Burton Lane, whose tunes for Broadway musicals and Hollywood movies became classics and whose Amagansett house was a gathering place for talent, fun, and evening sing-alongs for more than 20 years, died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 84.

His wife, Lynn, said he had died of a stroke, "at home and in his own bed."

A composer whose career spanned six decades from the early 1930s, Mr. Lane wrote the music for "Finian's Rainbow" and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." Both Broadway shows had successful runs and became equally successful movies.

Songs Mr. Lane composed for "Finian's Rainbow" - "Ol' Devil Moon," "How Are Things in Glocca Morra," "Look to the Rainbow," "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love" - and the title number from "Clear Day" have become standards of American show-tune music, as familiar today as when they were first performed or recorded by such stars as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Ella Logan, Fred Astaire, Libby Holman, Petula Clark, and Barbra Streisand.

Mr. Lane's association with the East End began in 1957, when he and his wife rented an East Hampton house. In the mid-'60s, they bought a house in Amagansett. "Some of the happiest years of our marriage were spent in Amagansett," said Mrs. Lane, "surrounded by interesting and creative friends."

Mr. Lane brought the house down in the summer of 1983 when he sang and played the piano in a Guild Hall evening devoted to "The Songs of Burton Lane."

Friends recalled him this week as a man unusually well disposed toward his fellows, "an extraordinary man," said Murray Schisgal, the playwright. "It is very rare to find a person of genius with gentility, humility, and great generosity of soul: Burton Lane was that rare man."

Mr. Schisgal described "walking along the ocean's edge at the Atlantic Avenue" Beach with Mr. Lane, Robert Aurthur, and Alfred Crown "as among the brightest memories of my life."

"When we first rented in East Hampton," said the lyricist Sheldon Harnick, "he was very generous to us, inviting us to use the pool. Out here, he and his wife were wonderful hosts who gave wonderful evening parties when he would sit down and play, when guests such as Cy Coleman would gather around the piano to sing."

Burton Lane was born on Feb. 2, 1912, in New York City to Lazarus Levy and the former Frances Fink. He grew up on Manhattan's West Side and attended the High School of Commerce. He played viola and cello in the school orchestra and studied piano, but dropped out of high school to seek work as a composer for Tin Pan Alley music publishing companies.

An introduction to George Gershwin when Mr. Lane was still a teenager led to a friendship that lasted until Mr. Gershwin's death in 1937. By that time, Mr. Lane himself was established as a force in the American music industry.

From the early '30s to the late '70s, Mr. Lane led a bicoastal life, working in Hollywood for the movies and in New York for the musical theater. Among his hit tunes were "How About You," sung by Ms. Garland in the 1941 "Babes on Broadway," and "Everything I Have Is Yours," from the 1933 film "Dancing Lady," starring Fred Astaire. Both songs received Academy Award nominations.

An early '40s Broadway musical called "Hold Onto Your Hats" starred Martha Raye and Al Jolson. In 1951, Mr. Lane wrote the score for "Royal Wedding," with Jane Powell and Mr. Astaire.

His biggest hits, however, were the songs he wrote for the 1947 "Finian's Rainbow," which became a movie 20 years later, and for "Clear Day." The latter show won a Grammy award for Mr. Lane and his collaborator, Alan Jay Lerner, and was made into a movie five years later.

Besides Mr. Lerner, Mr. Lane worked with many other top lyricists of his time, among them E.Y. (Yip) Harburg, Ira Gershwin, Frank Loesser, Harold Adamson, and Ralph Freed.

He wrote his last Broadway show, "Carmelina," in 1979, in collaboration with Mr. Lerner. It is being revived for production this year by Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House. A month ago Mr. Harnick heard a new song composed by Mr. Lane for the revival. "He was still writing extremely well, and his new song for 'Carmelina' is wonderful," he said.

Mr. Lane was a past president of the American Society of Composers and Publishers, a board member of the Y.A.I./National Institute of People with Disabilities, and a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Diana Lane of Manhattan, from his first marriage to Marion Seaman, and three stepdaughters, Peggy and Elizabeth Kaye of Manhattan and Hillary Kaye of Los Angeles.

A memorial service was held yesterday at the Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan. Mr. Harnick, Mr. Coleman, the writer Jimmy Breslin, and Mr. Lane's stepdaughter, Elizabeth Kay, were among those who spoke.

The jazz pianist George Shearing opened the service, playing "On a Clear Day," and Len Cariou, a friend, concluded it by singing "One More Walk Around the Garden," one of Mr. Lane's last compositions.

The family has suggested memorial contributions to the Young Adults Institute, 460 West 34th Street, 11th floor, New York City 10001. B.S.

The State Department of Education has issued its first "report cards" for New York's 4,100 school districts. On the South Fork, where school officials have been touting recent increases in the number of Regents diplomas and higher test scores generally, students are performing better than in the past, but districts still have not achieved their stated goal of academic excellence.

None of the local high schools, for example, ranked among the top 20 Long Island districts identified by Newsday as having a large percentage of students achieving "mastery" on at least three of seven Regents exams. Students must score 65 or better to pass a Regents exam, but at least 85 for mastery.

Also, Amagansett, Bridgehampton, and Springs had problems with sixth-grade reading tests, with fewer than 90 percent of students attaining a minimum score set by the state below which remedial help must be provided.

Making Comparisons

The new performance reports are designed to show which schools are falling down on the job of raising academic standards, and which academic areas are in greatest need of improvement.

Much of the information is also contained in the annual State Comprehensive Assessment Reports, but the new data seeks in addition to compare each district to others that are similar in wealth, demographics, and such.

Some administrators here complained about the report cards, as has happened elsewhere in the state. Springs School Superintendent Dr. William Silver, for instance, criticized "messy statistics" that made the reports "more confusing" for parents.

Springs Reading Tests

On the other hand, he praised the report cards for including examples from elementary school tests.

Dr. Silver acknowledged that Springs has some areas, such as reading, that it needed to "look at." The district was one of 95 on Long Island to have fewer than 90 percent of students reading above the remedial level on the sixth-grade Pupil Evaluation Program test.

However, Dr. Silver noted that "in 20 different tests over a four-year period, only twice" did the district fall below 90 percent of students attaining the state minimum, which most educators acknowledge is low - about the bottom quartile.

Reiterating a longstanding objection to "mastery" scores on the third and sixth-grade P.E.P. tests, Dr. Silver stressed that they were designed to identify only which students needed remedial help.

Bridgehampton Percentages

In Bridgehampton, where the enrollment is small, Mario Medio, the acting Superintendent, explained that in sixth-grade reading, seven of eight students scored above the state minimum level. The one who fell below pushed the district's percentage below acceptable levels, to 88 percent.

"That," said Mr. Medio, "is statistically insignificant."

Mastery was a concern at the high school level. "East Hampton has come a long way, but we still have to improve two things," said District Superintendent Noel McStay. One, he said, was the school's Regents diploma rate, which was 55 percent last year, up from 53 percent in 1994-95 and 50 percent the year before.

"We also have to work on mastery," Mr. McStay acknowledged.

"We didn't know a mastery score was going to be included" on the report cards, said Chris Tracey, the high school's interim principal.

More Tutorials?

Among the standardized tests high-schoolers take, Regents are viewed as less difficult than College Board achievement tests, and far less difficult than the Advanced Placement tests, which allow students to earn college credits.

Mr. Tracey has been meeting with a committee of teachers to help identify students who, while taking Regents-level courses, are not learning at a rate that will earn them a Regents diploma.

He said he will recommend "more tutorials during the school day," and was considering setting up a "resource room for non-handicapped students" staffed with a teacher who can provide special help.

"We've raised the bar," the principal said, referring to the all-Regents curriculum the district instituted three years ago. "Now we have to help the students meet the challenge."

English Regents

In the English Regents last year, 124 East Hampton High School students, about 74 percent of those enrolled in the course, took the exam. Sixty-four percent passed, 3 percent more than the year before, but only 13 percent of those scored 85 or better.

East Hampton administrators said mastery levels also needed improvement in global studies and science Regents.

The mastery showing was better at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor, where 83 percent of the 43 students taking the English Regents passed, and 37 percent scored 85 or better.

"We'd like to see 100 percent at mastery," said District Superintendent John Barnes, "but that's not real," especially with increasing numbers of students taking Regents-level course work.

Misleading Figures

In Bridgehampton, however, Mr. Medio again said the state statistics were misleading.

Thirty-eight percent of the seven Bridgehampton students who took the English Regents passed; 15 percent of those scored 85 or better. However, the report card was based on an "average class size" of 13, almost double the actual number.

Had the figures been calculated on the precise number of students who took the course, "We would have shown a 70 percent pass rate and a 40 percent mastery," Mr. Medio said.

High School Math

High school math scores were slightly better than English across the board at the sequential one level.

In East Hampton, 70 percent of students who took level-one math Regents passed, with 40 percent of them achieving mastery. At the sequential three level, however, only 36 percent passed, and only 17 percent of those scored 85 or better.

At Pierson, 120 percent of those who took the sequential one Regents passed (the figure exceeds 100 percent because it includes eighth-graders), and 90 percent of them achieved mastery. But Pierson students, too, fell down later, in sequential three, where just 29 percent passed, of whom 15 percent achieved mastery.

At Bridgehampton, 62 percent of the 13 students enrolled took the sequential one Regents, and 38 percent of them scored 85 or better. Scores went down there, too, in sequential three, with 31 percent of 13 students passing the exam, but only 8 percent attaining mastery.

Unwanted Spotlight

In Amagansett, as in Bridgehampton and Springs, fewer than 90 percent of students scored above the remedial level in sixth-grade reading, putting that school among the 95 on Long Island in a trouble spotlight.

Amagansett Superintendent George Aman noted that in four of five categories his students performed well, with 100 percent attaining or exceeding the state reference point for remediation.

Small-School Skew

The data should be examined more closely, he advised. Though only 86 percent of students passed the sixth-grade reading test, said Dr. Aman, the performance of just two children, because of the small enrollment, skewed the results.

Dr. Aman said Amagansett students were successful in 218 of the 222 tests they sat for over the past three years.

Nonetheless, he added that a remedial reading teacher's part-time position has been extended from 50 percent of the time to 70 percent, and said teachers were benefiting from a 15-hour in-service program taught by Dr. George Cavuto, a reading expert from Dowling College.

Montauk's Performance

In Montauk, where third-grade reading scores were slightly lower than last year's (90 percent of students above the state minimum, down from 93 percent), Superintendent Jack Perna said he had added a teacher to first, second, and third-grade classrooms during reading lessons, to provide more individual attention.

"For small schools, the statistics are unreliable," reiterated Bridgehampton's Mr. Medio, "but I applaud Mr. Mills [New York State Commissioner of Education Richard Mills] for bringing public attention" to the performance of the state's public schools.

Many schools here said they would mail copies of the report cards to parents this week.

Nearly 170 acres of Water Mill and Sagaponack farmland have been targeted for preservation by Southampton Town, possibly with help from Suffolk County.

The Southampton Town Board on Friday identified five parcels it is considering preserving through a purchase of development rights.

Two of the properties, meanwhile, are being actively considered under the county's own Farmland Preservation Program. A public hearing has been scheduled before the Town Board at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Town Hall to discuss the potential purchases.

The land under consideration includes the 109-acre Zaluski farm on Deerfield Road in Water Mill, a 42.6-acre portion of Schwenk family farmland on Montauk Highway in Sagaponack, and 17 acres of farmland owned by Joshua's Place, a spiritual center in Water Mill.

Matching Funds

The three property owners approached the town individually between six and eight months ago to indicate their interest in participating in the Town Farmland Preservation Program. After reviewing their eligibility, the Town Farmland and Agricultural Advisory Committees recommended the parcels for preservation.

The passage of the town's $5 million open space bond has made funds available. The town has already completed appraisals on all the properties; however town law requires a public hearing before any formal offers can be made to the owners.

The town is hoping for help with the purchase. Knowing the Zaluski and Joshua's Place properties are already on the county's list, the town has asked the county to consider the Schwenk parcel as well and consider matching funds with the town on all three projects.

Leveraging Dollars

Southampton recently received a $100,000 Federal grant toward a purchase of the properties and has also applied for state money.

"We have an opportunity here to work together in partnership," said Robert Duffy, Southampton's planning and development administrator. "We're trying to leverage every dollar the town has."

The Zaluski farm is eighth on the county's list of farmland preservation considerations. Roughly 18 farms are on the list, with Joshua's Place ranking close to last.

Since negotiations are still ongoing on all the Southampton properties, no values were released. A purchase of development rights on farmland costs far less than a purchase of actual title to the land. Once the development rights are sold, the landowner keeps the land but is prohibited from subdividing or developing it.

"Key Pieces"

To be eligible for the Town Farmland Preservation Program, a property must lie in a designated agricultural overlay district and must be actively farmed or have such potential. Both the Schwenk and Zaluski properties are currently farmed, and Joshua's Place has plans to reestablish farming on its parcel, which contains prime agricultural soils.

Mr. Duffy called the three blocks of farmland "key pieces that would be a first small step toward the town's overall preservation goal." He noted that other property owners had expressed interest in selling development rights and that other parcels would probably be brought before the board during the year.

Roger Tollefsen, president of the New York Seafood Council, used the recent supply of winter (blackback and yellowtail) flounder this week to describe how fish marketing had a few new wrinkles.

The species is highly regulated by seasonal closings. Before Christmas, on Dec. 1, when demand for seafood traditionally begins to grow, the State Department of Environmental Conservation opened the winter flounder fishery. That had been expected, at least by fishermen.

But then unusually good weather and the fact that the fluke fishery was closed until Jan. 1 prompted more than the usual number of fishermen to go after flounder.

The fishing turned out to be good and the supply not only met demand but exceeded it. Consumers had no knowledge of the impending flounder boom. Retailers, not used to an abundance of winter flounder, already had committed their buying and advertising budgets to other species.The result was that flounder prices stayed higher than they should have - $8 a pound for fillet in some cases - and for a week longer than they might have.

By the time lower prices could be passed along to consumers, the holidays were over and the demand had fallen.

Why is seafood so expensive? It's a question often asked these days, and one that requires a complicated answer. Despite popular opinion, fish are not expensive because retailers are gouging the consumer nor because fishermen are greedy. Most are not. But the old law of supply and demand has had a few new wrinkles.

Consumer preference for a relatively small number of species has kept the price for these species high, especially in an era of depleted fish stocks and resultant stringent regulation. Mandated openings and closings to protect popular fisheries have added a layer of unnatural seasons of abundance and paucity to nature's own cycles.

The effect of this, industry observers say, is that consumers who used to know enough to buy certain fish during natural periods of abundance, and relatively low prices, have been thrown off: Retailers have had to keep prices high to compensate for disrupted buying patterns.

Shellfish Reasonable

In general, fish prices have increased over the past several years, at least for the more popular species, although the average price of seafood has not risen as dramatically as many consumers think. However, many fish, especially underutilized species, are not expensive at all, and buying whole fish can cut the cost substantially.

Right now (following the holidays) clams and oysters are reasonable, around $4.50 per dozen for Little Necks, $1 more per dozen for cocktail-size oysters. Whole cod, now selling for around $2.50 per pound, is reportedly the cheapest it's been at this season for many years because mild weather has kept boats fishing.

The price of shrimp and salmon has either stayed the same over the past decade or actually declined because of the availability of farm-raised fish. The price of lobsters, considered a luxury species, is not out of sight now either, ranging from $4.50 to $8 a pound, again because of the mild weather.

Juggling Act

In almost every case, greater supply has meant lower prices. This is nearly always the case in the world of seafood, although its perishable nature often upsets the fish cart.

That is to say, retailers who overbuy and get stuck with surplus fish often make up their losses at the cash register. It's a juggling act, retailers say, but one that depends on the availability of fish to work smoothly, and smoothly translates to lower prices.

While fishermen and fish dealers will never agree on everything, they do seem to agree that more "product" - as they refer to fish - would benefit both sides of the supply and demand formula.

Fewer Fish

"It's the one unifying influence," in the words of Roger Tollefsen, president of the New York Seafood Council, a 350-member advocacy group.

"People don't want to admit it, but there is less product, that's the bottom line," said John Haessler, owner of the Seafood Shop, a popular fish market in Wainscott.

"I have to deal with more and more suppliers for the same amount of product. How many baymen are left? Those who have been with me for 27 years have taken part-time jobs. There's no longer a spring run. In the past, good trappers made half their season with truckloads of squid and blackfish. Squid don't seem to come in. There's a little bit of inshore flounder, but the volume is way down. There's seldom a glut of flounder," Mr. Haessler said.

But fishermen and retailers also agree that the more-fish-lower-prices formula does not necessarily require more of the "big three" - as Mr. Tollefsen calls cod, flounder, and salmon. He adds tuna to the list in local markets.

Price Swings

Mr. Tollefsen said the industry now recognized that "it will not receive full value for its product until it learns to match supply with consumer demand. A stable price is good for everyone. It's a learning curve, an industry challenge."

This is not likely to happen soon. The catastrophic depletion of popular fish stocks is only beginning to be reversed under government management policies.

The price to consumers of popular seafoods like flounder fillet and tuna can rise and fall by as much as 100 percent during the year as availability varies. Fishermen also see great fluctuations in the prices they get for their catches.

For example, a Montauk draggerman said this week the price of flounder to the boat went from $2.25 a pound to 75 cents in less than a week's time. The retail price of flounder fillet dropped in East End markets to as low as $5.95 per pound after Christmas because of the increased supply.

Comparison Shopping

Mr. Tollefsen said price swings might be less dramatic if consumers could be kept better informed - "But whose responsibility is it to inform them?" he asked. He added that retail advertising usually was costly.

Still high compared with chicken? Yes, but not that high compared with boneless chicken breasts, or filet mignon, which fishmongers say is the true comparison food since there is no waste.

A whole flounder that a wholesale buyer pays a fisherman $1.50 per pound for yields about a third its weight in fillets. The real cost therefore is $4.50 per pound, not counting the cost of filleting (about 30 cents), and overhead.

One obvious solution to the high price of fish would be for the consumer to buy it whole and cut it at home. Better yet, bake it and eat it whole, Bob Valenti, owner of Multi-Aquaculture Systems, a wholesale and retail market in Amagansett, suggested.

Multi-Aquaculture Systems

The perception of high fish prices annoys him because, he said on Monday, the price of fish to the fisherman and to the retailer is "amazingly low." And they would be low to the consumer, if consumers would break their expensive eating habits.

"People won't buy whiting and red hake, which is very cheap. They insist on tuna when it's not tuna season, and they insist on fillet. People used to take the head off a flounder and put it in the pan. That's how the Chinese can pay so much for live stuff," Mr. Valenti said, invoking the international market for live fluke as an example.

Asian markets are able to pay more for local fish because the fish are sold whole to the retailer, and they are often consumed whole. Without loss due to cutting, or processing, a premium can be paid to the fisherman, while wholesale and retail prices stay down.

Retail Campaigns

Mr. Tollefsen said the Seafood Council had been engaged in a "Long Island Fresh" campaign to teach consumers about seasonality, and for years has been involved in a program it calls "hidden treasures," which helps retailers market underutilized species.

The goal is to create appetites for less costly fish such as dogfish, which is sometimes marketed as cape shark, and for whiting and mackerel, where little demand existed before.

"People [here] don't want to cook themselves. They want prepared food, and it has changed the complexion of selling fish," Mr. Valenti said.

Asian Markets

Flying fish - not the species, but the international air-freight market for a variety of species - has raised local prices too.

The fact that tuna caught off Long Island is sold to Japan at a premium price raises the general price of tuna, said Emerson Hasbrouck, a fisheries specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service. The price paid for locally caught fluke bound for Asian markets likewise influences the retail price of the fish on Long Island.

In addition to trying new varieties and learning how to fillet fish, retailers insist there is one way an educated consumer, even a finicky one, can satisfy a seafood appetite without going broke, despite difficult times in the industry.

Stay In Touch

"Stay in touch, have a dialogue with your fish supplier. Now's a good time for lobsters, and steamers are nice and salty," is the advice of Charlotte Klein Sasso, a retail marketer who recently took over Stuart's Seafood in Amagansett.

"It's what we love about this business," said Ms. Klein Sasso. "There are few industries where you're in touch, and know the person who caught the fish, and who you sell it to. Don't be afraid of new things, mussels and squid," she advised. "If it's on the special board, you can trust that we are passing along something nice."

'Home, Sweet Home'

New York

December 30, 1996

Dear Mrs. Rattray,

On the house in the center of East Hampton Village called "Home, Sweet Home," there is a bronze plaque placed there by the East Hampton Historical Society stating that this was the home of John Howard Payne, who wrote the famous song "Home, Sweet Home."

In the book "An Illustrated Treasury of Songs" from the National Gallery of Art, published in 1991 by Rizzoli International Publications, which contains the music for this song, it states that the words are by Dr. Brewster Higley and the music by Daniel E. Kelly.

I wonder if you or your readers can furnish information on who the real composer-librettist was.

Sincerely yours,

WILLIAM B. GLECKMAN

'Bric Upstult'

Amagansett

January 3, 1997

Dear Mrs. Rattray,

Got a letter in the mail the other day. "Meet me on Monday, 11 a.m., Little Albert's Landing. A few minutes of your time. Town politics the topic." It was signed "Bric Upstult." Miraculously, I had nothing else to do that Monday morning, so I arrived at Little Albert's with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

After I waited in my car a short while, a boat suddenly appeared, heading in my direction and flashing a beam of light. I approached the shore as a man in waders plunged into the water and shook my hand.

"Mr. Upstult?" I asked. "Yeah," he replied. "Get aboard. It'll be more private out there." After maneuvering through the water in silence for a while, Upstult said, "You look older in person. A bit heavier, too. You put on weight?"

"It's a constant battle, sir," I said. Upstult said, "That last batch of letters you wrote was pretty rough." I said, "I assumed I hit a nerve considering all of the personal attacks in some of the letters that followed."

Upstult navigated north toward livelier water. "That's a sure sign," Upstult replied. "And the way you went after Timmy Volk!"

"Why do they call him Timmy?" I asked, wondering if there was a string of Tim Volks of which this one was the most junior. "Tim's a good fellow," Upstult said.

"He just got a little carried away a few years back, that's all." I said, "Well, I meant no harm to Volk personally. I even mentioned that no one could begrudge a businessman seeking reorganization of his finances. But that didn't seem clear to some of the other readers. Some of these guys really hate my guts."

Upstult said, "They don't know you well enough to hate you. They just see you as some snob who's come here to tell them how to live. It doesn't matter what you say or how you say it, it's their duty to negate your opinion, whatever it takes. Personal attacks and all. That's party politics."

"Well, I'm used to that," I said. "But I'm from UpIsland. Massapequa. You know, sushi as bait. My dad was a public school teacher. I pumped gas and cut lawns!"

Upstult sighed. "It doesn't matter, Alec," he said. "These are guys who think Jerry Della Femina is James Reston. They don't need reasons to back up anything."

"Why did you want to see me, Mr. Upstult?" I asked.

Upstult cut the engine and we began to drift peacefully. "I'm a Republican Committeeman. Twenty-five years ago I was a Democrat, and even served as a Democratic Committeeman. Now, I've voted Republican in every election since 1980, but I feel we've got to cut through this partisan back-biting. It's paralyzed the Federal Government and I see it toxifying the situation here in East Hampton."

I nodded in agreement while he lit his pipe.

He continued, "The Federal Government only serves to redistribute money. It takes tax dollars and hands it out to the poor as welfare and big business as corporate welfare. They don't have any real solutions. And the more that everybody just spits on each other, the further we are from real answers."

We sat quiet for a few moments while I took his words to heart.

"The town government has an obligation to find out what choices its residents want to make," he continued. "That's what it's all about. Choices. That's what it's always been about."

"I asked, "What do you think the right choice is regarding the Trustees and the Z.B.A.?"

Upstult shrugged and said, "I don't think it will make a difference, so long as it's politically motivated. Things are probably just fine as they are. It's just more politics, and that will only make people more cynical."

I remembered Louis Lapham's book wherein he said the country had become like a hotel and Americans were all guests. So long as they kept the service up and the riff-raff out, the hotel management could pretty much do as they please. "What do you suggest could be done by people who care about the area?" I asked.

Upstult leveled his gaze at me and said, "You've got to begin by cutting out the partisan B.S. That's getting us nowhere. Maybe some concerned groups of people outside the government could put their ideas together. Find out the facts and take their case to the Town Board. Most politicians are followers, not leaders, and need to be told what to do. We could wait for these folks an awfully long time and by then it could be too late."

"Too late," I echoed.

Upstult groaned. "We should put more farmers in town government. They know the value of the land out here. Not a bunch of politicians or actors. No offense."

"No offense taken," I said. I felt a New Year's resolution coming on. "I suppose I should stop attacking the Republicans in my letters to Mrs. Rattray," I said.

"That would be a start," Upstult said.

We headed back to Little Albert's. Upstult left me where he found me. "Can I call you?" I asked.

"I'm in the book," he said. We shook hands once more, and I headed to my car. I glanced over my shoulder, and suddenly Bric and his boat were gone. Vanished into thin air.

I drove home and looked up Bric Upstult in the phone book, hoping to reconnect, but the listing wasn't there. I thought about what he'd said, all of it right and true. And when I rearranged the letters of his name, I discovered not only who he was, but the one thing that should matter to all politicians and letter writers as well.

Happy New Year,

ALEC BALDWIN

Great Web Site

East Hampton

January 6, 1997

Mrs. Rattray,

Great Web site. Congratulations for getting on line.

STEVE HAWEELI

WordHampton PR

A bomb that arson experts said could have demolished a Springs house had it detonated was found inside the house by its prospective buyer on Saturday morning.

East Hampton Town police and the Suffolk County arson squad are investigating the incident.

Stephen Engel of Staten Island arrived with his wife at 6 Harbor Boulevard at about 10:55 a.m. The first thing they noticed, the couple told police, were swastikas painted on the outside of the house, which is at the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Three Mile Harbor Road.

Inside, Mr. Engel found a coffee can full of gasoline, with two wires inside. The wires were hooked to a timer, set for 3 a.m., and plugged into a wall outlet.

Gas jets on the kitchen stove were turned up and gas fumes were seeping through the residence.

Scrawled Swastikas

Outside, on a fence enclosing a swimming pool, Mr. Engel was greeted with more spray-painted graffiti: "Jew Pay Up" and other swastikas.

"There was a potential for a major explosion," said Det. Lieut. Edward V. Ecker Jr. of the town police force. "Thank God the Engels don't smoke." He added that neither the buyers nor the seller are Jewish.

Had a spark ignited the gas, he said, the explosion would have rocked the whole neighborhood.

Police are treating the incident as a potential bias crime but are focusing more on attempted arson, Detective Ecker said. The arson squad has taken the evidence to its crime lab for analysis.

Police Interviews

The house's owner was identified as Timothy Theuret. Although the house reportedly is in foreclosure, the Engels were said to be buying it directly from the owner. Town Police Capt. Todd Sarris said the question of foreclosure proceedings was "certainly part of the investigation."

"We are interviewing the owner, the potential buyers, former residents, and neighbors," Detective Ecker said. The house had been rented to someone the police declined to name until November 1995. Detective Ecker said the tenant had been interviewed UpIsland this week.

The neighborhood has had one prior incident of anti-Semitism, Detective Ecker said. Two years ago, swastikas were found painted on the foundation of a house on the same block.

However, the youths responsible were caught, and arson squad detectives said the drawings then and the ones that appeared on Mr. Theuret's house were dissimilar.

Anti-Semitic Incidents

"This may have been a set-up to get us off the track," Detective Ecker said of the graffiti.

Though there have been isolated anti-Semitic incidents in the town and East Hampton Village in recent years, Detective Ecker stressed that attempted arson was more likely in this case.

Just last month some 40 town residents and students gathered at Guild Hall for a screening and panel discussion of the film "Not in Our Town," a nationally recognized documentary about a town's reaction to bias crimes.

On Dec. 11, the letters KKK were spray-painted on the outside of a house owned by an African American family in North Sea.

On Tuesday, Town Parks Department employees found what they feared was another bomb, this one at Terry King Park on Abraham's Path in Amagansett. Police were summoned.

A wooden box, 12 by 6 by 5 inches, was deemed suspicious after employees saw two copper wires coming out of the otherwise sealed container.

The county bomb squad was called, and agents sprayed the box with water before opening it.

Inside they found two batteries and an on-off switch. A light bulb was encased in the top of the box.

"There were no explosives inside. It could be a kid's science project," Detective Ecker said.

He added that Tuesday's canister had no similarity with the device seized at the Harbor Boulevard house, and said the bomb squad had all but ruled out a connection.

That the objects were found within days of each other was "just a coincidence," the detective said.

Prod Bill Sokolin for memories of his many years as one of the world's top wine brokers, and you'll get the story of the night he broke the world's most expensive bottle of wine.

"It was midnight, April 25, 1989. My birthday," Mr. Sokolin recalled with the clarity of someone reliving a harrowing event.

The wine dealer had brought a bottle of 1787 Chateau Margaux, once owned by Thomas Jefferson, to a dinner at a posh Manhattan hotel. As he placed the bottle, valued at about $200,000, on a serving table, it made a faint noise - piiiinng!

"It sounded like a submarine's sonar in the distance."

It Wasn't Coffee

Back at his own table, Mr. Sokolin discovered a wet spot on his trousers leg. It wasn't coffee.

Only about six ounces remained of the bottle's precious contents when he got up the courage to go and look. The rest had dripped through two tiny cracks.

"It was horrifying. I couldn't believe it."

Almost seven years later, Mr. Sokolin still has the bottle, and the wine is still in his freezer. Aided by the extensive media coverage that followed the Margaux mishap, the bottle itself has climbed in value to some $880,000.

Such is the wine business.

Lenz Chardonnay

He was recounting the story on Friday, standing by the barrels at the Lenz winery in Cutchogue, where he had come to sample the newly bottled '94 Chardonnay. Though Mr. Sokolin's Southampton business carries wines that sell for up to $25,000 a case, the wine broker was enthralled by Lenz's last Chardonnay vintage.

He declared that the North Fork winery was "making some of the best white wine in the world." The price? Twenty dollars a bottle.

Mr. Sokolin, excited by his earlier find, sold 900 cases of Lenz's '93 wines in three months. After tasting this year's vintage, he called it "phenomenal."

"A little thin in front, but the length is incredible!"

"I'd buy the whole thing right now," Mr. Sokolin told Lenz's winemaker, Chris Frye, and its marketing director, Tom Morgan. ". . . I've got a guy down in Florida who wants it as soon as you get the new vintage."

No Ordinary Wine Shop

Mr. Sokolin may not be a wine reviewer, but his taste and investment sense are well trusted by his network of collectors.

"He's got a fax machine running into the homes of the wine cognoscenti of the world," said Mr. Morgan. Indeed, said Mr. Sokolin, the store's fax list contains about 2,000 names, many of them well known.

Walking into D. Sokolin and Co. Wine Merchants on North Sea Road in Southampton, one realizes this is no ordinary wine shop.

There are a few handsome shelves with some handsome-looking bottles of wine. But the space more closely resembles a real estate brokerage, with a row of desks manned by brokers who, on a good day, can move $50,000 or more in wine to customers here and abroad.

Connoisseur Clientele

Mr. Sokolin and his son David, also a wine broker, decided nine months ago to relocate the business from New York City. (Ironically, the location they chose - an unassuming brick storefront - used to be a discount liquor store.)

It is 35 years since Mr. Sokolin took over his ailing father's liquor store in New York. (He played on a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team before that, and also sold helicopters, but that was in another life.)

"There's maybe a dozen stores that do what we do in the world," he said, settling into his desk chair. The business caters to a clientele of connoisseurs, collectors, and shrewd investors, all of them aware of wine's place on the investment block.

"The investment-quality wines keep rising," said the broker. The market "has been going up since '75 and '76, and it's been going up at a rapid, rapid rate."

Investment Grade

He has stocked a high-priced wine cellar for the Revlon chief Ronald Perelman, invested $5 million in wines for the late Time-Warner chief Steven Ross, been sued by an Iranian prince, and exchanged three cases of Petrus for a car with a Ford Motors C.E.O.

"Almost everyone is vying for a limited amount of wine," Mr. Sokolin said, adding that while more and more investors are entering the game, only 30 or 35 true "investment grade" wines are produced in the world. More than half, he said, hail from the Bordeaux region of France.

Bordeaux wines represent just a tiny percentage of the total wine market, said the broker. Labels like Lafite-Rothschild, Chateaux Margaux, Petrus, and Latour are like blue-chip stocks.

Buying Time

A case of 1990 Lafite-Rothschild now fetches $5,000, already up 50 percent over last year. A case of 1961 Petrus, if you can find one, may go for $50,000.

What makes these wines investment commodities? It's not just taste.

"The essence of it is, when you buy expensive wine, you're buying time," Mr. Sokolin explained. The majority of wines on the market are "young," meaning they are ready to drink at bottling. Many of them do not age with grace. The ones that do - the ones that promise to mature into something wonderful, years down the road - become more valuable.

Add a historically great vintage like 1990 or 1945 and a label with a reputation for greatness, and you've got an investment-grade wine.

Supply And Demand

The touch of a reviewer's wand - four top wine reviewers wield tremendous influence in the business - can also help propel a young wine into the investment realm.

"You can't just buy on taste," warned Mr. Sokolin. "You have to buy on history, and history of excellence - pedigree."

Of course, investors also benefit from an always-dwindling supply of rare wines. People do uncork a bottle now and then.

"You're also paying for a piece of history," observed the wine broker. After 100 years in the bottle, even the most refined wine can revert to its basic roots - fermented grapes.

The famed 1787 Jefferson wine, for example. "It was awful," said Mr. Sokolin.

He remembers once buying 200 elderly bottles of first-growth wines from top Bordeaux chateaus. He opened the wines, vintage 1865 to 1900, at various tastings and dinner parties. "They were lousy."

Bordeaux's Best

But there was one among the bunch that was ageless - an 1870 Lafite-Rothschild. "It was the best wine I ever tasted. It made my ears tingle. My toes were tingling."

In 1986, Mr. Sokolin compiled his predictions of wines to watch in a book called "Liquid Assets." Wine values have soared in the past decade, and most of his forecasts have come to fruition.

"I literally have made hundreds of millions of dollars for people," he said.

Whither Prices?

Robert Shoemaker, an official of the investment banking house Bear Sterns, wrote to Mr. Sokolin recently to "congratulate you on your prescience. Virtually all your predicted years came true, with a vengeance. You most certainly made a lot of people happy."

Mr. Sokolin likes the last part. "Wine should be more about fun than money," he remarked.

The sky-high prices amaze even the veteran broker, although he predicts a fall in coming years. With so many eager new players in the game, he said, many of them seeking prestige rather than a sound investment, prices may already be too high for those who know better.

That hasn't stopped Mr. Sokolin from planning a new book, "Hidden Assets," offering tips on what to buy in the coming years.

Long Island Wines

Mr. Sokolin is happy to have relocated his business to the Hamptons. He exudes confidence over his son's abilities and praises his employees as well.

Though they still consider Manhattan their permanent residence, he and his wife, Gloria, have been renting a house in Water Mill for the past nine months. Appropriately, it overlooks Duck Walk Vineyards.

The broker's eyes are on Long Island wines at the moment, and it's not just about Lenz. With soil and climate much like the Bordeaux region, and the growing expertise, Mr. Sokolin said, "This area has the potential for being the best of the best."

That would suit him just fine.

Irwin Shaw's "Bury the Dead," an antiwar play about six victims of war who refuse to be buried, will be the second offering of the season from CTC Live of East Hampton. It will be performed at Guild Hall in East Hampton for three consecutive weekends beginning Friday, Jan. 17.

Sandy Rosen is directing the play, which aims to dramatize the futility and heartbreak of war. Robert Anthony and David Parker play the two generals, Steve Ford is the captain, and Judy Militare is the sergeant. Also appearing in leading roles will be Joseph DeSane, Patrick Christiano, Glen Bazazian, Mary Alice Vienneau, Moira McMahor, and Stephanie Brussell. The playwright, Mr. Shaw, who died in 1984, had a house in Southampton.

A dinner-theater package will be offered by the Maidstone Arms for $30 on Fridays and $32 on Saturdays. The package includes a three-course dinner and a ticket for the show. Performances are at 8 on Friday and Saturday evenings, and on Sunday afternoons at 2:30.

Like the charming Variety five-and-dime store nearby, the Paradise diner on Main Street, with its fried eggs and home fries, once was a link to an earlier, less fashionable Sag Harbor. Then, about a year ago, it was as if some fairy godmother waved a wand and said, "Yes, Paradise Diner/Lounge, you shall go to the ball."

All the hard-core diner accessories are still there - slippery vinyl-clad booths, bare tables with strange ridged metal trim, waist-high wainscoting, sugar containers with metal tops, black and white linoleum tiles - but under the new owners the lighting is different, the decor is suddenly chic rather than shabby, and the place has acquired a funky, razzmatazz, party atmosphere.

It is a subtle blend of the homespun and the sophisticated - ketchup bottles and bowls of gardenias, meat loaf and warm goat cheese - which is a combination not easy to achieve.

On most January nights in Sag Harbor you could be forgiven for thinking that the town had been evacuated, but on an evening last week the Paradise was packed. Big fans turned slowly overhead as attractive young men table-hopped up and down the room, which has something of the aura of a railroad dining car in a Busby Berkeley musical.

Appetizers, which run from $3.95 to $8.95 (grilled shrimp are more), included excellent fried calamari; they weren't rubbery and they included the crunchy little tentacles, the best part. The mixed green salad, with red leaf lettuce and a balsamic vinegar dressing, was springy and fresh but - let's hear a groan - served with grated carrot.

The soup of the day was a shrimp and lobster bisque that was very pleasant. On the other hand, the grilled Portobello mushrooms over greens, the most expensive item chosen, was the same salad, just topped with slices of mushroom (cold), and didn't justify its price.

Although it wasn't chosen that evening, The Star's food columnist, Miriam Ungerer, recommends the white bean soup with collard greens and spicy Cajun sausage.

Gumbo is the Paradise's specialty (the chef has the Cajun andouille shipped from the source), with a price that varies according to what goes into it. On this evening it was a huge bowlful of spicy, steaming delight with firm okra, hot sausage, and a good half pound of shrimp.

As with two of the other dishes there was enough, and more, for the following evening's dinner. The gumbo was almost better the next day.

Another hearty winter dish was red beans, rice, and andouille served with cornbread. The rice and beans would have insulated you against a blizzard and the sausage had been crisply grilled before being added to the dish.

Two giant grilled pork chops arrived with first-rate mashed potatoes, wonderful collard greens, and strewn with a confetti of cooked apple chunks.

The crayfish pasta of the day was less successful, however, as too much garlic swamped the delicate flavor of the crustaceans, but the penne with sun-dried tomatoes and roasted vegetables came with a better balance of flavors and passed muster. A Paradise cheeseburger was, well, a cheeseburger, but just fine as such.

Entrees, which are an eclectic mix of Mom&Pop American and Cajun, mostly run from $11 to $15, with steak - which on this occasion had been wrested from the fire at the point of absolute perfection - clocking in at $19.95. Old-fashioned meatloaf, a daily fish dish, vegetarian chili, and chicken are some of the other entrees.

The inexpensive desserts include items that probably come from a good local bakery, such as cheesecake and a good flourless chocolate cake, but the bread pudding was obviously made on the spot and, although the bourbon sauce was too sweet, was very good. The man at our table who ordered the fresh fruit was happy, but the recipient of the creme caramel wasn't and gave it an emphatic thumbs down.

Charming Waitress

The Paradise's wine list is small but adequate, though there were those among us who felt that the markup was a bit high - maybe to compensate for most of their customers going home with the next night's dinner.

The service? There were no delays and no mistakes and we had an exemplary and charming Irish waitress who came to tell us toward the end of the meal that someone else would take our bill as "I have to be getting back to Montauk, now."

The Paradise may not be everyone's choice. One member of our party didn't like it at all: She wanted a tablecloth, she didn't like the noise or the funky '60s music, she asked for extra garlic and was offended that it came from a jar. But if you want hearty, inexpensive food and a lively, offbeat atmosphere, it'll suit you just fine.