A search for offshore species of birds has been scheduled by the South Fork Natural History Society for Saturday. Assuming decent weather, a boat will take birders from Montauk Harbor more than 30 miles offshore to Block Canyon to find pelagic species, including shearwaters and petrels.

The cost is $80. Reservations can be made by writing the guide, John Askildsen, at P.O. Box 32, Chappaqua, N.Y. 10514. His phone number is available by calling the society's Natureline in Amagansett.

On Sunday, the society has a trip designed for those with a passion for bikes and seals. Sam Sadove, a seal expert and former research director of the Okeanos Ocean Research Foundation, will join forces with the society's Andy Sabin in Montauk to lead pedalers to the seals beginning at 8:30 a.m. Those interested may call the society's Natureline in Amagansett for the meeting place.

John Benedict of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society will lead a hike through the Walking Dunes on Sunday. Hikers are asked to meet at 10 a.m. at the end of Napeague Harbor Road. On Wednesday, the society plans a perambulation of Sammy's Beach in East Hampton. Abbie Barber will lead the pack and has asked hikers to meet her at the end of Sammy's Beach Road at 10 a.m.

The monthly membership meeting of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society is scheduled for Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the house of Richard Lupoletti at 66 Oyster Shores Road in Northwest.

The Southampton Trails Preservation Society is offering a one-hour walk through the Tuckahoe Woods of Southampton Town Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. Hikers are asked to meet at the Tuckahoe School at the intersection of Sebonac Road and North Magee Street in Southampton.

The Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference is offering the Northern Pine Barrens Special, a fast-paced 10-mile hike taking in Rocky Point Preserve and Brookhaven State Park, on Saturday. The hike may turn into a cross-country ski tour if by some chance there is a heavy snowfall. The meeting time is 9:30 a.m. at the southwest corner of the Shoreham-Wading River High School parking lot off Route 25A, a quarter-mile east of William Floyd Parkway.

A car caravan snaked through the back roads of Bridgehampton on Saturday night in the moonlight. Each set of headlights following taillights closely made the 20 vehicles appear as segments of a single creature on a mission. In a way it was, given that each driver followed blindly the turns of the one ahead. Their destination was known only to the lead driver, Andy Sabin of the South Fork Natural History Society.

It was a secret society this night because the eastern tiger salamander, the world's largest land-dwelling variety, is vulnerable, especially at the height of an early breeding season.

Brief Trip Up

Mr. Sabin, a kindly, intense man, loves salamanders and has sought out the haunts of the six-inch-long tiger and the smaller marbled, spotted, blue-spotted, four-toed, and red-backed species native to the South Fork. Only the spotted is commonly found, and the tiger and blue-spotted salamanders are on the state's list of endangered species. The South Fork is the only place in the state where the elusive tiger salamanders are found.

On Saturday, at a prearranged meeting place in the dark, Mr. Sabin gathered around him hip-booted naturalists, amateur herpetologists wearing miners' lamps, curious adults with flashlights, and a half-dozen of the most natural hunters of slithery things -kids. He described their quarry and the importance of keeping under wraps the exact location of the kettlehole they would be visiting after a short drive.

Mr. Sabin whetted their appetites; the previous night at another vernal pond he had seen 19 egg masses and two adults.

Egg masses, he explained, were the end result of a relatively brief interlude in the tiger's mostly subterranean existence. The tigers are a species of "mole" salamander that hibernates underground in winter and feeds above and below ground in summer on worms, insects, mice, and small snakes. The alarm clock that wakes them from their winter sleep takes the form of 50-degree temperatures and a soaking rainfall that trickles its way down through the soil.

Seventy Spots Lost

Rainwater is the tigers' signal to push to the surface and begin their annual journey to the ancestral spawning pool. They are known to wander up to 1,000 feet away from their pools, and because they migrate only when it rains, the return trip can take time. Mr. Sabin told the group that this year's temperate winter weather had accelerated the tigers' trip to their pools, and that they should be at the height of their breeding season.

Rarely witnessed is the sensuous, and monogamous, courtship dance of the tiger salamander. . . .

The bad news is that the salamanders' trip to the spawning grounds has been increasingly frustrated because of road construction. For reasons not completely understood, 40 of 110 breeding spots documented on Long Island in 1984 are unproductive today because of development.

Because they live in water, air, and soil, Mr. Sabin said, salamanders, like other amphibians, are "good barometers," canaries in the proverbial coal mine, that signal, by dying, when their environment has been harmed.

No Friend Of Fish

"Habitat destruction is their biggest enemy," Mr. Sabin said. "I've noticed the Fowler's toad is in severe decline, and the southern leopard frog has almost disappeared. Tigers are secretive, we don't really know their numbers."

The blue-spotted salamander is extremely rare, he said. They are relegated to Montauk and Prince Edward Island, a Canadian Maritime Province. Mr. Sabin was off on newts next, noting that those found in Montauk had gill slits while newts found elsewhere on the East End did not. "Montauk is unusual, interesting, there is a type of saltwater water snake found in Oyster Pond, and of course the southern leopard frog was found there," he said.

Returning to the tigers at hand, Mr. Sabin said that, unlike other salamander species living in and around coastal ponds, the tigers were a woodland variety that bred in vernal pools - kettleholes in this area. The depressions catch the rain, or melting snow, but dry up come summer. This is important, the leader said, as salamanders fall prey to fish, and so don't share the same habitat with any success.

In Hot Pursuit

Salamanders are not lizards. They may look like them, but have the moist, thin skin of amphibians in place of the lizard's scales. Nor do they have claws or external ear openings as lizards do. In fact, they are deaf to all but low-frequency vibrations, and make no sound. They rely on smell and genetic ritual to pursue romance.

It was 8 o'clock and time for the group to pursue the salamanders pursuing each other. A five-minute drive ended beside an oak wood. A full moon lighted the sky behind the high, wind-driven clouds of a departing front.

The hunters wound along a narrow path that climbed to the crest of a hill. Mr. Sabin asked the group to wait while an advance party descended into the kettlehole beyond with lamps and nets to snare specimens. Too many lights could scare the creatures.

Lovers' Dance

The wait was short. Two females were netted. The word came and the party approached, kids in the lead. Look for egg masses, they were told. These were identifiable as a white gelatinous "snowball," said Nancy Jarman, whose job it is to keep tabs on salamanders for the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Within minutes, she had a male tiger in a water-filled clear plastic box and a female in the beam of her light circling around the submerged branches of a fallen tree. The circling was typical, she said, prior to females' wrapping their tails around a twig to prepare for the laying of eggs.

Rarely witnessed is the sensuous, and monogamous, courtship dance of the tiger salamanders which ends when the male swims to the bottom to deposit spermatophores, packages of sperm. Later, the females take them into their bodies via the cloaca. In about 24 hours they find a twig to anchor them while producing a small mass of perhaps 50 eggs. The jelly absorbs pond water and expands.

Thirty days later the infant tigers hatch.

Into The Light

None was found on Saturday night, although Mr. Sabin said he was certain they were there. But he offered hope, saying the Natural History Society would offer further walks in the spring to see the salamander tadpoles.

In all, eight adult tigers were sighted on Saturday, with a ninth swimming into the light on its own as the kids prepared to return the four netted salamanders and one newt to the pond.

Visitors to the kettlehole departed in small groups praising the moon and their good fortune at finding the elusive amphibians. One 10-year-old drove the point home. "I held an endangered species in my hands," she said.

It was not love at first sight when Jeanette Schwenk saw Philip the hinny at the barn of a Long Island horse dealer. She had instructed the dealer to find her a Sicilian donkey that she planned on giving her husband for his birthday. Instead the dealer produced Philip.

Alas, poor Philip was not looking his best. He presented a most sorrowful picture with head hanging to the ground and long ears at half-mast. Ms. Schwenk was alarmed to note that mucus was streaming from his nostrils - a sign that he was probably suffering from strangles, a very serious and highly infectious disease amongst equines. He also had the bulging pot belly and dull coat that indicate severe worm infestation.

"That is not a Sicilian donkey! And he's sick. I can't bring him into my barn," she told the dealer. But, halfway home, troubled by the likely fate of the sorry creature, she relented and returned to the dealer's to bring Philip home.

But What Is He?

Once home the veterinarian was called immediately. Ms. Schwenk's fears were borne out, her new long-eared friend did indeed have strangles, which necessitated antibiotic treatment. And not only was poor Philip's interior infested with worms, but his exterior was infested with lice.

Copious dewormings and a weekly delousing bath became part of his

regime. "It took six months of treatment until he was his spunky self," Ms. Schwenk said.

When recovered, he delighted his owners with his intelligent and extremely affectionate nature and was named Philip in honor of a close family friend, the late Philip Rosenquist, who was also designated as his "godfather."

But what Philip actually was remained a mystery. He was too sleek and leggy to be a purebred donkey and was smaller and more elegant than the average mule. It was Dave Birdsall, a blacksmith, who solved the riddle. Having been familiar with mules since childhood - his grandfather raised them - he identified Philip as a hinny.

And just what is a hinny? An ass-backward mule, actually. A mule is ,

the hybrid offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). A hinny is produced from the opposite arrangement, the mating of a male horse (a stallion) to a female donkey (a jennet).

Quite Rare

According to Lea Baton of the American Donkey and Mule Society

hinnies are generally thought to be more horse-like in appearance than a mule, but, because they receive their early life lessons from a mellow donkey mom rather than the more flighty and mercurial horse mom, more donkey-like in attitude.

Hinnies are quite rare and make up only about 5 percent of the mule population. The low fertility rate of the jennet combined with the usual problems in hybrid breedings result in only about 30 percent of the matings being productive.

Playing Soccer

Deliberate attempts to produce hinnies usually end in failure. Ms. Baton said with a laugh, "Most hinnies happen by accident, when the female donkey gets in with the stallion on her own. And then you say, 'Oh no, what am I going to do with the results of that!' "

Philip has lived in Ms. Schwenk's East Hampton barn for 10 years. At one point she did attempt to train him for riding, but "he was going to be a real tough nut to crack. I'd try to get him to go left, he'd go right!" So she let Philip devise his own means of staying fit and mentally occupied. He settled on the role of all-around sportsman and consummate schmoozer.

His favorite sports are "soccer" and "hit the fence posts with the Frisbee." Soccer Philip-style consists of knocking the ball rapidly around his field and then dropping down to catch it between his knees. The Frisbee game is more inventive and makes a lovely racket. Philip races about the exterior of his field smacking the Frisbee held between his teeth upon every fence post.

A Special Animal

When solitary games pale, Philip engages in energetic rassling with Tommy, Ms. Schwenk's elegant, strikingly tall thoroughbred gelding. And he's always available for pats, attention, and even costume-wearing if his humans insist.

A mule is the hybrid offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). A hinny is produced from the opposite arrangement, the mating of a male horse (a stallion) to a female donkey (a jennet).

"He's the most affectionate animal I have," said Ms. Schwenk - and that's saying a lot for Philip's sweetness, since Ms. Schwenk also shares her life with two basset hounds, notoriously solicitous creatures.

"I'd thought I was going to get an inexpensive, easy-to-care-for little pet," said Ms. Schwenk ruefully as she added up in her head the cost of Philip's medical care. "I could have bought another horse for what he's cost me."

After the initial expense of rehabilitating Philip, it turned out that he needed major surgery on his hind legs. He's past all that now and hale and hearty. And Ms. Schwenk has no regrets. "He's been worth every penny. He's a wonderful and special animal."

Motorists traveling along Route 27 in East Hampton Town and beyond will be negotiating an obstacle course for some time yet - sideswiping cavernous potholes while trying not to get stuck in muck on the shoulders. If the State Department of Transportation sticks to its present work schedule, that is.

First proposed in 1993 with the understanding that the work would start in 1997, a major resurfacing of Route 27 here will not take place until at least 1999 or 2000, according to D.O.T. officials. When their time does come, the improvements will be made in two parts: a 10.5-mile stretch from Norris Avenue just east of the Sag Harbor-Bridgehampton Turnpike in Bridgehampton to Cranberry Hole Road, Amagansett, and from Cranberry Hole to Montauk Point.

"It's just worn out - way past its life expectancy," said Chris Russo, the East Hampton Town Highway Superintendent, of the road, adding that over all, Montauk Highway had "deteriorated to the point of dangerous."

Slid Out

The last major improvement to the thoroughfare, Mr. Russo recalled, was in the 1950s and '60s. Some of the worst sections, he said, are just west of the intersection of the old and new Montauk Highways at the eastern end of Napeague, Pantigo Road in East Hampton Village, and between Wainscott and Bridgehampton where, he said, "it's not only in need of resurfacing - it's rip out and reconstruct."

Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Village Administrator, called the road "a disaster" this week. The Village Mayor, Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., has asked the D.O.T.'s regional director to "advance" the project to an earlier date.

"The project has 'slid out'" a year or two - government-speak for having been put off - said Richard Schmalz, the state transportation agency's regional planning head. Mr. Schmalz attributed the delay to Gov. George E. Pataki's cutbacks in transportation funds, which spread allocations over seven years from 1995, instead of five.

Thiele Fumes

Road-fixing priorities are based on "pavement conditions and the number of accidents," he said. Potholes, though, will be filled "as needed," said Mr. Schmalz, apparently unaware that the need is now.

"I used to plow the highway from Bridgehampton through East Hampton" under a state contract, said Mr. Russo. "If they asked me now to put my truck on the shoulders" of this road, "I would refuse."

"If it's a budget problem," said Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., right now would be an appropriate time to deal with it. The lawmaker vowed to be "aggressive" in trying to "get this thing pushed up to 1997."

The D.O.T., fumed Mr. Thiele, has been "singularly unresponsive" to local issues. He called the agency one of the "most intransigent" in the state bureaucracy.

Counting Potholes

As of now, the resurfacing job is not slated to begin until 1999, confirmed Chris Williams, a D.O.T. planning engineer, adding that it was "early in the planning stages."

Mr. Russo said he saw state transportation workers "counting potholes" on the highway last week. Mr. Williams said he was aware of "pavement distress" in the area, but added that state has "such a backlog" that it can take "five years before real planning begins."

Meanwhile, the only D.O.T. work scheduled for the East End this year is construction of a left-hand turn at Stephen Hand's Path eastbound off Route 27 in East Hampton, according to Frank Zambinini of the D.O.T.'s maintenance department.

Signal At Post Office

Contracts for that job, together with the addition of a lane at the South Ferry on Route 114 on Shelter Island, will be bid at the end of May, with work starting two to three months after that.

The full resurfacing project will include, among other improvements, a "restriping" of traffic lanes near the East Hampton Post Office, a new traffic signal there, and additional drainage and shoulder restoration where necessary, said Charles Widener of Dunn Engineering, the village's engineers.

Mayor Complains

"About a month ago, we asked for [permission to do] a pavement restoration at least a mile east of the Stephen Hand's Path work, to Jericho Road," said Mr. Zambinini, "but it was late in the game," meaning too late in the year to get the money.

"We understand it's in bad condition," he added. "We can fill the potholes, but our maintenance people claim that it's beyond filling potholes."

"We believe that the current condition of Route 27 is among the very worst of any state highway on Long Island," Mayor Rickenbach wrote recently to Edward J. Petrou, the D.O.T.'s regional director in Hauppauge. "I must believe that the roadway has been allowed to deteriorate to its current condition only because being here, near the extreme east end of Long Island, it receives less attention."

Mr. Schmalz said the D.O.T. planners probably would "look at this again," as a result of the Mayor's letter.

The East Hampton Town Trustees agreed Tuesday to allow commercial clam diggers to harvest an additional 200 chowder clams a day from Lake Montauk beyond their regular three-bushel-per-day limit on clams of "littleneck," "cherrystone," and "chowder" sizes.

The special season, created as an amendment to the town shellfishing laws, begins today and will stay in effect for two weeks with the possibility of being extended. It will pertain to Lake Montauk only.

The decision was made via a resolution proffered by Joe Bloecker, the only Trustee from Montauk. Mr. Bloecker said he had been approached by several baymen who routinely work Lake Montauk, all of whom attended a Tuesday night work session at the Trustees' offices on Bluff Road, Amagansett.

Crowding The Young

John Beckwith, one of the baymen, told the Trustees about a bountiful, but old, set of clams in the lake. There were so many chowders (larger ones) that the smaller, and more valuable, cherrystones and littlenecks beneath them were dying off.

Mr. Beckwith said he had dug clams in the Great South Bay for years and that culling old chowders to improve the grounds for younger clams was a traditional practice.

Larry Penny, director of the town's Natural Resources Department, was at the meeting and agreed with the baymen's theory. "It's true the big ones and little ones compete for food," he said.

Before agreeing, the Trustees questioned whether taking so many chowders might stunt the reproductive potential of the clam resource in the lake. The baymen replied that with the proposed 200-a-day limit, they could hardly dent the chowder population. Mr. Penny added that old chowders were not the only, or even the most productive, source of spawn.

Sole Dissenter

The Trustees and baymen agreed that the town might purchase some of the chowder clams to plant elsewhere in town waters. Mr. Penny also requested a sampling to study. Much of the rest of the chowder harvest will be sold to seafood markets and restaurants that have taken to shucking and freezing the meats in anticipation of clam chowder season.

Harold Bennett was the only dissenting member of the seven Trustees present. "The Lord put those chowders out there for a reason," he said.

The baymen agreed to land their clams at the West Lake Drive launching ramp to be inspected by a harbormaster or Bay Constable. In approving the special chowder season, the Trustees fell back on the "Special Authority" section of the town's shellfish regulations.

Other Instances

It has been used many times before. For three years beginning in 1994, the Trustees permitted special soft clam seasons. Last year baymen were permitted to sell oysters in summer by means of the special authority clause.

Fishermen were given permission to harvest blue claw crabs and lobsters from waters closed to clamming and other shellfishing. The Trustees argued that the crustaceans were cooked before they were eaten, thus the health hazard associated with raw shellfish did not exist.

Using their special authority, the Trustees have also pushed back the scallop season in town waters in order to put a limited number of scallops to the best market advantage.

Six hundred hours of community service and five years' probation was the sentence meted out last week to Lyllis Topping, the former treasurer of the Bridgehampton School District who was accused of embezzling more than $82,000 from the school.

She will be required to complete the community service within 10 months and within the county. It will be done through the American Red Cross office in Hauppauge.

Ms. Topping, who has paid back more than $86,000 to the district, was charged in Southampton Town Justice Court with second-degree grand larceny in December. She was allowed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of third-degree grand larceny, which carries a maximum jail sentence of seven years.

Figure In Dispute

Her Sag Harbor attorney, John O'Brien, said this week that the combination of full restitution, his client's lack of a prior record, and the absence of any violence in the crime "played a large part" in the plea bargain and the decision not to send her to jail.

"I think it was fair all the way around," Mr. O'Brien said, though he did note that Ms. Topping claims to have stolen less than $50,000, not the $82,000 alleged by the Suffolk District Attorney's office.

Despite her claim, she accepted the plea and paid full restitution, including interest lost, rather than risk a conviction on the greater crime and possible jail time, Mr. O'Brien said.

The sentence she received had been recommended by the chief of the D.A.'s Public Integrity Bureau, Michael Conlon, who handled the case. Judge Morton Weissman handed down his decision in County Criminal Court on Feb. 18.

P.T.O. Account

Ms. Topping, who still lives in Bridgehampton, was also the treasurer of the Parent Teacher Organization and a secretary in the school office. She confessed to having deposited state aid checks into the P.T.O. bank account rather than the district's main account, and then withdrawing the funds for her own use.

Her father, Paul Granger, took out a second mortgage to raise the money she needed to make restitution.

Mr. O'Brien said Ms. Topping took the money for "no particular reason . . . . She always intended to pay the money back."

She's "absolutely" happy the matter has been resolved, her attorney said. "She made a mistake and she is sorry."

MOSCOW, Feb. 24:

Det. Lieut. James Maher stepped delicately up the stairs in his shiny black patent-leather shoes, careful not to scuff the heels of Lieut. Col. Vitaly Kiiko's dusty combat boots.

Detective Maher, of the Suffolk County Police Department, was about to conduct the final session of a weeklong seminar to teach Russian police the crime-stopping methods of America's finest.

One of four commanders chosen by the Federal Bureau of Investiation's National Academy in Virginia to come to Russia, the detective spent the week explaining the safest way to chase a criminal, the most efficient way to assign beats, and the intricacies of his salary.

By Friday, the men had bonded.

Combat Conditions

"In America, wherever we go, we look at other police officers as our brothers and sisters," he somberly told the nearly 50 Russians gathered at Moscow's best police academy. "I'm glad to say that now the brotherhood extends as far as Russia."

Despite the warm talk of brotherhood, what Lieutenant Kiiko politely called the forces' "differing work conditions" could not be overlooked.

The burly commander of OMON, the Russian Interior Ministry's much-feared special forces division, last saw combat in Chechnya, at the height of fierce fighting that nearly destroyed the tiny southern republic and killed tens of thousands of people. Detective Maher's last medal comes from helping sort through the wreckage of TWA Flight 800.

Handling Riots

"We're stronger in practical training. The Americans' training is very theoretical," explained Pavel Ryz hen kov, chief of police training for Moscow Region and a seminar participant. "Unfortunately, war gives experience."

Since military service is also mandatory in Russia, Lieutenant Kiiko said, his officers were better at handling riots and large-scale emergencies.

"Look at the L.A. riots in 1992. It was a disaster. Americans just aren't prepared for that kind of thing," he said.

Chief Ryzhenkov also claimed that Russian criminals are "more aggressive. Almost no one gives up without a fight."

Automatic Weapons

Detective Maher, 46, a restrained, serious man with graying blond hair and a neat mustache, was not intimidated by the more militarized Moscow cops, some of whom carry automatic weapons while strolling their neighborhood beats.

The friendly American approach called "community policing," one of the seminar topics, is unlikely to take root in Moscow, where swarthy natives of the Caucasus, blamed for much of the city's rising crime, are routinely harassed during document checks and police graft is routine.

"Suffolk County has many of the same problems as a big city," Detective Maher said. "Narcotics, prostitution, robberies, auto theft, burglaries. Moscow is having a crime problem right now. Democracy is a whole new thing here. With the freedoms ensue the resulting kinds of problems of all free societies. Crime springs up."

High-Tech Envy

The American was optimistic, however, that the Russians could handle the rising lawlessness, describing them as far more professional than he had expected.

"I was flabbergasted by their dedication," he said.

The Russians were impressed as well. Lieutenant Kiiko said his men had decided the Americans' method of pursuing a fleeing car was safer, and would use it. They took envious note of the technology available to American police, such as highway speed scanners and computer data- bases that can instantly determine whether a suspect has a criminal record.

They were also interested in the Americans' experience in fighting financial crimes, like money-laundering and credit card fraud - felonies unknown in the former Soviet Union.

Salary Gap

But it was probably the Americans' high salaries and benefits that caused the biggest stir.

"When I told my colleagues that some of the Americans get over $100,000 a year, there was nervous laughter all around," said Chief Ryzhenkov.

Russians in the same jobs get about $500 a month at best.

"Russia is not the kind of country that can afford to have a cheap police force," he added.

Detective Maher agreed, pointing out that paying police well was one of the best guarantees against internal corruption, which plagues the Russian forces.

Routine Bribery

One officer at the seminar was sobered by the news that American traffic cops do not take cash from drivers. The Mayor of Moscow recently introduced a debit-card system for drivers to pay off traffic fines, hoping to make a dent in the current pocket-lining practice.

Born in Brooklyn, the grandson of a New York City cop and 25 years on the force himself, Detective Maher grew up in Holbrook, where he still lives with his wife. Besides working as a policeman, he teaches criminal justice at Suffolk Community College.

His experience in the Hamptons has been somewhat limited. "I made several purchases out there," he said, deadpan. "Cocaine, early 1980s. I was working undercover as a narc."

Organized Crime

For the trip to Russia, Detective Maher had to apply for a passport on short notice so he could join colleagues from Worcester, Mass., Los Angeles, and San Diego. The four were feted in Moscow by F.B.I. officials at the U.S. Embassy, taken to an opera at the Bolshoi Theater, and charmed by good-looking women at their hotel.

Chief William Baker, former Commissioner of Public Safety for the State of Massachusetts, conspiratorially showed off a scrap of paper with a phone number and "Anastasia" written on it.

The problem of Russian organized crime, a subject that has preoccupied both countries since Rus sian criminal gangs in the States started flexing their muscles, was downplayed at the seminar.

"The press shouldn't talk about it so much," barked Lieutenant Kiiko. "Yes, there is organized crime, but it's not centralized, not unified."

Police Mementos

Detective Maher, however, said the activity of the Russian mafia in the U.S. did come up. Last year, he told the group, he investigated a series of luxury car thefts in which the cars ended up in containers bound for Moscow.

Detective Maher left Moscow early the next day, laden with a Russian tea set, a bottle of vodka, and countless mementos from his Russian colleagues, including a police hat and an Interior Ministry beer stein.

"I don't know if they're equipped to deal with the crime here," he said, "but they're looking for ways. If they continue, things will get better."

Restaurateurs, nightclub owners, and resort managers from Montauk and East Hampton were unified last Thursday night in their opposition to a proposal that musical entertainment and dancing should cease at midnight.

They said the law would send weddings, holiday parties, and charity benefits, a lucrative part of their business, out of town.

"Many things have taken place over the years that cannot be just ignored," Paul Monte, the general man ager of Gurney's Inn in Montauk, told the East Hampton Town Board.

Economic Impact

Mr. Monte described Gurney's as the largest year-round employer on the East End, with a $10 million impact on the local economy. He added, to considerable applause from a capacity audience, that the proposed curfew "could impact on hundreds if not thousands of people in this town."

A dozen people who spoke at the public hearing own or manage restaurants, catering halls, resorts, nightclubs, or some combination thereof.

Two residents spoke as well, as did representatives of the East Hampton and Montauk Chambers of Commerce and the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau. Every one spoke against the law.

Some said the town should address the many noise complaints it has received by training more police officers to enforce the noise ordinance.

Because noise complaints had reached "critical mass," said Robert Savage, the town attorney, the board tried to address them by a Cinderella curfew.

That solution, however, could "please just a few and hurt many," responded Andrea Gurvitz, a vice president of the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Ms. Gurvitz said that tourism was "the town's primary economic developer," and it would not be wise for the town to tell its tourists to "go to bed" at a certain time.

Liberalization?

As Town Board members repeatedly tried to point out, the Town Code makes no mention of music or dancing as allowable activities in a restaurant.

Board members told the audience that those restaurants offeing both - meaning nearly all of them, at one time or another - are doing so illegally, and have been for years.

As Councilman Thomas Knobel put it, the proposed amendment would "liberalize" the law, allowing music and dancing until midnight.

A few speakers responded that the Town Code should differentiate more clearly among restaurants, nightclubs, and catering halls.

Tried Twice Before

Two earlier versions of the proposal, which also went to hearings, were intended specifically to keep restaurants from evolving into nightclubs. Some have done so, over the years.

The second version would have set an 11 p.m. curfew on music and dancing, but the managers of Gurney's, East Hampton Point, and similar establishments complained that would force their special events, such as weddings, to end too early.

Thus, the third version, moving the curfew to midnight, was drafted. Since then, however, even more restaurateurs have joined the opposition.

Change-Of-Use Approval

The audience booed and hissed when Supervisor Cathy Lester said that if the proposed law was enacted, any business whose certificate of occupancy identified it as a restaurant would need change-of-use approval from the Planning Board to continue catering special events.

Restaurants that offer dancing, nightclubs that serve food, and other combination establishments that have never met the letter of the law nonetheless represent "historic and customary uses," argued George Hammer, the owner of Shepherd's Neck Inn in Montauk.

It would be "ludicrous to require a change of use when there is no change of use," said Mr. Monte.

Warns Of Lawsuit

John Wagner, the attorney for East Hampton Point, said he thought the Supervisor was on shaky legal ground. If adopted, the law would "probably run into some substantial litigation over what is a change of use," he predicted.

"Think about New Year's. When the ball drops, the party's over," said Donald Torr, the owner of the Crow's Nest restaurant and motel in Montauk. The audience laughed, and laughed even more after his exchange with Councilman Len Bernard:

Mr. Torr suggested that parties on Election Night, when the last results sometimes don't come in until after 10 p.m., would also be affected.

"I haven't always looked for music on those nights," said Mr. Bernard, who lost two bids for a Town Board seat before winning his third.

In other business last Thursday, the Town Board took the following actions:

Appointed two new members to the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee, Bruce Baldwin of Fireplace Road and Mike Bottini of Chapel Lane. Allene Talmage will take over as chairwoman.

Appointed three new members to the Fire Advisory Committee, Bruce Stonemetz of Amagansett, Francis Mott of East Hampton, and Richard McGowin, the town civil defense coordinator, an informal committee member for years.

Finalized the purchase of 25 acres on the Soak Hides dreen, which feeds into Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, by authorizing Ms. Lester to sign the $667,500 contract with Watch Tower, the property owner.

Day Care Subsidies

The board also:

Endorsed "Child Care Works," a plan by the Child Care Council of Suffolk County that in part would expand day care subsidies for welfare parents and poor families, urging county and state legislators to help increase funding. (A related story appears on page X.)

Solicited bids on the annual sidewalk and drainage contracts, and on the contract to install comfort stations at the proposed Little League fields next to Town Hall, all of which must be submitted by March 13.

Added $45,000 to the capital budget line for the roller rinks and basketball courts at the Youth Park in Amagansett, by postponing an $18,000 expansion of the police impound and reducing the line for expanding the Lions Field park in Montauk by $27,500.

Yard sales are like archeological digs - fascinating troves of information about food, lifestyles, and tastes of the recent past, say 40 years or so. (The genuine Shaker pie safe or pressed oak kitchen chair turns up about as often as winning Lotto tickets.)

As the '50s seem to be roaring back in style - those dreadful "butterfly" canvas chairs only a contortionist can heave out of are being manufactured once more - one can furnish a house in now cheap chic "Danish modern." On re-examination, still very good design.

Oh, well, my grandmother tossed out her Victorian "trash" button-tufted sofas and art nouveau lamps that I thought just wonderful when I found them in antiques shops of the '50s. I recently fondled a tambour door Danish sideboard of that period before deciding I really had no place to put it in our tiny Key West house. But I thought about what once sat on it and my yard sale fondue set and shashlik sets I couldn't resist (a dollar each set!), so I'm planning a High Retro buffet party - that's when "buffet" entertaining became de rigueur too. That was just about when the last live-in maid-housekeeper-cook disappeared over the hills too. At least so far as the middle class was concerned.

So the fondue set and outdoor barbecue party where the cooking was part of the "fun" was the necessity that Mother Invention laid on us. Outdoor grills have a total grip on American cookery nowadays - it's no longer even just a summertime activity; I cook on my grill year-around except in driving rain. Rotisseried roasts and smoke-cooked turkeys and game are especially appealing cold-weather entrees, even if you do have to scrape the snow off the grill cover. (However, as this is being billed as "the winter that wasn't," that hasn't been a problem on the East End.)

Outdoor cooking and entertaining are, of course, a year-round way of life in Key West. Many of the older houses feature backyards with huge stone or brick and tile barbecue contructions with built-in fuel areas and immovable tiled outdoor dining tables and storage units.

I'm planning a modest outdoor kitchen area at one end of our dining verandah, but my friend the writer Phyllis Rose is hell-bent on enclosing and modernizing the wonderful open Caribbean kitchen that is part of her Barbados-style plantation house tucked into the middle of Key West. (The temperature has indeed been known to plunge to the low 60s.)

Maybe I'm just going retro all the way. I'm scouring yard sales for a pu pu platter. (Remember, I predicted the return of chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes, and bread puddings more than a dozen years ago.)

Crepes Are Back

Cook's Illustrated, the bible of serious cooks everywhere, seems this month to be in a retro sort of mood too: Key lime pie made with condensed milk, the only truly authentic way to make it, simultaneously smooth and tart, along with fresh lime juice. Little yellow "Key" limes are unavailable except in the Keys, but the green Persian ones do admirably.

The other welcome return to the past is an exhaustive re-testing of one of my old favorites, the versatile crepe, both savory and sweet. And with the first lovely fat asparagus ap pearing in markets right now, what better way to present them than in crepes. Note: All crepes do not have to be served drowning in a diet-busting Be cha mels - there are light versions even of this old warhorse of the French cuisine - or enclosing daunting, time-consuming fillings in crepes.

Savory Crepes

The best pan for cooking crepes was, naturally, invented by the French, who after all invented the crepe. Pancakes are not the same thing, being rather thick, cake-like, and spongy, which is not to denigrate them - they're just a different, albeit delicious, flat skillet bread. The little steel pans are cheap, need to be cured by heating to smoking, then rubbing with oil several times and never ever again touched with soapy water. Like cast iron pans, they improve with age and use. The following recipe for light, thin, tender crepes is courtesy of Cook's test kitchens

Makes about 20 seven-inch crepes.

2 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

6 Tbsp. water

1 cup white (bleached) flour

1/2 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted, plus extra melted butter for brushing pan, clarified preferably

A steel crepe pan works best because it has sharply sloping sides that form a perfectly round crepe in the bottom of the pan, and the shallowness also facilitates turning the crepe and sliding it out of pan. The first side is the pretty one and is always the outside of the crepe. Crepes can be made ahead, cooled on a cookie sheet, wrapped in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for up to three days, frozen for up to two months (though frozen ones tend to get a bit soggy, corrected by use in a composite dish that is further baked: E.g., I always use crepes for canneloni.

Put all the ingredients except the pan-greasing butter into a food processor or blender. Pulse until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours or up to two days.

Heat the pan over medium heat, brush with natural bristle brush (or a cotton mop). Stir the batter and measure a very full one-eighth cup into the left side of the pan and roll it to the right to coat the bottom evenly. Don't be discouraged if the first one or two aren't great, just toss them. Turn after about 30 seconds, using a cake spatula and your fingers. Cook another 30 seconds and remove to a flat surface until all are done.

Asparagus Crepes

If your asparagus stalks are about half an inch in diameter, use about three per crepe, if skinnier, enough to make a decently plump filled crepe. Spread the sad side of each crepe with a tablespoon of ricotta mixed with a heaping teaspoon of Romano or Parmesan, salt and pepper, and a speck of grated nutmeg. Lay the asparagus on the first third of the crepe and roll it up. Allow two crepes per serving. Brush them with melted butter and heat briefly in a microwave or regular oven. Spoon a bit of Sauce Mornay (Bechamel made with Gruyere cheese) over the crepes just before serving, if desired.

Beggar's Purses

Put a crepe into a custard cup, fill it with something like smoked fish or salmon mousse, and tie them into little bundles with "strings" of chive which have been blanched just long enough to make them malleable. Unfortunately these can only be made about an hour ahead of time, placed on wax paper, and refrigerated until half an hour before serving. Red caviar and whipped cream cheese are another popular filling. Anything highly flavored and not too leaky will make a good filling. Invent!

Salmon Mousse Filling

I luckily discovered some smoked Nova (brand name, "Mama's") in an eight-ounce package for about $5 in a local supermarket. While it certainly isn't to be compared with Irish or Scottish smoked salmon, it's more than adequate for this mousse filling. You could substitute any other flaked, smoked fish such as whitefish or eel.

8 ozs. smoked Nova salmon

8 ozs. plain cream cheese

1 Tbsp. fresh dill weed or chives

2 thin slices red onion

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Freshly milled pepper to taste

Cut the salmon in chunks, also the cream cheese. Put the dill into a food processor and mince it with the onion. Chives just slide around under the blades, so if using them snip them up with scissors and add them to the mixture last. Put the salmon into the processor and chop to rough texture. Drop piecs of cream cheese through the tube and continue processing until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Season with the lemon juice and pepper - I like a mixture of red, green, and white peppercorns, but any fresh pepper will do.

Just recently I used this mixture to fill Chinese snow peas, which is a great deal more labor intensive, but makes lots and lots of little hors d'oeuvres. Blanch the peas in boiling water for 10 seconds and toss into a bowl of ice cubes and water. Then, removing a few at a time, slit them open from tail end to stem on the seam side. A very small thin knife helps and it really isn't difficult once you or your willing sous chef get the hang of it. Listen to your favorite music while you work.

This can be done a day ahead of time and stored, covered in a plastic box in the fridge until several hours before serving time. Put the chilled salmon mousse into a pastry bag (plastic lined or disposable) for quick filling. Holding the snow pea open with your left hand (or vice versa for lefties), use a star tip on the pastry bag and squeeze a line of filling into each one. Unless you're very quick with a pastry bag or have a helper hold open the peas, it's best to fill the bag twice so that the mousse remains chilled and firm.

Arrange the filled peas in a circle on a chilled platter as you work. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving time.

Less eye-catching, but a lot easier: Use sugar snap peas, blanched and chilled, as "scoopers" surrounding a bowl of the softened, whipped salmon mousse.

Sheepdog Named Jose

East Hampton

February 27, 1997

To The Editor:

Last week there was a letter titled "Loyal and Devoted." It was a love letter about an old English sheepdog named Jose. I have read it over and over, and it still brings tears to my eyes because that dog used to be my husband's and mine.

Jose traveled all the way from Fort Worth, Tex., with us in May of 1984. He was named Jose because we considered him a Mexican sheepdog. He didn't have "papers."

Due to hard times, we were no longer able to take care of Jose and took him to the Animal Rescue Fund. We have thought about him a lot over the years, and his name still pops up in family conversations from time to time.

You can not imagine the feeling we had when we read the letter to find out that Jose had a good life with a family that loved him. Thank you so much for sharing that with us and thank you, ARF, for taking the time to find him such a good home.

ANNETTE, TOM, CASEY, and COREY MacNIVEN

Muddle, Muddle

Sweet Briar, Va.

February 21, 1997

Dear Helen,

The Star reaches me somewhat belatedly, as well as erratically, down here in the Blue Ridge, so that I got the Feb. 13 issue shortly after the Feb. 6 issue, and a good thing too because I'd gotten so steamed over the possible $250 yearly railroad parking fee that I nearly dashed off another furious letter pointing out the village fathers' skullduggery in the apparently perennial parking-at-the-Long- Island-Rail-Road-station matter.

But it now appears that this possibility has grown dimmer - though one can never tell, when it comes to decisions reached by those who rule our little village.

I seem to recall being told (when I stood up and said my piece about the 30-minute parking limit on the then newly paved area south of the tracks) that train-takers should use the Lumber Lane lot, because that's what it was there for.

Now, all of a sudden, the village fathers are shooing us away again. Where to, this time? And for how much of a price? I already pay $120 for my beach sticker. And it brands me a "nonresident," which makes me feel I come from Mars or carry germs on my feet from the sands of Coney Island.

At least they've finally freed up a handful of 24-hour spaces along the tracks, but what happens if you spend a day or two or three? I can understand not wanting the lots to be free storage space for vehicles from November to May, but don't sock it to the regular "commuters" for the sake of a few miscreants. (I could see $50 or permitting all village beach stickers as identification.) A $250 fee is simply outrageous. But not unexpected, seeing where it comes from.

My best hope is that some of those cars parked there on the Lumber Lane lot belong to people who take the Jitney and not the train, in which case there might be heavier pressure than I could ever generate put on the board to keep it from enacting its draconian measures. I'm just a little old lady who lives in Springs and waves her umbrella at chicanery everywhere, at any time. But, oh, those classy Jitney riders with their cellular telephones!

One last question: We are supposed to get great new trains in a couple of years - with electric-cum-diesel engines and double-decker cars. It may bring a lot of folks back to the L.I.R.R. What happens then? Do the village fathers have a plan? I bet they don't. Muddle, muddle, toil, and trouble.

Please address correspondence to [email protected]