With the Parrish Art Museum's exhibit "In the Eye of the Storm: An Art of Social Conscience" as a reference point, the union organizer Victor Gotbaum and the historian Morris Dickstein will discuss labor struggles in 20th-century America at the museum on Sunday.

Mr. Gotbaum, who is a consultant in labor-management relations, was instrumental in the establishment of the Center for Labor-Management Policy Studies at the graduate school of the City University of New York. Before becoming the center's director, he spent 20 years as executive director of the largest urban union in the United States.

Mr. Dickstein is director of the Center for the Humanities at CUNY's graduate school. He has taught at Columbia University and Queens College and written a number of books, which include "Gates of Eden: American Culture in the 1960s" and "Double Agent: The Critic and Society."

Mr. Gotbaum and Mr. Dickstein will speak at 3 p.m. Their talk is expected to cast light upon the works in the show, which date from 1930 to 1970, by relating them to actual events.

Also at the Parrish, the artist Janet Culbertson, whose work embodies an awareness of social and political issues, will speak tomorrow from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Ms. Culbertson's paintings were included in the Parrish's juried show earlier this fall.

Walking early down by the ocean last week, a day or two before the cold front blew in, there was a vague sense that something was missing.

Here was the sea, and the sky, and the ascending sun. There in its pale light were the gulls, screaming above the water, and here, slowly following, came a lone surfcaster in a truck. There the waves had thrown up a fine piece of driftwood, half-buried already while it waited to be found, and there was the wrack line, full of foam, pebbles, seaweed, and tiny marine creatures. A world of muted whites, browns, and vaporous greens, like cloudy beach glass. Beach glass! That was it. There is hardly any of it to be found anymore.

Better polish up those old spaghetti-holders full of colorful beach glass. They'll be valuable antiques before you can say "plastic."

Something is very wrong when elected officials, confronted by issues of concern to their constituents, retreat behind closed doors to make decisions. But perhaps we shouldn't be surprised when so many ordinary citizens believe laws are meant to be skirted when it is to their advantage.

As should be obvious, open meetings laws are designed to make sure that subjects that are controversial and situations that no one likes come to light. No laws are needed to guarantee the public's right to know good news.

Two South Fork school districts have, especially in recent months, fallen into the practice of violating state law, and both seem to have gone overboard in the last week when the future employment of their Superintendents was of widespread interest.

One of those districts is Amagansett, where the announced purpose of a special meeting and executive session was a far cry from what actually occurred, and where discussions among a majority of School Board members during a private party (!) may have changed the course of events. The other district is Bridgehampton, where board members managed to reach a consensus about the School Superintendent, whose contract ends in June, without any indication to the public that his job might be on the line.

In Amagansett, the board has been calling extra meetings at irregular intervals, making it difficult to keep track of goings-on. On Friday, board members reached a major decision about the District Superintendent that was totally unexpected by those outside their immediate circle. No effort was made to inform residents or the press that the agenda of the Friday meetings had been changed dramatically.

Bridgehampton habitually holds executive sessions prior to scheduled public meetings, although the law requires government bodies to call a public meeting and announce the particular subject of an intended executive session, and then to vote to go into such session before doing so.

When issues are routine and the public is content with the way an elected body is handling its responsibilities, no one is eager to fight over the letter of the law. Casual practices, however, can undermine good intentions and damage public confidence when real trouble begins.

Interested residents and/or the press can, of course, take legal action to force compliance with state law, although litigation obviously costs taxpayers money and can divide a community unnecessarily.

How much better it is for the public to apprise itself of its rights, and to demand that elected officials obey the letter, as well as the intent, of the law. And for elected officials to remember whom they serve.

Clear away the Halloween cobwebs. A galaxy of shelf space is needed for an even weirder holiday ritual now in its blast-off phase.

A space traveler alights somewhere on something that looks like a 120-mile crab claw jutting into the Atlantic. Flat to begin with, it is almost entirely covered with a blackish-gray surface, which makes landing the spacecraft pretty easy.

What does the alien observe? Life forms dancing with six-foot tubes of colorful paper as they exit what appear to be storage structures. Hunters stalking items of questionable usefulness and then waving plastic rectangles - weapons? tools? - in the faces of others. Gatherers strapping prickly, apparently inedible plants on top of machines that move on circular legs. An increasingly confusing array of faux stars and other light sources, all within the Earth's troposphere - and warnings of an even stranger navigational hazard on Dec. 24.

Scratching its pate, the alien goes back to the spaceship, releases the parking brake, and lifts off. Back on Earth, meanwhile, the countdown has just begun.

The Jets game is in the fourth quarter and it's tied. Glenn O'Brien is having trouble dividing his attention between an interviewer's questions and the small, white TV on top of the refrigerator, where the team of his esteem is trying to pull off the impossible: a win.

The TV seems not only oddly placed, but a bit out of place amid the fine artwork that graces the walls. Eventually the Jets blow their one and only chance to score, lose, and a sense of normalcy is restored.

"It's kind of like a curse," Mr. O'Brien sighed about the weight of being a Jets fan since their glory days. Not even a seasoned magazine writer and advertising wiz like himself could put a positive spin on his team this year.

Calvin Klein Campaign

The Manhattanite hasn't had a chance to kick back at his Bridgehampton home for a while. Work on developing Calvin Klein's next television advertising campaign has bounced him the past few weeks from London to Georgia and back to New York.

A longtime writer and creative director at Barney's New York, Mr. O'Brien has been involved in some of Calvin Klein's most notable ad campaigns, including those for the fragrances Eternity and cK one. He's also developed ad concepts for Armani, Swatch, and some other high-profile clients. He recently broke from Barney's to establish his own company.

It's not a bad gig for someone who stumbled into advertising only about 11 years ago. It makes sense, though; a fashionable company could hardly find a better pop-culture attach‚ than Mr. O'Brien to spread its word.

Throughout his long and varied career, Mr. O'Brien has worked as a writer, editor, lead singer, television show host, and art critic besides being an ad man. His work as a writer and editor has placed him on the mastheads of Rolling Stone, Playboy, Interview, High Times, Spin, and Details.

Though he has yet to publish a book of his own, Mr. O'Brien helped edit and write Madonna's hugely popular book "Sex," which sold nearly 500,000 copies after its release in 1992.

Readers of Interview magazine may recognize Mr. O'Brien by the column he wrote for 12 years, "Glenn O'Brien's Beat." The "beat" was New York City and its thriving nightlife scene from the late '70s through the '80s. It was a scene set in night spots like the Mudd Club, CBGB, and Max's Kansas City, peopled by icons like Andy Warhol and David Bowie, and whose soundtrack pulsed with the new sounds of punk rock and new wave.

Blondie To The B-52s

"Everybody knew each other back then," recalled Mr. O'Brien. "It was a lot different than it is today." People also knew Mr. O'Brien from the surprisingly popular show "TV Party," which he started on New York public-access television in 1978.

With its own house band, musical guests, and Mr. O'Brien at the helm, the show offered a weekly slice of life from the new-wave music and nightlife scene.

"Basically, it was a kind of a goof on the 'Johnny Carson Show,' " he said. But what made it a hit in New York as well as Los Angeles was that "it was wild, it was free-form, and we had a lot of interesting guests." Regulars included David Bowie, Blondie's Debbie Harry, The B-52s front man, Fred Schneider, and John Lurie of The Lounge Lizards, many of whom were already friends with the host. The show ran for four years, until 1982.

Film Critic

Mr. O'Brien was clearly at home in the emerging scene, as both an observer and a member. "I was doing what I wanted to do," he said. "It was glamorous, exciting, and fun. . . .I went out every night, and I never had to pay for a drink."

The Cleveland native had been lucky along the career path ever since he arrived in New York in 1970, a graduate of Georgetown University. Inspired by the filmmaking of Andy Warhol and Jean-Luc Godard as an undergrad, he enrolled in Columbia University's film school.

He soon found himself writing film reviews for The Village Voice, courtesy of its film critic, Andrew Sarris, who was also a Columbia professor. "He used to let his good students write for The Voice," Mr. O'Brien said. That experience helped earn him an editing post at Andy Warhol's Interview magazine. He and a classmate, Bob Colacello, both in their early 20s, left film to edit the magazine. He still considers Andy Warhol "my mentor."

Eventually, Mr. O'Brien left Interview and took a job at the New York office of Rolling Stone. The magazine was still based in San Francisco at the time. It didn't click. "It was interesting. That's all I'll say," he offered.

That may have applied to some of the magazine's cast members. Mr. O'Brien recalls meeting the renegade journalist Hunter S. Thompson for lunch one day at a crowded, upscale Manhattan bistro. In character as always, Mr. Thompson brought with him a boater's air horn, which he let wail every time he needed a drink.

Mr. O'Brien left Manhattan to take an editing job at the Chicago-based Playboy magazine. That, too, lasted only briefly, as New York called him back. After returning to Manhattan, Mr. O'Brien turned entirely to freelance writing, a serious change from working on salary as an editor.

Off On His Own

Fortunately, "at that time you could live really cheaply. I had an apartment on the Lower East Side that I paid nothing for. It was really cheap, which is one reason why New York became such a center for the arts, I think."

Mr. O'Brien did confess to hocking the promotional copies of albums he received for pocket change. Through the years, the writer managed to establish a healthy freelance career, publishing pieces in Esquire, Playboy, High Times, and, later, Spin magazine, which he had done work for since its foundation.

Somewhere in between "Glenn O'Brien's Beat" and Glenn O'Brien's foray into the advertising world, he began doing stand-up comedy. He got the inspiration from an old comedy record by B.S. Pulley, "a gruff, kind of far-out comedian from the '50s" who was ripe for parody. Borrowing from the popular "Beatlemania!" he dubbed his act "Pulleymania!" and brought his Catskills-style schtick to some of the city's hot night spots.

Comedy Stint

When David Johansen, the former singer from The New York Dolls, discovered Mr. O'Brien performing late one night at Danceteria, he hired him instantly as the opening act for his own faux-lounge act, Buster Poindexter.

Mr. O'Brien had a band himself for a brief period - "the world's first socialist-realist band," as he de scribed it. Wearing Viet Cong-style black pajamas and red boots, the band pumped out songs like "Own Your Own House," and other gems. "I was the lead singer," Mr. O'Brien said. "My line was, 'Socialism means going out every night!' "

It was in 1985 that Mr. O'Brien was introduced to the advertising world. A friend, Paula Greif, who was the art director at Barney's New York, needed help coming up with dialogue for an already filmed TV commercial and turned to Mr. O'Brien for help. His words worked. The agency was impressed enough to bring him on as a writer for other projects, and, a few years later, he was named the agency's creative director.

The Style Guy

"I realized you could make money in advertising," he said. His approach to advertising has been simply "trying to figure out something interesting and different" for each client.

Writing hasn't taken a back seat to advertising. Mr. O'Brien remains a frequent magazine contributor. The popular men's magazine Details has enlisted him as "The Style Guy" to offer "Real Help for the Flair Impaired" in a monthly advice column. It's a perfect forum for Mr. O'Brien's dry, deadpan humor, a trait that carries over into his general style and demeanor.

Readers ask questions like: "Why do Gucci loafers have metal horse bits across the front?"

"So that if you accidentally put your foot in your mouth, you'll be able to stop," the Style Guy replies.

Profound Problems

Recent questions have touched on such pressing issues as "How do I get the beer smell out of sofas and rugs?" (Woolite or Ivory Liquid) and "What does a monogram on a shirt say about a man?" ("You are or think you are Yves Saint Laurent.")

The trendy fashion magazine Paper this month carries a humor piece on the irony of disallowing smoking on airlines but allowing them to "drench themselves in fragrances," and apply nail polish remover.

"It still bugs me that I can't smoke a Camel in many fine New York restaurants," he writes, "but I can douse myself in Drakkar Noir and pedicure myself all the way to L.A. at 35,000 feet if I were so twisted. I smell a rat. I think it's wearing Canoe."

Basquiat Film

Mr. O'Brien has wanted to publish a book of such material for years. "What I really like to do is write humorous essays. Of course, you can't get rich by doing that . . . the book business is weird. I used to think if I want to get my book published, I'd have to go out and commit a crime first."

On the more immediate horizon, Mr. O'Brien is looking to release "New York Beat," a film he co-produced in the '80s with the late artist and his friend Jean Michel Basquiat. With many of the era's players playing themselves, the movie documents the new wave and punk music scene. Mr. O'Brien wrote himself a cameo in the movie, playing, yes, a music journalist.

"For strange business reasons," it was never released, but Mr. O'Brien said the recent resurrection of interest in Basquiat, through a major film and an art retrospective in New York, may provide the impetus.

Having Fun

Mr. O'Brien was a good friend of Basquiat's, and some of the artist's paintings adorn his Bridgehampton house, along with a collection of other artworks. It was through Basquiat that Mr. O'Brien met Madonna. She and the young artist had dated briefly.

"They were a cute couple," recalls Mr. O'Brien. Madonna and Mr. O'Brien have remained close. Aside from pitching with "Sex," Mr. O'Brien has also written a press kit and a tour program for Madonna.

Twice married at 49, and with a son, Mr. O'Brien still exudes a youthful hipness. He loves jazz. He has an extensive music collection. His girlfriend, Gina, works in fashion public relations.

He is happy doing what he does, and his reputation keeps growing. "I'm well recognized in my field. I'm grateful for it," he said. Then, with a smirk, "But I deserve it."

In December, when Tony Bullock ended eight years as East Hampton Town's Democratic Supervisor, he did so with a thoughtful comment: "At the end of the day, you'll be measured on the basis of what you've accomplished, not on all the wonderful fights and debates you've had."

Nearly a year later, as he prepared to leave East Hampton for a prestigious job in Washington as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's chief of staff, Mr. Bullock returned to Town Hall to respond to the fire aimed by the board's new Republican majority at one of his major achievements - the town's recycling and composting plant. With characteristically colorful modifiers, he criticized those who would dismantle the widely admired, albeit costly, program.

It is to be hoped that the state-of-the-art waste program established during Mr. Bullock's tenure will be given a chance to prove itself and will prevail in the end.

A larger worry is the petty and unpleasant tone of the 1997 budget fight at Town Hall and whether it will set the tone for the year ahead and the next political campaign, when the terms of two of three Republican board members and of Democratic Supervisor Cathy Lester will be up. Both sides have been at fault.

Mr. Bullock will be remembered for his accomplishments as well as for the cutting comeback. It is to be hoped that the 1997 Town Board finds a way to be remembered for more than rancor.

While LTV's studios may be a great place for a costume ball, they really aren't the greatest venue for a group art show.

The Jimmy Ernst Artists Alliance is holding its annual members' exhibit in this vast black hole of a building, where the lighting simply wasn't planned for the purpose, and many of the smaller, more delicate works are swallowed up. The one painting that thrives is Nova Noah's gigantic psychedelic space odyssey, its black background blending into the black walls and its Day-Glo rocket ships and planets leaping from the darkness like a trailer for the new "Star Trek" movie.

It is a practically impossible task even under the best of circumstances to hang a show of this size and variety, and the organizers have done their best, but next time a venue with natural light and white walls might be a better choice, even if everyone had to be restricted to one small entry. It's a mixed show: mixed in media, size, style, and also in level of ability.

Personal Favorites

Which perhaps makes it all the more interesting. You have every element of the local artistic community represented here, from good to not-so-good, from unassuming to pretentious, from visionary to derivative. It's really fun to walk round and round this echoing cavern and pick out your favorites.

Here are some of mine - a personal choice that, given the huge selection, shouldn't be read as anything more than that.

Amongst the landscape paintings, the genre with the most entries, many concentrated on the East End's wet, watery edges. Lou Diamond's straightforward watercolors, Norman Seaver's wetlands and upturned boats (hung almost too high to see), and Christine Chew Smith's impressionistic dunescape capture their distinctive magic.

Topham Tapestries

Pamela Topham's elaborate tapestry landscapes manage to include a surprising amount of subtle color changes for a medium that does not have the versatility of paint. Creating an interesting effect of tangible perspective, the foreground is sometimes embroidered in rougher, woolier, chunkier yarn while the far distance is rendered in fine thread.

There was one particularly riveting piece from Ralph Carpentier, an artist whose work has come to personify the vanishing farmlands of the South Fork, where a lowering sky sweeps down across a sunlit field and farm. It was a delight, as was Marie Warach's "Summer," a bountiful, overflowing garden full of loose, lazy pink and orange blossoms.

Roseann Schwab had some powerful semi-abstract charcoal renditions of urban blight, all threatening shadows and ominous light.

Abstract Offerings

The abstract offerings were confoundingly variable, but Ruth Cohen's "Totem" felt reassuringly right. Its strong shapes of dark blue and yellow on a lighter ground were full of pull and push and tension but added up to a balanced whole that was very satisfying.

In the category of still life, Miriam Dougenis's strong use of color and composition shone out like a beacon, particularly in "Yellow/Orange/Blue," a composition of plant pots, blue striped cloth, and apricots. Also memorable was Julie Henderson's delicate watercolor "Still Life With Pears" with its taut composition of yellow and green pears around a celadon vase.

Among the artists going off on their own trajectories were Ruth Nasca, whose large red, black, and white canvases have women's issues as their focus and strong blocks of color binding their composition, and Liz Gribin's gentle, melancholy figure studies in muted pinks and grays.

Strange Vision

Nicole Bigar's totemic, mythological paintings seem to be moving further along their own songlines every year. Included in her strange vision now are clusters of odd little humunculi, moving or dancing. What's going on here, we wonder?

And lastly, Peggy Watson's wonderful six-foot-by-four-foot "Revolving Door," a New York City streetscape in winter, with yellow cabs and grey slush and a man leaving a revolving door into the kind of icy gloom that awaits us all in a couple of months' time.

The Jimmy Ernst Artists Alliance was founded in 1984 to carry out the vision of the late Mr. Ernst, an East Hampton artist who always had a wish to unite the East End artistic community in some way so as to make its influence felt elsewhere.

Useful And Fun

Eighty-three artists founded the group, to further the interests of local artists, and membership has expanded to include 340 members. Marie Warach is currently president.

The alliance's monthly meetings, held at Guild Hall and always open to the public, include a lecture by a noted artist. Then there is a monthly series of informal gatherings, "Let's Talk Art," held at Ashawagh Hall.

Add to this a well-produced newsletter, the annual exhibit and costume ball, and a studio tour in the summer, and you have a community organization that serves its members usefully while being good fun at the same time.

Though Wayne Boyd of Riverhead is the horse trainer most frequently recommended by horse professionals in our area, he doesn't like to think of himself as a trainer. "I prefer to think of myself as a horseman," he states simply.

And an all-round horseman he certainly is. At Sunchaser Stables, his base of operation for the past 13 years, he boards, trains, breeds, raises, and sells horses. In addition, he also moonlights as a horse vanner, shipping horses throughout the Northeast.

Couldn't Shake The Fever

Mr. Boyd aptly sums up a horseman's commitment by saying, "It's a seven-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year, sunshine-sleet-or-snow, sick-or-well, full-time operation."

And, as if this resume weren't complete enough, as of last year, Mr. Boyd can also add horse nutritionist to his list of professional roles. Searching for just the right balance of nutrients to feed his beloved animals, he had a local feed manufacturer make up a customized pelleted food. It so impressed the manufacturer, Eastport Feeds, that it now markets Eastport 16 Percent Sunchaser as part of its regular line.

Born and raised in Riverhead, Mr. Boyd comes from a family that has roots in the area that go back a ways, a long ways, as members of several local Native American tribes are among his ancestors.

Like most of the horse-obsessed, he was born with a love of the animal. At around the age of 7, seeing that his horse fever was unabated, his parents took him to the noted Riverhead horseman Ed Crohan to learn the ropes.

Red The Quarter Horse

Mr. Boyd speaks warmly of Mr. Crohan as one of the three mentors who helped him greatly in his pursuit of understanding and knowledge of the horse. Several years later, Mr. Boyd encountered his second mentor, the Texas horse breeder and stock horse trainer, Napoleon Allen.

Traveling out to Texas for several months each year gave Mr. Boyd invaluable experience with working horses. And it was in Texas that he met up with his most important partner, the quarter horse stallion Ryon's Glow Boy, known as Red to his friends.

Quarter horses, the oldest all-American breed, are commonly thought of as a horse of the western states, but the origin of the breed was actually in the Colonial settlements of Virginia. A hardy, strong, and versatile animal was needed to perform farmwork, logging, hauling, and drawing the carriage to church on Sundays.

And, since the English settlers were a sports-loving lot, the Famous and Celebrated Colonial Quarter Pathers, as the horses were referred to in those days, were also called upon to race.

Workers And Sprinters

In the early 1700s, racetracks weren't widely available, so short-distance races, usually raucous affairs held on the streets of the settlements, were the norm. Consequently, the horses evolved as heavily muscled sprinters capable of rapid speed over a quarter-mile distance, hence the name quarter horse.

Red is a stunning example of a classic quarter horse, clearly showing all the attributes that have kept quarter horses as the all-time most popular breed in the United States. During his long show career judges certainly agreed, awarding him many championships in halter classes.

Red's physique may be practical and workmanlike but his rapport with Mr. Boyd is the stuff of horseman's dreams.

All work around the stable stopped and a small crowd gathered as Mr. Boyd and Red worked together in the corral. With no need for any means of restraint or coercion, Mr. Boyd asked Red to run, stand on his hind legs, spin, and bow. Magnificent Red, with the sagacious can-do attitude that has made his breed so beloved, happily complied.

Show Them Who's Boss

Though Mr. Boyd's love of horses is glaringly apparent, to the uninitiated it might seem to be a somewhat tough love. "You have to let them know who's boss right from the start," he says. But anyone familiar with the behavior and social dynamics of horses would concur.

Horse society is rigidly hierarchical and not the least bit democratic. Equality is an utterly foreign concept to the horse, and those handlers who feel they are doing a kindness by not behaving authoritatively around the animal are in fact presenting him with an alarming power vacuum which instinctively he will try to fill. And, obviously, having a horse as boss is not a safe situation for either horse or human.

Like most experts, Mr. Boyd doesn't believe that horses should be ridden to any great extent before the age of 3. But he states that there is plenty else for juvenile equines to learn before they're physically ma ture enough to be ridden.

Going In Circles

"Start training them from the day they're born. Do everything with them as babies," he advises. "I like to have a horse so used to things that when it comes time to saddle him up, he just stands there. I'll tighten up the girth and he'll just turn his head and look at me like he's saying, 'Okay, what do you want me to do next?'"

Not an aficionado of training a young horse in the riding ring, Mr. Boyd states, "They get bored just going round and round. Anyway, I can teach them everything out on the trail that I could teach them in a ring."

Mr. Boyd deplores the changing face of the East End's horse world. Over the past 40-plus years he has seen recreational riders squeezed out by overdevelopment and the high cost of land on which to keep horses. Sadly these factors and liability issues have relegated many horses and riders to going round and round the ring.

Wealthy Riders

Though there are more horses in Suffolk County than ever before (in fact, there are more horses in Suffolk County than in any other county in New York State), economics and lack of open space have dictated that the majority of these animals are expensive show horses owned by the very wealthy.

National statistics indicate that slightly over 85 percent of all horse owners in the U.S. are recreational trail riders. But the East End follows a different drummer, alas. Most professionals polled put the ratio of trail riders at 40 percent . . . and falling.

But Mr. Boyd is certainly not opposed to horse showing and has had a long and successful competitive career. Since 1993 he's been participating in team penning. This sport, "the fastest growing equine sport in the U.S.," he claims, consists of a team of riders separating a designated number of cattle from a herd of 30 and driving them into a pen while keeping the remaining cattle on the other side of the arena.

For The Cowboy Spirit

By all accounts team penning is a fun, family-oriented sport. Mr. Boyd sums up its appeal: "We've all got a little cowboy or cowgirl inside us somewhere. Remember pretending . . . while riding out the seat of your mamma's couch?" Readers who would like to learn more about team penning should contact White Horse Stables in Manorville.

Mr. Boyd has had great success at this new sport and has a reserve champion belt buckle to show for it. And a wealth of great stories to tell about it, the loveliest of which illustrates the close rapport he's established with his horses.

While giving a team penning exhibition in front of thousands at the Day of the Horse celebration at Belmont Racetrack, he and his mare, Badland's Penny, experienced an equipment malfunction. Her bridle fell off.

Sharing The Wealth

"Everyone got all excited and was shouting, 'Wayne, Wayne, you've lost your bridle.' But I just dropped the reins and we continued on." What would have probably ended up as a wreck for a lesser rider and horse didn't phase Mr. Boyd and the savvy Penny one bit.

Mr. Boyd modestly credits his three mentors, Mr. Crohan, Mr. Allen, and John Andresen, D.V.M., for teaching him what he knows. Fortunately for East End horse owners and the young people of Riverhead who wish to join their ranks, Mr. Boyd is carrying on the tradition of generously sharing his wealth of information with all of us who need his advice. And most of us do!

AMAGANSETT

Jacobs to Cynthia Roth-Matz and Robert Koppelman, Laurel Hill Lane, $170,000.

Weyerbacher to Thomas Regan Jr., Ashwood Court, $615,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Rosenberger to Daniele Seitz, Haines Path, $231,500.

R.J. Mayer Pension Fund to Alan Prop. Inc., Scuttlehole Road, $167,500.

Dakota Prop. to Carber Corp., Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, $352,500.

EAST HAMPTON

Einbender to Peter and Lisa Eliel, Newtown Lane, $600,000.

Parker to Ivenscorp International Ltd., Lily Pond Lane, $3,200,000.

Cappello to Nancy Schneider, Cooper Lane, $173,000.

Jimrich Enterprises Inc. to Melissa Weldon, the Circle, $380,000. Sacks to Loc and Yvette Bui, Montauk Highway, $263,000.

MONTAUK

Goodman to Anthony and Marie Lazzaro, Gainesborough Court, $190,000.

Emerson Dev. Corp. to Thomas Chillemi and Mary Nesnay, South Emerson Avenue, $155,000.

Berliner to Patricia Farrell, Roosevelt Road, $285,000.

NORTH HAVEN

Persky to Robert Harris Jr. and Jody Owen, West Drive, $1,700,000.

NORTHWEST

BDH Const. Inc. to Alan and Jackie Mitchell, Hand's Creek to Ely Brook Road, $500,000.

Ranft to Peter Cooper, Park Street, $176,000.

Muney to Richard Brief and Jean Reid, Hedges Banks Drive, $838,000. Alwive Woods Assoc. to Law rence Bellone and Sarah Smith, North Bay Lane, $165,000.

SAG HARBOR

Early estate to Maud Mason, Hampton Street, $233,000.

Carroll to George and Diane Schiavoni, Oakland Avenue, $515,000.

SAGAPONACK

Freund to Gwendolen and Leland MacPhail Jr., Erica's Lane, $780,000.

Hynes (trustee) to Jeffrey and Helene Horowitz, Fairfield Pond Lane, $700,000.

SPRINGS

Bentley to Mary Robbins, King's Point Road, $150,000.

WATER MILL

Marino to Camino Gardens Ltd., Montauk Highway, $372,500.

It took more than an hour to appeal an East Hampton Village building inspector's decision denying Alfred Lerner a permit for a swimming pool, but in the end his attorney, Leonard Ackerman, withdrew the application, saying that "Mr. Lerner doesn't want to get into an issue with his neighbors."

Several neighbors who live near Mr. Lerner's 35 West End Road property showed up at an East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals hearing Friday morning to voice support of the building inspector's decision not to grant a Coastal Erosion Hazard Act permit for an in-ground pool, pergola, and patio on a a dune in front of the property.

Joe Scheerer of 15 West End Road, who identified himself as a "relative of the previous owner" of Mr. Lerner's property, recalled his father buying the nearby former Ring Lardner estate in 1946, which had been moved landward after "practically falling into the ocean in 1938."

Neighbors Object

"We shouldn't have any more pools on the beach," Mr. Scheerer said.

Joanne Corelli, whose house is at 41 West End Road, said, "It was kind of scary to see how close the water came up" near her house during last month's northeaster. "It was parallel," she estimated, "to where the pool would be."

The neighbors' comments followed a lengthy presentation by Richard Warren of InterScience Research Associates, an environmental consultant, complete with color aerial photography of the portion of the village's shoreline in question.

From Georgica to Hook Mill Ponds, Mr. Warren pointed out, there are 35 private residential oceanfront lots, of which 25, or 71 percent, have swimming pools. Eighteen of those, he added, "are seaward of the coastal erosion hazard line," which is 240 feet from the road. The Coastal Erosion Hazard Act was adopted in 1988.

Another Location?

The shoreline conditions "are not eroded in this section of the beach," Mr. Warren continued, citing it as a "no flooding" zone according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the National Flood Insurance Program.

Irene Tobin, who lives at 29 West End Road, said, however, that two years ago houses in the neighborhood "lost 30 feet of beachfront in one November storm."

Mr. Warren noted that 95 percent of neighborhood pools were in the rear yard. For privacy, he said, "people don't put swimming pools in their front yard."

Johanna Caleca, the village attorney, suggested that the board "consider reasonable alternatives and the extent to which the structure requires a shoreline location."

Wetland Easement

"I think there's ample room to locate elsewhere, and plenty of privacy," said Joan Denny, a board member. "I think it's great that the area is stable, but I'd like to see the stable dune area stay that way."

In other action, the board heard Peter Wolf's plan to give an easement to the village over the 125-foot wetland setback on his Briar Patch Road, Georgica Pond property, where he is renovating a teahouse.

Mr. Wolf's lawn extends to the edge of the wetland. The board agreed that to require Mr. Wolf to return the entire lawn to its natural state was excessive. In lieu of that, he has proposed the easement, which would protect the vegetation, but also would include a 10-foot strip where he could mow but use no fertilizers.

Transitional Zone

"I think this is a valuable tool for the board," said Gene Cross, the village's planning consultant, who negotiated the easement with Christopher Kelley of Twomey, Latham, Shea and Kelley, Mr. Wolf's attorney. It can provide a good "transition between a wetland edge and a lawn."

The board will consider a policy of incorporating a transitional zone into its easements at a future date.

At tomorrow's meeting, the Z.B.A. is expected to grant a freshwater wetlands permit to Martha Stewart for her Georgica Close Road property. It will also consider Edward Barlow's application to build an attached garage with a home office on his Lee Avenue property and an application from Candace Phillips, who lives on a private road off Briar Patch Road, to revegetate a portion of a scenic easement and to clear an area within 125 feet of a wetland.

The board meets at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street at 11 a.m.

In other village news, the Village Board will hold a work session at 10 a.m. today at Village Hall and a regular meeting on Friday, Nov. 15, at the Emergency Services Building. The Planning Board will meet next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at Village Hall.