The spinal column of the human comes to an abrupt and unceremonious halt quite unlike the rearmost spinal extremities of the other species we choose to keep company with.

They sport rearmost appendages of varying lengths, shapes, and textures that serve many purposes, such as maintaining balance, shooing flies, and providing warmth. But most of all, the tail is a barometer of the mood and attitude of its owner.

Tail movement and posture are essential vocabulary in the body language of most domestic animals. A good working knowledge of tail talk gives pet owners a deeper understanding of the emotional responses of their animals and can serve to give advance warning of possible misbehavior.

Three Basic Messages

Tail talk is very well developed among dogs. The messages that their tails convey can be broken down into three basic groups.

The "up" tail stance, with the tail raised higher than its normal level and usually accompanied by short rapid wagging, indicates that the dog is feeling confident, highly interested, and considers itself dominant in the situation.

A neutral tail which is carried at level with the back or somewhat lower indicates a calm, relaxed, somewhat indifferent state of mind. A drastically lowered tail, often tucked between the legs, is expressive of fear, insecurity, and submissiveness.

Mixed Signals

A wagging tail is not necessarily an indication of friendliness. A dog that greets strangers with a high-held, fast wagging tail, erect ears, and direct eye contact is likely offering an excited challenge to those it perceives as trespassers on its territory. And, if not sufficiently mollified, could easily be provoked into biting.

Tails are certainly telltale but they are only part of the message that the dog is sending. Ears, eyes, general body stance, and vocalizations are also indicators of attitude.

And, since dogs are as capable of inner conflict as humans, there are times when the message from the tail is in direct contradiction to other signs. "If a dog's tail is tucked in submission, and it's growling at the same time, heed the more potentially dangerous signal," suggests Dr. Nicholas Dodman of the Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Signs Of Character

Preliminary findings in a study conducted by Dr. Bonnie Bergin of the Assistance Dog Institute seems to indicate that an individual dog's "tail behavior" can give clues to the reliability of its temperament.

Dogs with a natural tail carriage below the line of their backs are calm, quiet, unexcitable types. Dr. Bergin's theory appears to hold true whether it is applied over all breeds of dog or whether it is applied to individuals within a breed.

Cats are more subtle than dogs and so are their tails. A dog indicating love will cheerfully thump its tail upon the ground but the dignified cat sends its message of affection by holding its tail in a straight vertical position. An especially responsive and affectionate cat will often raise its tail upright upon hearing the sound of its owner's voice.

Animal behaviorists feel the vertical tail display is based on the care- soliciting behavior of kittens toward their mother. Cat owners may be unpleasantly surprised to learn that their loving pets are actually inviting their humans, as substitute moms, to clean their bottoms.

Human "cat readers" can have a tough time deciphering the tail talk of felines since many of the same tail postures are used in relaying opposite messages. One important clue is whether the tail angle is accompanied by piloerection, the raising of the fur.

Fur Up Or Down?

For example, the universally known "Halloween cat" stance is a defensive posture. The frightened cat places itself in a lateral position with arched back and tail in a state of piloerection. This serves to make the cat look larger than it actually is and its message is a clear "Get away!"

However, the exact same stance without the piloerection sends the opposite message. It is referred to by animal behaviorists as a distance-reducing posture meaning "Play with me!"

Horse Talk

As with dogs, repetitive tail movements indicate excitement. But with felines a back and forth sweep of the tail indicates the stimulation is unwelcome and that the cat is annoyed. A short rapid twitching motion of a cat's tail, on the other hand, is an indication of predatory excitement - and perhaps frustration, since it most often appears when the cat can't get to the prey in question.

The messages horses convey with their tails are almost exclusively negative. A quick swish of a horse's tail is a threat gesture implying that a kick may well be in the offing. And, like a cranky cat, a horse that takes exception to the commands or equestrian skills of its rider will convey disapproval by moving its rearmost extremity in a quick back and forth sweeping motion, known as wringing the tail.

When a horse flags its tail by holding it at a slightly raised angle it is sending the message that it is in some discomfort. This is a subtle but unmistakable early warning sign of the potentially fatal condition known as colic.

Horses have their own version of the "Halloween cat" stance. When alarmed, horses will raise their tails as high as possible. This tail posture is usually accompanied by loud snorts, a high neck and head carriage, and a highly elevated prancing trot known as the passage. The intended effect is to make the animal look as large as possible, and, since horses are large to begin with, the results are usually quite impressive indeed.

To members of the human species, excessively verbal as we are, the behavior of other animals can often appear unpredictable. Yet, by watching their interactions among themselves, it is clear that this is not so. Though nonverbal, they are communicating complex messages to one another. Tails, sinuous, fluffy, or luxuriantly flowing, are an important conduit of information and intent. Though we may lack them, it behooves us humans to try and understand them.

About 12 years ago, almost as long as it took for Scott Rubenstein to realize his dream of an indoor tennis club here, he and Paul Annacone, then on the world tennis tour, talked about one day siting a tennis academy in East Hampton, where both had grown up.

On Jan. 31, the longtime friends announced that the Paul Annacone Tennis Academy, a development program aimed largely at junior players, would begin in July at Mr. Rubenstein's East Hampton Indoor Tennis club across from the Town Airport.

Applications are pending for four new outdoor courts, and the two men are working on a curriculum that the club's eight-member staff will carry out under Mr. Annacone's aegis. The tennis pro, who now coaches the world's number-one player, Pete Sampras, will be here for the first three weeks of July to see the academy off to a smooth start.

Long Treks Recalled

"Even during the periods I'm away with Pete," he said, "we'll have it set up so that everybody is on the same page."

Mr. Annacone, who at one time was ranked 11th in singles and was, with Christo Van Rensburg, a member of the top doubles team, knows well how difficult it can be to achieve world-class status growing up far from tennis hubs.

"Every Friday, from the age of 10, my parents used to drive me to the Port Washington Tennis Academy, where I'd practice with Harry Hopman or members of his staff for two hours," he said. "Four hours in the car for two hours of practice."

Later, he boarded at Nick Bolletieri's internationally famed tennis academy in Bradenton, Fla., before finishing his senior year at East Hampton High School.

Mr. Annacone, who now sits on the board of the Association of Tennis Professionals, was the nation's top collegiate player (at the University of Tennessee) before he turned pro.

Great Potential

It is not outside the realm of imagination that the Paul Annacone Tennis Academy will one day be spoken of in the same breath as the Port Washington and Nick Bolletieri academies.

"We'll try to work to set up something with great potential," said Mr. Annacone. "Where it goes is up to us."

Mr. Rubenstein emphasized that "this won't be a tennis academy just for kids born with silver spoons in their mouths."

"Both Paul and I know what it's like to be local kids. We'd like this to be a tennis center for young people from all over the East End. We'll go to the schools offering scholarships and partial scholarships."

Whatever It Takes

Mr. Annacone said he was not out to turn out serve-and-volleying Paul Annacone clones. Rather, he said, he would like to lead each player, whether 8 or 88, to achieve his or her potential.

"The best coaches are those who can adapt," he said. "I would coach Jim Courier totally differently than Pete, for instance. Some players you need to fire up, with some you need to lay back."

"Of course, it's important that they know technique - you look at the strengths and weaknesses and help them make the adjustments they need to become more productive, not huge, drastic changes."

Sampras, said his coach, is "the most talented guy I've ever seen, but, hopefully, I've made some contributions to his game. Still, in coaching, it's almost more important that the kids believe in you and in your ability to relate."

Will Pete Come?

"We're in no way suggesting that we're going to turn out a hundred Pete Samprases and Jim Couriers," said Mr. Rubenstein. "But we'll have the ability to take a child as far as he or she wants to go. If a kid wants a college scholarship, we'll help him to get it; if a kid wants to be a pro, we'll help."

"And since we both have children" - Paul and Tracy Annacone's are Nicholas, 10, and Olivia, 4; Scott and Holly Rubenstein's are Matthew, 10, Brian, 9, and Rebecca, 5 - "we're obviously going to develop what we as parents would want for our children."

And might Pete Sampras come over at times? It is certainly possible, Mr. Annacone and Mr. Rubenstein said, especially since the club has applied to include a Deco-Turf court among the new outdoor ones.

Low-Key

"Deco-Turf is the same surface as the U.S. Open," said Mr. Rubenstein.

"Hopefully, my friends will come here," said Mr. Annacone.

"They may, they may not," said Mr. Rubenstein. "We want to keep this a low-key place. That's why Martina [Navratilova] came here [one day last summer] in the first place. We saw to it that she wasn't hassled."

Mr. Annacone, who will turn 34 next month, has been slowed in recent years by injuries, which, he said, had something to do with his decision to launch the tennis academy now rather than later.

A herniated disk has kept him out of professional competition for the past two years, though he demurs when the subject of retirement comes up.

Not Formally Retired

He might, should his back get better, decide to play on Jimmy Connors's 35s tour in a year or two.

In the meanwhile, he said he considered himself fortunate to have had the career he did, to be coaching Sampras, who is within striking distance of Roy Emerson's grand-slam record, to be working with the A.T.P. board, and to be launching with Mr. Rubenstein, whom he has known since he was a seventh-grader, a tennis academy in his hometown.

"I played Paul once, when he was in seventh grade and I was in 11th," said Mr. Rubenstein, who was the number-three singles player on East Hampton's varsity that year, behind Sandy Fleischman and Paul's older brother, Steve. "I took him to a tiebreaker. That was it. I never played him after that."

The East Hampton Business Alliance has asked the town to overhaul the way it handles solid waste, suggesting that it mothball its $5 million, three-year-old composting plant.

At a Jan. 27 meeting with the Town Councilmen who oversee the program, alliance directors criticized composting as being too costly for business. Calling the future of composting unpromising, they said trucking more garbage out of town would reduce both the townwide garbage tax and carters' bills.

"We understand that the facility was built in another time by other people, but are dismayed by current government's apparent commitment to proceed blindly with what seems a seriously flawed project," said the alliance's executive director, Sherry B. Wolfe, in a Feb. 3 letter that followed the meeting.

Original Goal

The composting plant is a part of the $11 million solid waste facility built under the Democratic administration of former Supervisor Tony Bullock.

With the stated goal of intensive recycling, rather than concern about taxes, Mr. Bullock considered the design and completion of the facility among his finest achievements. He is now chief of staff to United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

On Jan. 27, directors of the alliance told the Councilmen who oversee the program, Peter Hammerle, a Democrat, and Len Bernard, a Republican, that they were unconvinced there would ever be a sufficient flow of compostable waste into the plant or that there would ever be much of a market for the end product. They said it should be turned it into a trash transfer station or leased to a private recycling company, according to Arthur Dodge, one of the directors.

Shocked

Among the directors at the session were Bonnie Bistrian Krupinski, a member of the family developing a golf course in Amagansett, Robert Denny of the Cook Agency, Debra Lobel, an attorney, Randall Parsons, a private land planner, and others.

They argued that compostable waste could be trucked out of town to incinerators or to private recycling facilities, in the same way nonrecyclables are, at an estimated cost of about $1 million a year.

"I was shocked. After all the work this town has done trying to get everyone to think about the importance of recycling. I tell you, it took me a few days to get over that meeting," said Councilman Hammerle.

Cheapest Way

At $54 a ton and falling, paying a carter to take the town's trash out of town is the cheapest method of getting rid of it. Recycling and composting require processing, by hand and machine, to make the end products salable. And, the market for recyclables has yet to recover from the nose dive it took in 1995.

These facts have been at the core of a longstanding disagreement between Democrats and Republicans about how to handle waste disposal. The differences of opinion have intensified since the Republicans took control of the Town Board last year, although the two Councilmen overseeing the recycling and composting plants represented each party.

Councilman Bernard had campaigned for a Town Board seat three times by calling for an end to what he called the Democrats' costly recycling philosophy.

"There's this idealistic debate with two extremes going on here. . . . There's the idea that recycling is better for the environment and that makes it the politically correct thing to do. Then there's the very dollars-and-cents business view that says it's not profitable. I think the alliance is taking that extreme," said Councilman Bernard.

However, Mr. Bernard said this week, "My understanding is we would give the plant a chance, to see what it can do when it's completely up and running." He added that he had told the alliance's directors that any evaluation of composting should be put off for eight or nine months.

Mr. Bernard said he spent Saturday, the day a new law went into effect making it mandatory to separate compostable waste from the rest of the garbage, at the town dump, and found residents and business owners "receptive."

Perplexed, Upset

"I think with a little education we are going to generate more material, but I agree with the alliance we don't have to overspend to do it," he added.

Both Councilmen were perplexed by the alliance's follow-up letter, saying they had asked the directors on Jan. 27 for patience with getting the composting operation up to full speed.

Mr. Hammerle said he was particularly upset to hear Mr. Parsons, who often works with preservation groups and is a Democrat, criticize the waste management program, and particularly on the basis of economics.

In the last year, the Town Board majority has curtailed spending on waste disposal with a hiring freeze, by firing the recycling coordinator, and, with Mr. Hammerle's reluctant let's-try-it-and-see, discontinuing the baling of newspaper, plastic, glass, and other recyclables.

David Paolelli, who manages the facility, said about 17 percent of the supposedly nonrecyclable trash destined in 1995 to be carted out of town had been diverted to the then-new compost plant. The plant ran at full speed, though not at full capacity, in 1995. It was shut down for months, however, last year, for repainting by the original contractor.

That 17 percent could portend an equivalent increase in the volume of what is trucked away and the estimated cost. It also could be used as a rough measure of how much compostable material is contained in the town's waste stream, excluding what is previously separated by self-haulers.

The town has made several attempts since the plant opened to encourage voluntary participation among those who generate large quantities of compostable waste, such as restaurants, with limited success.

In addition, a compost refining system meant to sift out undesirable particles has sat in boxes for months, while mountains of unrefined compost grow up around the plant and engineers struggle with the contractor hired, after three go-arounds with the bidding system, to install it. Word this week is that the system will be operable by April.

Officials admit the financial incentive, a lower tipping fee for recyclables, also has failed to inspire participation. They hope that making separation mandatory and threatening prosecution will.

"We won't know whether there is a market [for compost] until we have a high quality finished product, and we won't have a finished product until the refining system is installed, and in the meantime we have to work with the carters and the business owners on getting [compostables] to come in clean. I told the alliance that we shouldn't jump to conclusions," said Mr. Bernard.

Mr. Dodge, a Republican Committeeman, told The Star this week that nothing the Councilmen said last month gave him any reason for optimism.

There appeared to be a subtle difference among some of the alliance directors, though, with Mr. Parsons saying he had a "moderate" position. He called the Jan. 27 meeting "a healthy dialogue." He did not see it as a demand to shut the plant down immediately.

"We discussed privatization. We discussed a whole range of options. My feeling was that they didn't seem to have some of the basic information to make a decision about whether composting was a good thing to do right now," he said.

The days of unlimited play for a single greens fee are probably gone forever, but state officials meeting on Friday with prospective operators of the Sag Harbor Golf Club and other interested parties said they have no plans to expand the rustic nine-hole course or develop other portions of the 341-acre Barcelona Neck preserve.

Otherwise, during a two-hour meeting and tour of the club that was at times confrontational, state officials provided few details of their plans for the future of the course, where many retirees and others enjoy golfing.

"This is a proposal process," said Mark Lyon, director of concessions for the State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. "We are reaching out to the pro golfing community to get their views. We are not going to second-guess anyone. Nor are we going to prejudge any proposal."

Air Of Suspicion

Mr. Lyon was joined by Chuck Hamilton and Dave Sinclair of the Department of Environmental Conservation, which owns the property but wants to turn its operation over to the Office of Parks and Recreation. Ed Wankel, deputy commissioner of parks for the Long Island region, was also present but kept a low profile. Mr. Wankel was Suffolk County parks commissioner in 1993 when a master plan that proposed to turn over part of the Montauk County Park to private concessionaires ignited fierce protest.

An air of suspicion hung in the air. At one point, as state officials discussed the course with bidders, a bystander said, "Don't leave them alone." His friend added, "They've just signed a contract."

Others in the crowd said they had heard the state was planning to allow a developer to install docks at Northwest Harbor.

That's No Birdie

Thor Anderson, an East Hampton resident, said last Thursday he saw "a dock-building-type guy walking in the meadow" on the west side of the harbor from his vantage point at the foot of Northwest Landing Road. The man, he said, was clearly gesturing to several other men where pilings could be placed and how a dock could be laid out, he said. "There was no doubt what they were doing," said Mr. Anderson, who watched him with a spotting scope. "They weren't birders."

But Mark Levanway of the D.E.C. said Mr. Anderson was mistaken. "The boat dock is totally new to me," he said. Any development of the site will be limited to the "footprint" of the existing 50-acre course, he added.

Sag Harbor Mayor Pierce Hance and two Village Board members, Ed Deyermond and Brian Gilbride, as well as Southampton Town Supervisor Vincent Cannuscio and Councilman Steven Halsey attended Friday's meeting. But East Hampton Town Board members, who were meeting at Town Hall, were absent.

Town's Concerns

Yesterday, East Hampton Town Supervisor Cathy Lester said, "The town is certainly very concerned with what the state is planning. This has been a battle that has been going on since we worked to preserve Barcelona."

She said the Town Board, which met with Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. on Friday afternoon, would "support the Sag Harbor Golf Club's effort to operate the course" and would also look into the possibility of running the course "on a cooperative effort" with Southampton Town and the Village of Sag Harbor.

Since the state acquired the land in 1990, the not-for-profit Sag Harbor Golf Club has run the course on a year-to-year basis. While its officers said they knew the state wanted a more long-term arrangement, they said they were caught off-guard by a request for proposals that was formally released two weeks ago.

Club Plans Bid

The document calls for an operator to invest either $500,000 or $750,000 in capital improvements for a 10-year lease or between $1 million and $1.25 million for a 20-year deal. The new operator would be required to pay the state a minimum of $25,000 annually for the right to run the course as of May 1.

Mr. Levanway said on Tuesday that the state had extended the deadline for proposals originally due in Albany by Feb. 18 to March 18.

Although the Sag Harbor Golf Club plans to make its own bid, Paul Bailey, a member of the club's board of governors, said, "I don't know how we can come up with a meaningful proposal" in the time frame allowed by the state.

"We didn't expect it to come down this quickly," said Mr. Bailey. "I predicted, much to my chagrin, that this could never happen in 1997."

Mr. Thiele, who said the proposal was "thrown together very quickly" and "substantially different" from what he was told the state in tended, charged the move was an attempt by the state "to maximize the revenue stream from the course," as it has done at other state parks.

"The idea is to get as much money out of these properties as possible," he said. "And they can't do that without getting the Sag Harbor Golf Club out of the way."

In its own proposal, the club notes that the state's requirements are "slightly above the maximum net revenue that can be derived" from the club.

Mr. Bailey said the club was prepared to pay the state "a tad over $65,000" in 1996 profits from the course on Jan. 1 but was directed instead to use the money to have the access road repaved.

Thiele Teed Off

In a face-to-face confrontation with Mr. Lyon and Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Thiele charged the state was trying to "get around" the State Environmental Quality Review Act by failing to develop a management plan for Barcelona Neck before soliciting proposals for the golf course.

"The D.E.C. wanted to abandon this," he said. "They said the use was too intense. Now we're talking maybe $500,000, maybe $750,000 in improvements and you can't tell us what those improvements are."

"If we ran town government that way, I'd be in another line of work," he added. "This is a slam dunk. You haven't done your homework."

"Are we talking about nine holes, or are we talking about bulldozing the woods down in the middle of the night?" asked Marshall Garypie, president of the Sag Harbor Golf Club.

No Expansion

"We are not talking about an expansion of this nine-hole course to an 18-hole course," responded Mr. Lyon.

"The entire plan will be subjected to a draft environmental impact statement," Mr. Lyon said yesterday. "I can't imagine participating in projects that would have no review."

Mr. Lyon also said the state was following its normal timetable and was not rushing the matter. It sent approximately 100 letters to prospective bidders advising them of their plans early in January, he said.

While the state does not plan to expand the course, it would accept proposals to irrigate it by connecting it to a Suffolk County Water Authority line on Route 114, Mr. Lyon said.

At Nature's Mercy

The Sag Harbor Golf Club's own proposal notes that "lack of irrigation is the course's most remarkable feature. The fairways are at the mercy of nature and are normally burned brown and become hardened by mid-July."

The club, which uses portable pumps to irrigate greens only, would not change things because the fairways are "natural course conditions in the best tradition of the sport of golf, to which players must adjust."

While the club does not apply any fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides to the course, the state proposal allows for "an integrated pest management plan," subject to D.E.C. approval.

The state's proposal also requires the new bidder to have a professional golfer on its staff, something the Sag Harbor Golf Club does not have.

Projected Fees

Mr. Garypie and Mr. Bailey also expressed concerns about the projected fee schedule. Mr. Wankel said fees would be "consistent with other state nine-hole courses," or about $9 to $11 a round. The current fees in Sag Harbor are $10 on weekdays and $15 on weekends, but they include unlimited play.

The Sag Harbor club also offers a modestly priced annual membership at $230 for an individual or $350 for a family, which allows unlimited play. "We don't contemplate memberships," said Mr. Lyon. "But we would look at an annual permit."

"If someone is going to be the demon, it is not going to be us," said Mr. Bailey about the fee structure.

". . .in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."

Benjamin Franklin

Fishermen who thought they had escaped income taxes on their shares of a $7 million settlement with the General Electric company three years ago learned otherwise three weeks ago. The settlement ended a suit over the company's responsibility for the decline of the lucrative striped bass fishery in New York State.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun sending notices to the more than 400 individuals who settled with the manufacturer, informing them of amounts past due on 1994 taxes, along with interest and penalties that have accrued.

As much as $4 million of the $7 million settlement went to East End fishermen, baymen, charter boat captains, and draggermen, and some whopping tax bills are likely to be on the way. Over 100 of the fishermen who settled live on the South Fork.

Big Liabilities

Arnold Leo, secretary of the East Hampton Town Baymen's Association, said on Monday that relatively few of those who benefited from the settlement paid taxes on the money. Many used it to get out of financial holes, to pay off loans, to make mortgage payments, or to buy new fishing gear, he said. Two fishermen, Mr. Leo added, spent their entire awards on new boats in order to enter new fisheries.

"This could be a major disaster on a par with the original P.C.B. disaster," Mr. Leo said. "The bigger fishermen could be liable for $30,000, $40,000, $50,000," not including interest and penalties, he said.

In August of 1993, G.E. agreed to compensate fishermen who lost income during the seven years striped bass could not be sold because of polychlorinated biphenyl (P.C.B.) contamination.

Got No 1099s

The company had dumped tons of the suspected carcinogen into the Hudson River over a 30-year period, contaminating striped bass and other species. Fishermen began suing the manufacturing giant in 1985 and won the right to sue as a class in December of 1988.

Originally, fishermen put in claims for a share of the settlement money for a total of $3 million more than the $7 million set aside by G.E. As a result, fishermen were awarded about 70 percent of their total claim. Many still wound up with sizable checks; the biggest was reportedly more than $200,000.

Fishermen began receiving their checks in September of 1994.

Mr. Leo said the I.R.S. viewed the money as income, pure and simple, while most of the recipients assumed it represented a nontaxable award for damages. Reinforcing that belief was the fact that none of the recipients received 1099 income tax forms from General Electric, he added.

Damages

According to Mr. Leo, "the suit was never about lost income, but about damages which included social disruption, displacement, depression. And there was capital damage. People had to buy new boats and gear. A moderate bass fisherman lost more in nets than he did in lost income. The point is, we were told by attorneys that you never pay taxes on a tort [wrongful act or injury], so everyone felt assured."

"There was no question that it was money for damages, and no taxes," Mr. Leo, who acted as claims coordinator between the fishermen and G.E., said.

He added that although the tax question had been raised at the time of settlement G.E. officials had assured him tax forms would be sent out if it appeared they were required.

Economic Damage

Sidney B. Silverman, a lawyer with a house in Amagansett who handled the class action suit for the fishermen along with Joseph Carlino of Mineola, and brokered the agreement, explained that "the question was open at the time, but the Supreme Court resolved the issue in 1995. It ruled that, yes, such cases are torts, but the damage is economic, not physical."

East Hampton Town Councilman Thomas Knobel, himself a party to the settlement, said, "How else do you measure damage. Do you weigh a bucket of tears? It's bad enough if we have to pay the tax. If interest and penalties are added, it's punitive," Mr. Knobel said.

In order to participate in the settlement fishermen had to produce records showing the income they earned from striped bass during any or all of the years from 1982 through 1985.

Each fisherman was eligible for seven times the amount earned from striped bass during their most productive year. The multiplier, seven, represented the number of years bass fishermen were crippled. There was a separate formula for those who earned $50,000 or more.

Two Precedents

Mr. Leo said the directors of the Baymen's Association had met with a tax attorney in New York City last week who cited two cases as precedents. In both, compensation received, even for punitive damages, was considered taxable income, not a nontaxable personal injury award.

William Bernstein of the Patchogue firm of Cartier, Hogan, Sullivan & Bernstein, another tax specialist, is scheduled to be in Amagansett on Feb. 26 to discuss individual tax problems with interested fishermen. The session will begin at 7 p.m. in Scoville Hall of the Presbyterian Church.

He held out little hope, however, that taxes could be avoided. He said that in suits against the I.R.S. brought by fishermen put out of business by the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska "the Supreme Court found that the amount of damages was calculated on income replacement. Personal injury is not calculated that way."

Case-By-Cash

The fact that bass fishermen did not receive 1099 forms from General Electric was not likely to be seen as significant, he added.

"I would be surprised if they negotiated. They have a Supreme Court decision. They might be willing to compromise on penalties, but the I.R.S. has no authority to compromise on interest," Mr. Bernstein said. The general schedule for penalties on late taxes is 5 percent per month for up to five months, or 25 percent.

"Even though we could fight, it's probably most sensible to deal with the I.R.S. on a case-by-case basis," Mr. Leo said earlier this week.

Clear Warning

Manorville

February 3, 1997

Dear Editor:

The latest report of excessively high levels of radioactive tritium found at Brookhaven National Laboratory is a clear warning that nuclear reactors don't belong on top of one's drinking water supply. Even the strongest of pro-nuclear advocates will have to agree that the lab's nuclear reactors must be permanently closed and, at a minimum, moved off Long Island.

Long Islanders have fought for years to protect our drinking water, and the lab's nuclear reactors are a direct threat to our sole source aquifer. It was clearly a mistake to locate this radioactive, toxic chemical-polluting lab in the heart of the pine barrens atop our drinking water supply.

A polluting Brookhaven Lab is also a threat to our local economy. A recent report by William J. Weida of the Global Resources Action Center for the Environment states that while Brookhaven Lab has a large economic impact, it is not as large as the impact of the marine, tourism, and recreation industries of the Peconic-Gardiner's Bay ecosystem.

The challenge now is to convert Brookhaven Lab from a radioactive, toxic chemical polluter to a laboratory which is an asset to our local economy and environment.

Sincerely,

PETE MANISCALCO

Snake Oil

East Hampton

February 3, 1997

Dear Editor:

Regarding the proposed radio tower site off Route 114 near Cove Hollow Road:

I'm going to need excellent cell phone reception to call 911 soon after the tower is built. You see, if you spend any time near that location, you'll soon learn that airplanes about to land at the East Hampton Airport pass right through that air space.

The way I've got it figured, one of these planes comes in a little low, clips the tower, falls onto the railroad tracks, and gets knocked into the Long Island Lighting Company substation by the 6:05 from Patchogue.

The modern-day snake-oil salesmen who told the Planning Board this site should be acceptable are about as believable as the corporate shill who wanted us to know we needed a fancy new supermarket in order to get fresher seafood.

Perhaps the best place for this tower would be right next to the new A&P . . . in the circular file.

But wait! Maybe Martha Stewart could design a tower to look like an osprey nest, and have it on her property. I'm told she'd like a nest on her Georgica Pond property and NYNEX wants a tower near the pond. A match made in corporate heaven!

Ahhh . . . life in the country!

Regards,

TOM MacNIVEN

Please address correspondence to [email protected]

Lovers, here's a fail-safe dinner plan to celebrate your romance.

Have you ever wondered why Virginia Is for Lovers, as that noble commonwealth proclaims on its license plates?

Elizabeth Taylor and her number sixth, or perhaps seventh, Senator John Warner? Nah - too obscure, and almost forgotten by all but Liz's most devoted fans.

John Smith and Pocahontas? Romantic? I guess, if you fancy the story of a 14-year-old girl being dragged off to gloomy England by a man three times her age. (I should look up the captain's exact age, but I couldn't find out on the Internet in two hours' searching the answer to the burning question of just why Virginia Is for Lovers, so how could I ever find out John Smith's age?)

The fact is, of course, every place - as Cole Porter assured us in "Let's Do It" - is for lovers. We celebrate that tomorrow, St. Valentine's Day. So, naturally, one's thoughts turn to an intimate dinner for two.

Possibly at the top of Rockefeller Center at the most romantic room in New York, Rainbow and Stars, where ballads are crooned to couples, or in the Rainbow Room itself, where one can dance the night away on the slowly revolving parquet. (The music never stops, though the bands change. The musicians quietly slip into each other's chairs and suddenly, instead of soft rock or stately standards, the notes are bossa nova.)

However, what if by chance both rooms are all booked, or our magic carpet needs its alternator replaced (that's the part mechanics keep in a box labeled "sucker supplies"), or if - I realize this is a long shot - the lovers love to cook and spend the evening alone together?

Build a romantic fire, put all your most lyrical CDs on the stereo, and spend all the money you saved not going out on the best champagne and a cozy cooking liaison that features caviar and Godiva chocolates. So, lovers, here's my fail-safe dinner plan to celebrate your romance:

The Caviar

If ever the payoff outweighed the investment, this little hors d'oeuvre is it. For a tiny price, you can buy a tinful of graduated heart-shaped cookie-cutters, ranging from one inch to about three inches at the widest curve, to use whenever hearts are the motif, whether the celebrants are young or old.

Six canapes

4 wide slices French country bread, a quarter-inch thick

1/2 cup whipped cream cheese

3 ozs. red salmon caviar

Freshly ground white pepper

Toast the bread lightly under a grill, then cut out hearts about two inches at the wide curve. Spread them thinly with the cream cheese (this makes a steadying base to hold the caviar on the toast). Put a dollop of caviar into the center of each heart and spread it toward the edges with a small rubber spatula, taking care not to break the eggs. Dust lightly with freshly ground pepper.

You may make the toast hearts a day ahead, but don't assemble them until shortly before serving, as they tend to get soggy. Serve the champagne icy cold, and keep it cold in an ice-filled wine bucket.

The Oysters

Few first courses are easier to make or more certain to please oyster-lovers. Here they are largely unadorned and the dish depends entirely on the quality of the fresh, plump, preferably wild oysters from a nearby bed.

4 trimmed, crustless toast points

1 pint freshly opened raw oysters

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp. cream, heavy or medium

White pepper

Trim slices of home-style white bread, cut into triangles, and toast until they are dry and crisp. Arrange two pieces on each salad-size plate. Drain the oysters, saving the liquor for another use. Melt the butter in a small heavy skillet and when bubbly, add the oysters. Shake the pan until the edges of the oysters curl, then add the Worcestershire sauce, cream, and pepper to taste. Divide over the toast points. Serve immediately with more champagne.

The Rabbit

While the preceding courses are being savored, this one should, of course, be in the oven. The rice, which takes about an hour, should be cooked and in its timbale molds. The salad can of course be washed and dried a day ahead and the dressing made in the afternoon and set aside.

1 whole fresh rabbit, about 3 lbs.

1/4 cup Cognac

1/2 lb. fresh, domestic mushrooms, trimmed and sliced

1/4 lb. fresh Chanterelles or 2 ozs. dried and soaked

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced

1 cup soft, fresh bread crumbs

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 pkg. frozen artichoke hearts

Garnish: watercress

Wash and pat the rabbit dry. Rub it inside and out with the Cognac and put it in a plastic bag. Refrigerate overnight. Make a stuffing with the mushrooms. Saute them in butter until tender along with the garlic. Add a little salt and freshly milled black pepper. Mix them with the parsley and bread crumbs and stuff the cavity of the rabbit with this simple dressing - it imparts great flavor to the rabbit, which has extremely mild-tasting white flesh.

Sew up the cavity or use skewers and twine to close it. Brown the rabbit to medium-gold in the sesame oil and put it in a covered casserole as close as possible the same size as the rabbit. Roast for 45 minutes, basting often, then add the defrosted artichoke hearts and roll them around in the accumulated juices. Cover and roast an additional 15 minutes.

The entire recipe can be made a day ahead and reheated - the rabbit flesh will benefit from its overnight union with the mushrooms and flavorings.

To carve the rabbit, cut off the hind legs (the forequarters haven't much meat), then remove long, neat fillets down the length of the body, starting at the backbone and cutting down as if you were filleting a fish. Cut each fillet into two equal pieces crosswise. Serve the rabbit on hot plates with some of the mushroom stuffing and a garnish of watercress. Spoon some pan juices over the meat.

The Rice

This can also be made a day ahead or the previous evening, if necessary, and reheated.

Put half a cup of long-grain wild rice (best quality) into a small saucepan with 2 cups of water, a teaspoon of butter, and a few chopped dried wild mushrooms. Bring to a boil and add half a teaspoon of salt. Cover and simmer about 30 minutes, using a flame tamer to avoid too-fast evaporation.

When the wild rice is nearly tender and most, but not all, of the water evaporated, add a quarter-cup long-grain white rice and three-quarters cup hot water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, then turn off heat and let steam, with a paper towel between the pot and lid, for another five minutes. If there is any excess liquid, drain it off.

Lightly pack two buttered custard cups with the rice, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside (do not refrigerate - it ruins the rice) until needed. Reheat in a microwave, then unmold onto the serving plate.

Serve the chilled Montrachet with the rabbit and rice.

The Salad

Wash, dry, and chill enough mesclun for two people. Make a simple vinaigrette using one tablespoon of walnut oil and a few drops of lemon juice with a little salt and pepper. After the main course is cleared, dress the mesclun with the vinaigrette and sprinkle with chopped walnuts and crumbled Roquefort. This might be the right time for a glass of sparkling mineral water with ice.

The Dessert

Simply rinse the strawberries quickly, stem them, and sprinkle them lightly with cognac - some people advocate Balsamic vinegar, but I am sick to death of Balsamic vinegar and wish it would disappear forever.

Raspberry liqueur is also good, in tiny amounts, to sweeten the strawberries, which will not be local at this time of year so usually need a little help. Serve a dish of powdered confectioner's sugar to dip the berries in.

A pretty plate of Godiva chocolates and a tiny glass of that heavenly scented elixir (it's not called eau de vie - water of life - for nothing) a Framboise or Poire William will cap a perfect evening, gastronomically speaking. The conclusion of it is up to the participants.

While undoubtedly he wishes this season's win-loss record were better, Sidney Green, the former N.B.A. power forward who began a basketball coaching career at Southampton College last year, is well pleased with his Runnin' Colonials.

"I teach not only basketball," he said during a conversation the other day, "but things outside the realm of basketball - things like responsibility, discipline, respect for yourself and others, how to prioritize your life."

"In other words, they've got to realize they're not here to play first and to study second. They're here to receive an education - that's number one," he said.

Off-Court Smarts

Last year's team, which, at 16-13, had the most wins in 23 years, was also a winner in the classroom, the imposing, affable Mr. Green pointed out, finishing with an aggregate 3.0 grade point average.

John Burke, the seven-foot, two-inch center, whose game soared under Mr. Green's tutelage, not only led the nation in blocked shots and was second in rebounds, but graduated with a 3.7. Kwane Thomas, the point guard, graduated with a 3.5.

Mr. Burke is now playing professionally in Germany, and, according to Mr. Green, "doing exceptionally well. I'm hoping to get him some tryouts with N.B.A. teams." Mr. Green has opened a dialogue between the N.B.A. and Mr. Thomas concerning a marketing position.

The Drive To Strive

This year's squad, which, at 6-11 in the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference and 9-12 overall, is fighting to make the conference playoffs, "is a bunch of wonderful kids - very coachable," said Mr. Green. "I enjoy being around them - they're a joy to coach and teach."

Moreover, they sport an aggregate 2.7, and five players - Kevin Fleming, Paul and Nick Warywoda, Andrew Francis, and Noel Diaz - are on the honor roll, the coach was happy to report.

Mr. Green, who grew up on the mean streets of East New York, had, he said, "always been driven to be the best I could be," despite all. He expects his players give their all, as well, on and off the court.

Road Not Taken

"I could have gone either way," he said, recounting, apparently for the first time publicly, that his oldest brother, a disabled veteran, who had been like a father to him, had been murdered at the age of 29 when Mr. Green, then 17, was about to enter his senior year at Thomas Jefferson High School.

"He was set up - they thought he was carrying a government check. He wasn't - he was just minding his own business, going to the store. And the thing is," he said, shaking his head, "my brother was a person who would have given you his last dollar."

"I knew who they were," he continued, in reply to a question. "I wanted to kill the person who killed my brother. It's natural."

No Excuses

The three who had done it are now serving life sentences. "My brother's buried at Calverton cemetery," Mr. Green said. It's where I go when I want to get away. I go there and talk with him . . . he lives in me."

Given his brother's murder, his father's death the year before, and the fact that one of his brothers died of AIDS when Mr. Green was playing in the N.B.A., "When I hear people say they've got problems as a way of excusing themselves, it doesn't cut it with me. I've had a whole book of problems, but it didn't stop me from trying to reach my goals."

'The mind and body go hand in hand: If you're disciplined off the court, if you're learning and show up for class, you'll show up for practice.'

Mere ambition wasn't enough, he said, in answer to a question. "You must be willing to pay the price . . . . If you're a player, are you the last one to leave the gym? Are you the first one to arrive? In the summertime do you practice on improving your skills in the gym, or do you hang out, instead, at the beach? If we all were like that," he said, with a smile, "we'd all be all-Americans."

Better Opportunity

The "doubters," he added, simply fueled his fire. "To this day when I see them I shake their hands and thank them."

He hastened to add that he had at times fallen short of accomplishing the goals he had set for himself. In the N.B.A. he wasn't an all-star, nor had he played for a championship team. Nevertheless, "I kept working as hard as I could to be an all-star and to win a championship ring. I didn't put my head in the sand."

His brother's murder and the vengeful anger that it had stirred in him impelled Mr. Green, New York City's top player in 1979, to get far away from Brooklyn when it came time to pick a college. While John Thompson, who was beginning to build a program at Georgetown, had recruited him, Mr. Green saw "a better opportunity" with Jerry Tarkanian at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Until last year, when it was joined by the jerseys of Larry Johnson and Stacy Augmon, his had been the only number retired there.

Starting From Scratch

"U.N.L.V. was coming off probation, starting from scratch, when I got there - I like to think I paved the way for players like Larry Johnson, Stacy Augmon, and Armon Gilliam. It was the start of something really good, similar to what's going on here now."

"People thought I was nuts, crazy when I came here to take over a program that had been 6-21 the year before, that had no support in the community, and that was on a shoestring budget. But I knew what I was getting into. I hoped people would recognize my work ethic and my commitment to build a program."

As a coach, he said, he had been "very fortunate" to have played for some of the best, including Tarkanian, Rick Pitino, Tex Winter, Stan Albeck, and Chuck Daly.

Sponge's Sponge

Consequently, just as his players have been soaking up what he's imparted to them, he's been availing himself of the wisdom of Gil Reynolds, one of his assistants, the mentor of every great player to come out of Brooklyn, and Ken Hunter, who coached Southampton in its glory years.

He had invited Mr. Hunter aboard as a consultant at around the mid-season, said Mr. Green. "He loves the game and is full of knowledge. My players are like sponges when I'm coaching and teaching them - I wanted to be Ken Hunter's sponge."

He didn't want to imitate any particular coach, he added, but rather to assimilate the methods, strategies, and thoughts that resonated with him. "The Bulls wouldn't be where they are today if Phil Jackson didn't have Tex Winter as his assistant," Mr. Green noted. "I've been in basketball for 25 years and you'll never know it all."

Five P's

It is at the daily afternoon practice sessions that his philosophy and the team's response to it are most visible, said the 35-year-old coach, whose bonhomie, according to one campus observer, "is so infectious that even grumpy types respond warmly to him."

"If you really want to see how hard this team plays, come to one of our practices," said the coach. "They're open - just give us a call in advance."

He never talks about winning, he said. "Instead, I have four things I ask. One) Go out and play hard. Two) Play smart and together. Three) Show and prove to yourselves that you're the better-conditioned team, and Four) Go out and have fun. If you meet these criteria, the wins will come. Also, there are the four P's - five P's: pride, in your team, school, and in yourselves; passion; poise; preparation, which we do emphatically, and persistence."

Believe It

"Whenever you see our team, you can believe we'll play hard. You'll see a team that rebounds emphatically, that plays tough, tenacious defense, that cares for each other on and off the court, and shows loyalty, to each other and to the coaches."

Assuming they win all five of their remaining regular-season games, the Runnin' Colonials will finish at .500. In retrospect, had some of the players been overconfident in predicting when the season began a conference championship and even a trip to Louisville [for Division II's elite eight tournament]?

Mr. Green replied, "If people saw how hard these kids work in practice, they would not think they were being over-confident. We still believe that we can go to Louisville. That's been our goal, and is our goal. And it's a realistic goal because they've worked so hard."

On A Roll

All told, considering the progress that had been made in the past two years, "no matter what our record is this season, the program is still 110 percent better than what it was. We have an active booster club now, under Alan Ornstein, and the support of the community, the faculty, the administration, the students. . . . The money we've been raising is not only for basketball, but for the volleyball program, the soccer program, the softball program, and the women's program."

"We're going in the right direction. Teams are scouting us now. I guess we're doing something good. They never scouted us before, I've been told," he said with a smile.

John Stevens, the six-foot, eight-inch senior center/forward, the team leader in scoring (17 points per game) and rebounding (11 per game) had, although half a foot shorter, been "doing exactly what John [Burke] did for us last year," Mr. Green said. "He's started every game and has improved in every phase of it. He's able to carry us."

Work Ethic

Wally Midgley, an older sophomore, from Hawaii, a particular crowd favorite because of his fiery play, was "the heart of this team because of his work ethic. He plays with reckless abandon and is a full team player. He does the little things, boxes out, gets a lot of rebounds . . . he's a coach's joy."

"And don't forget Isaiah Russell [the senior six-four power forward]," Mr. Green said. "He's shooting close to 70 percent from the field" - one of the top percentages in the nation.

"He's unstoppable underneath. He's also very much of a team player. He's a good example of what I've been talking about: Work ethic and discipline were brand new to him [when he transferred to Southampton from Mercer Junior College in Trenton, N.J.]."

"He's so much different off the court now. His grades have improved tremendously. The mind and body go hand in hand: If you're disciplined off the court, if you're learning and show up for class, you'll show up for practice. That discipline will be reflected not only in your game, but in everything you do."

Lukas Foss, one of the country's foremost conductors and composers, will be the 1997 director of the Music Festival of the Hamptons. Mr. Foss, who spends part of his time in Bridgehampton, with his wife, the artist Cornelia Foss, is the third director in the festival's three-year history. He replaces Jonathan Cohler, a clarinetist and conductor of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts.

Mr. Foss has conducted most of the world's celebrated orchestras and been the music director of several. He holds 10 honorary degrees, among other distinctions. Called a "New York institution as composer, conductor, and pianist" by James R. Oestreich of The New York Times, he was the sole composer honored during the New York Philharmonic's Composer Week in 1995.

Lawsuit

Mr. Cohler, whom the festival board discharged at the end of last season midway through a two-year contract, has brought a $1 million lawsuit against the festival for payment he claims it owes him for services rendered and for payment he would have received in 1997 under the terms of the contract. He also seeks damages.

"He is owed some money," said Stephen McCabe, the festival's attorney. "The dispute is over how much." Mr. McCabe called Mr. Cohler "an excellent musician," but added that "the board was of the opinion that he didn't perform satisfactorily."

Neither Mr. Cohler nor his attorney was available for comment by press time.

The Natural Thing

Having directed other festivals for years, Mr. Foss said, the festival here "seems like the natural thing to do." He has spent summers on the South Fork for nearly 40 years with his wife. They also live in Manhattan.

"It's going to be very nice," predicted Mr. Foss, who, at 74, said he expected to do this job "for several years."

Mr. Foss teaches at Boston University, where The Star reached him this week. "We plan to have an interesting, adventurous program," he said, including "at least" one of his own compositions - the most likely being "Curriculum Vitae With Time Bomb," a composition for percussion and accordion. It is, the maestro said, "an updated version of the story of my life."

Jennings And Vonnegut

Mr. Foss's assistant, Jeffrey Jones, a former student, will help organize the festival. Among program selections already planned are "Peter and the Wolf," narrated by the news anchor Peter Jennings, who also lives in Bridgehampton, and two perforn Bridgehampton and two performances of Igor Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat," a parody of the Faust legend - the original as well Kurt Vonnegut's version which, explained the composer, "did away with the devil."

The festival also will continue its Benno Moiseiwitsch piano series, spotlighting different pianists from around the globe. Mr. Moiseiwitsch was the great-uncle of Eleanor Sage Leonard, the festival's founder and president, of Amagansett and New York.

"We had a wonderful response last season," said Ms. Leonard. "We just made it [financially], she said, and "that's the way it's supposed to be.

Long Career

Mr. Foss was born in Berlin and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1942. He was educated at the Lycee Pasteur and Paris Conservatory, and graduated with honors from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He studied conducting at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood and composition at Yale University, and has been a recipient of both a Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship and Fulbright Scholarship.

A prolific composer, he has created cantatas, operas, symphonies, quartets, quintets, and experimental forms.

The Music Festival of the Hamptons, a nine-day mid-summer event, was launched as the Newport Music Festival of the Hamptons in the summer of 1995, with Dr. Mark Malkovich 3d, the Rhode Island Newport Festival director, as artistic director. More than 25 concerts were presented.

Fewer concerts were offered last summer in a program which included free events for children and the elderly, a benefit performance that offered both klezmer and classical music, and a performance featuring semiprofessional musicians.

Details for the 1997 season will soon be forthcoming, Ms. Leonard said.

It was while attending New York University's film school, where he went, he explained, to avoid looking for a job, that Barry Sonnenfeld discovered he was "an idiot savant of lighting."

"I discovered that I knew how to shoot movies. After graduating, I bought a used 16mm camera, because I figured if I owned a camera, I could call myself a cameraman," he said.

From his seat on the floor where his 4-year-old daughter, Chloe, was building a tower out of - what else - videotapes, he beckoned a visitor into his Amagansett house overlooking Gardiner's Bay on a recent Saturday morning.

Coen Collaboration

Chomping his way through a bowl of bran flakes, he sounded a bit surprised as he reviewed the sequence of events that led to his own Los Angeles production company, to collaborating with Steven Spielberg, who is executive producer on his latest project, "Men in Black," and to his long list of Hollywood credits.

"I never worked my way up," he said. "I sort of called myself a cameraman and became a cameraman. Someone wanted me to direct 'The Addams Family,' so I did."

Mr. Sonnenfeld's career training came on the job. He was propelled headfirst into the movie business when he was offered $100 for three days' work by Joel Coen, whom he had met at a party. Mr. Coen and his brother Ethan, whose most recent movie was "Fargo," were raising money to shoot "Blood Simple" and had Mr. Sonnenfeld shoot a before-the-fact trailer to show prospective investors.

Eventually they made "Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona," and "Miller's Crossing" together.

He also worked as cinematographer with the directors Frank Perry, on "Compromising Positions"; Danny DeVito, on "Throw Momma From the Train"; Rob Reiner, on "When Harry Met Sally" and "Misery," and Penny Marshall, on "Big."

Directorial Debut

It was then that Scott Rudin, at the time head of production at Orion Pictures, which had produced "Raising Arizona" and "Big," asked him to direct "The Addams Family."

"We joke about how many people turned it down before me," Mr. Sonnenfeld said.

Midway through production, Orion, in bankruptcy, sold the film to Paramount, whose new chief, pronouncing what he saw of the unfinished film "unreleasable," asked to see the movie in its raw form. Mr. Sonnenfeld refused, telling him, in jest, that it was shaping up to be a "sadder 'Sophie's Choice.' "

Found A Niche

Paramount officials panicked, he said, until he assured them that he was kidding. "I assumed I was never going to direct again," he said. But "The Addams Family," his directorial debut, turned out to be a hit.

Mr. Sonnenfeld is aware of his guileless manner. He's almost "stupidly open," he says. His habit of saying just what he thinks, which his wife calls a form of "verbal Tou-rette's," usually would be problematic, but "I somehow get away with it," he said.

"The Addams Family" turned out to be a perfect vehicle for his quirky brand of humor, and he found his niche.

"The thing about being a director . . . you have to answer about 10,000 questions a day and you have to have an opinion about everything. Actually, directing is very much like being a good parent. What you need to do as a director and as a parent is to be consistently kind, be loving . . . that's what you have to be with actors."

Born April Fool

Born on April 1, 1953, a birth date he says has "marked him for life," Mr. Sonnenfeld is quick to add that, in addition to having a sense of humor, he is a sensitive man who is easily moved.

"I'm a weeper, whiner, and a crier," he said. "You should have seen me at 'An American Tail' [an animated children's movie]. When I wasn't crying, I was calling out, 'Fievel, look below!' "

Mr. Sonnenfeld credits his wife, Susan Ringo (whom he calls Sweetie), and his young daughter with providing his happiest moments.

Homebody At Heart

"Without Sweetie I would be a really pathetic guy . . . sort of living alone eating Chinese food."

He is happy that he no longer gauges his life by what he calls a "bachelor barometer" - a huge bowl brimming with packets of soy and duck sauce collected in the days of constant take-out. It was a detail the constant take-out. It was a detail the director included to show a part of Michael J. Fox's life in "For Love or Money."

At home, Mr. Sonnenfeld practices his parenting skills on Chloe and two stepdaughters, Sasha, 19, and Amy, 16. He and Ms. Ringo were married aboard a New Orleans riverboat during the wrap party for "Miller's Crossing," for which he served as cinematographer.

For a man whose craft is pure Hollywood, Mr. Sonnenfeld is something of a homebody. He said he welcomed the eastward spread of moviedom, which has enabled him to accomplish casting, shooting, and editing near his family.

Coming Next

"I very much hate to leave here," he said, adding that even trips to New York City had lost their appeal. "I really like to nap," he said.

"You can't nap in New York City, because there's so much going on around you." On the South Fork, there are "guilt-free naps," he said.

"I'm hoping I can find some movie I can shoot entirely in East Hampton so I never have to leave."

To that end, Mr. Sonnenfeld has John Guare, the playwright and screenwriter noted for "Six Degrees of Separation" and "Atlantic City," working on a script, another "black comedy."

And Mr. Sonnenfeld's own company, the Right Coast, has purchased the rights to "Swordfish," a true story written by David McClintock, about a Drug Enforcement Agency informant who was left, Mr. Sonnenfeld says, "to twist slowly in the wind."

Home Office

The director's home office, with its dark wood furniture, fireplace, leather couches, and a glass door with his name painted in gold, evokes that of a 1920s private detective. It is a look, in fact, evident in the Coen brothers' "Miller's Crossing," his personal favorite "in terms of how it looks."

His first East Hampton house was a modest New Sunshine design in Springs. When that house was sold, he used the proceeds, and then some, to buy two acres of waterfront land and build another, which Mr. Sonnenfeld considers a retreat.

"We're not part of the summer scene," Mr. Sonnenfeld said.

The ability to edit his movies in East Hampton is written into Mr. Sonnenfeld's contracts. Two of his films, "Get Shorty," an Elmore Leonard novel which he read and discussed with Danny DeVito, who purchased the rights, and "For Love or Money," were edited here, and, this winter he is completing post-production work on "Men In Black" here, too.

High-Tech Process

A science fiction/action adventure/black comedy starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, the movie is about people claiming to have sighted U.F.O.s. They are visited by G-men (men in black) who convince them that they were mistaken.The story, which has long circulated as what Mr. Sonnenfeld calls an "urban legend," was first written as a comic book by Lowell Cunningham. The story was then made into a screenplay by Ed Solomon, who wrote "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure."

Mr. Sonnenfeld receives the dailies by Federal Express from California and watches them in a screening room in the basement of his house. He uses an office on Pantigo Road for twice-weekly video conference calls.

Cameo Appearances

In a high-tech feat using a NYNEX T-3 line, George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic company, which is doing the special effects for the film, beams them to Mr. Sonnenfeld, who is able to see his California colleagues and to use a cursor to point to on-screen effects under discussion.

"This movie is so laden with special effects," he said, "even though I'm in post-production, I'm still directing the movie."

The movie's final mix, adding sound and music, will be done in New York City in April, and the film is scheduled for release in early July.

Like Alfred Hitchcock, Mr. Sonnenfeld includes cameo appearances of himself, and sometimes of family members, in most of his movies, though he said, "I'm so bad it's hard to find tiny little roles for me that won't ruin the movie."

His sense of humor shows in the roles he selects for himself: In "Get Shorty" he was a hotel doorman dressed in a red, foppish, regal costume; in "The Addams Family," he was a face at the window of Gomez Addams's train, and in "Men in Black," he will be a mug shot on a wall in the G-men's headquarters of aliens disguised as humans, along with Chloe, Newt Gingrich, and Steven Spielberg, among others.

Personal Touches

Other personal touches to be found in his movies include a child's painting signed "Susan Ringo" on a school wall behind Morticia Addams, and the appearance, as extras in "Throw Momma From the Train," of his wife, stepdaughters, and in-laws.

Ms. Ringo also had a speaking part in "For Love or Money," which was filmed in Southampton. "Sweetie's really a good actress," he said.

In part, he said, his sense of humor developed in "self-defense" while growing up as an "only child of overprotective Jewish parents" in the Washington Heights section of New York City.

For Real?

He swears that once, in 1970, at 2 a.m. at an Earth Day concert in Madison Square Garden "with 19,600 people and Jimi Hendrix warming up," he heard his name announced over the public address system:

"Barry Sonnenfeld, call your mother."

Fearing the worst, he did. "I just wanted to know when you'd be home," she said.

"Most people in the arts are both self-effacing and sure of themselves at the same time," he believes. "I'm very happy, very fulfilled, and I'm very nervous. I sort of admire myself and can't stand myself at the same time."

As a student at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art, he played the French horn. He then chose political science as his N.Y.U. major because "I had no interest in anything, and that was an easy one."

Belief In Education

He said the first three years of college were "the worst three years of my life, except for junior high school." He transferred to Hampshire College for his senior year.

Mr. Sonnenfeld now takes education very seriously. "The purpose of education is to help you figure out how to think, rather than train you for something," he said. "My dad told me, "Just figure out what you want to do, and you'll figure out how to make a living at it." He and his wife are among those who recently helped found the Hayground School.

Soon he will begin serving as a mentor to students at N.Y.U., and he expects to work with Dreamworks, the new Spielberg-Geffen-Katzenberg studio, to create animated features.

"I'm excited about doing something that would interest Chloe," he said.