done?

In addition, there may be as many as 500 persons here for the summer from Spanish-speaking countries and from Ireland who work in the motels and restaurants, particularly in Montauk. While many are housed in old motels or cottages that pre-exist present zoning laws, others crowd into whatever places they can find. Sometimes these accommodations have proven to violate building codes and to be fire hazards.

There are indeed laws here intended to limit group occupancy. They were designed to deter crowds of partying singles from disrupting quiet neighborhoods. In recent years, as seasonal workers have become more and more important to the economy, business owners have had to make more use of houses built for single families for their crews. Would the letter-writer prefer a return to the substandard barracks that once went with the potato fields?

Many families here today are former migrants or the children and grandchildren of migrants who settled among us and began to reap the harvest of the American dream. Our country still holds this promise for others.

As we celebrate our nation's beginnings this week, it behooves us as a community to see more low-income multifamily housing developed. There are few alternatives.

July Fourth is the nation's most meaningful holiday - a celebration of independence from autocracy and a reminder of our dedication to liberty, then and now.

It is therefore with regret that we observe the Fourth this year knowing that the House of Representatives recently passed a proposed Constitutional amendment which, should the Senate and three-fourths of the states follow suit, would make flag desecration a Federal offense.

Flag-burning was ruled an expression of free speech by the United States Supreme Court in 1989. It is not a particularly palatable form of expression nor one that should be taken lightly in a civil society. But criminalizing it would be a step toward abridging other expressions of opinion that the majority finds abhorrent.

This is not to disparage the ardor Americans feel upon seeing the flag or the anger its desecration arouses. The flag of the United States, however, is only a symbol of our precious liberty. That liberty, which makes our Government stand above most others, would be diminished indeed if the right to mock the flag or to use it in a ritualistic way to make a statement were taken away.

Though it seemed at first that the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals might deny Faith Popcorn's request to add to her Georgica Association house in Wainscott, a majority eventually agreed to give her a natural resources permit and a 6-percent lot coverage variance, enabling the addition to be built.

The decision came only after a virtual line-by-line review of standards in the Town Code during a work session June 17.

Four of the five board members agreed in the end that the additions made for a house of an acceptable size on an undersized lot that pre-exists zoning requirements, and that Ms. Popcorn had made many efforts to mitigate any impact on her neighbors.

Neighbors May Sue

The neighbors objected strongly to the trend-spotter's plan to convert a garage into living space and connect it to her existing 762-square-foot house via a 346-square-foot addition, with a clerestory above. She sought first-floor porches as well.

Ms. Popcorn also plans to upgrade her sanitary system, which will be relocated as far from Georgica Pond as possible.

"Very disappointing" and "bad planning" said William J. Fleming of East Hampton, the attorney representing several of Ms. Popcorn's neighbors, of the decision. He called her project "too aggressive for the property," which is about one-quarter of an acre in an area now zoned for three-acre lots.

His clients "are taking a hard look at" the possibility of a lawsuit, Mr. Fleming said.

Negotiations

Christopher Kelley, the East Hampton attorney representing Ms. Popcorn, thanked the board for its "thoughtful" and "impressive" deliberations and said his client was "gratified."

He remarked that her "relatively small addition" had come a long way since it was first proposed, in addressing her neighbors' concerns.

Neither attorney would discuss the details of what Mr. Fleming called "intense negotiations" before the Zoning Board was ready to make its decision. Apparently the two sides tried but failed to arrive at a compromise plan.

"They're not to be revealed," Mr. Fleming said of the specifics of the negotiations.

By The Book

In its first informal caucus, a majority of the board seemed to think the project was too large for the lot and was perhaps more than the minimum necessary, under the Town Code. As the board examined the law's wording, however, the vote swayed in Ms. Popcorn's favor.

Heather Anderson, the lone dissenter, seemed opposed to the project from the start of the discussion.

"There's just something about this application that says this is just too much for a small lot," Ms. Anderson said. "Sometimes on tiny lots you can't do big things."

On the other hand, the Wainscott representative on the board, Charles E. Butler Jr., saw no problems with the project at any point. He said he thought the variance was minimal and that the additions would have no detrimental effect on either the neighborhood or the environment.

Five Criteria

The board first considered the natural resources permit, and agreed, four to one, to grant it. With the exception of Ms. Anderson, board members felt the project, which met all wetlands setback requirements, would not harm Georgica Pond.

Secondly, and more painstakingly, the board reviewed the five criteria spelled out in the Town Code concerning area variances.

After considering whether the project would change the neighborhood for the worse, whether its benefit could be achieved by other means, whether the variance was substantial, whether the variance would have adverse impacts on the physical and environmental conditions of the area, and whether the difficulty necessitating the variance was self-created, the majority of the board said no a majority of the time.

Mitigating Factors

The four board members who voted for the addition noted as a mitigating factor that Ms. Popcorn had, with a neighbor, purchased a vacant piece of property and added half of it to her lot, bringing it to its current 12,000-square-foot size and making it more conforming than it had been.

Other mitigating factors include the granting of an easement and the upgraded sanitary system.

At one point Jay Schneiderman, the Z.B.A. chairman, noted that many of the town's regulations assumed the lot in question was of a conforming size.

"It may not be fair" to impose a restriction meant for a 125,000-square-foot property on one that measures only 12,000 square feet, Mr. Schneiderman said, adding that the addition and the variance may only seem substantial relative to the lot's small size.

On the other hand, said Ms. Anderson, "you take your chances when you buy a property that's very constrained."

This is the 10th article in a series examining various aspects of real estate on the South Fork.

Tom Wolkner, a mason who drives from Yaphank to work construction on the South Fork, summed up his daily commute. "It sucks," he said, smiling, a trace of the German he spoke as a child lingering in his accent. "If you're not past the Shinnecock Canal by 7:30, you're really stuck."

But Mr. Wolkner is one of the legions of contractors who put up with the inconvenience of the "trade parade" of pickups and vans that clogs Route 27 each day for the opportunity to take advantage of the lucrative building boom that is in full swing here.

Duane Koncelik, who was raised in Northwest Woods but moved to East Patchogue after he was married, has been working primarily as a framer on the South Fork for 17 years.

Bumper To Bumper

To get to his job site by 6:30 a.m., Mr. Koncelik rolls out of bed by 5 and hits the road by 5:30, stopping to pick up - or as he put it, "wake up" - a crew member who lives nearby in Bellport.

"We try to carpool," he said. "There aren't a lot of guys who do that. Most still take that single ride, but that's what just about everyone on Long Island does."

"Years ago, you'd see one or two cars every couple of miles," said John Petoello, a tile contractor who drives from Patchogue. "Now you get to the merge" at County Road 39 in South ampton "and it's bumper to bumper."

Word Of Mouth

"The traffic doesn't bother me," said Joe LaFace, a finish carpenter from Hampton Bays, taking a decidedly minority view. "I learned to drive in Brooklyn. This is a piece of cake."

Like many other tradesmen who make their way east each morning, Mr. Wolkner, who came from Germany with his family in 1962 and has worked in the area since 1969, relies on word-of-mouth referrals from general contractors to keep busy.

"Fireplaces are my thing, and this kind of stuff," he said, pointing to a stone patio he was working on at a multimillion-dollar job site overlooking Mecox Bay in Bridgehampton. "I've never advertised," he said, "so I must be doing all right."

The same holds true for Mr. LaFace. "I've been on my own for 10 years now," he said. "I'm at the point now where I go home and have a couple jobs waiting for me."

Mr. Koncelik puts up with the commute because "this is where my reputation is." Besides, he added, the area provides contractors the opportunity to build "houses like you don't see anywhere else in the world."

"That's where the pride comes in," said Mr. Wolkner. "Anybody can build a house, but if you can do something like this," he said, pointing to the house behind him, "you know you are a builder."

Plenty Of Work

"You get to work on the nicest part of the island," added Eric Doerwald, who has worked for Mr. Koncelik since graduating from high school nine years ago.

"This is like working in a state park," he said at a job site in Georgica. "And we get to enjoy someone else's property before it makes the transformation from au natural to Villa Central."

Some year-rounders may feel the steady stream of contractors heading east takes jobs away, but most say there is more than enough work to go around.

"I don't favor anybody," said John Hummel, an East Hampton general contractor. "I hire as many as I can from here, but sometimes I have to look elsewhere. I don't care where they're from as long as they're good."

Mr. Koncelik, noting that business was about as strong as it was in the go-go '80s, agreed that good help is hard to find. "If someone isn't working now, he doesn't want to work," he said.

While recessions that have put a periodic halt to building have weeded out some less qualified contractors, Mr. Petoello, who specializes in kitchen and bathroom work, sees a few of them creeping back into the business.

"They'll underbid my work," he said, "but they don't have insurance, and they aren't bothering to get licensed."

But Mr. Petoello, whose father started the family business 40 years ago and who has been working on the East End himself since the mid-'70s, said he can hold his own. "The established contractors know the kind of work I do," he said.

Moving On

When the deep recessions of the mid-'70s decimated the building industry on Long Island, many of those marginal workers moved on to Houston, which was enjoying a boom fueled by high oil prices, he said.

Similarly, he added, contractors moved south to the Carolinas during the last economic downturn.

Mr. LaFace, whose family moved to Hampton Bays from Brooklyn when he was 16 ("and I've been heading east ever since"), said he did not fear bad times.

"When things were slow, I actually did better," he said. "People like myself, we came from the city. We had no money. We put in our eight hard hours every day. There's demand for us."

Closer To Work

Mr. Wolkner considered moving east years ago, but now that his family is settled, he has no plans to leave Yaphank. "I don't want to pay more taxes," he said. "I don't want to build a new home."

Although he was raised here, Mr. Koncelik said he did not miss East Hampton. "It's too crowded," he said. "You go down to the ocean, and it's like a parking lot."

But Mr. Petoello, who said that "95 percent of my business is out here," would like to move his family closer to his work base. He has been browsing at building lots in Wainscott and East Hampton in recent months.

Happy Springs Resident

"We were going home just to sleep," said Terry Reinhardsten, who grew up in the same neighborhood of Norwegian immigrants as the Dalene brothers of Telemark Construction in Bridgehampton. He now works with Stanley Dalene, who split off from Telemark and started his own contracting business about five years ago.

Mr. Reinhardsten, who now lives in Springs, said he had never regretted the move. "We live in an area we really love," he said, adding that the move was made easier because the group helped one another build their houses.

On a recent return visit to St. Jam es, "I didn't recognize a single person," he said. "And the traffic was un believable."