Opinion

Sunday was opening day in East Hampton Town waters for scallop harvesting, and, while there were some to be found, the haul for those who braved the wind and rain was about what was expected — poor.

Only in the topsy-turvy world of government could an honest effort by a town to reduce noise and air pollution be required to submit to an analysis of such a move’s negative effect on the environment.

It was one all-stater and a strong finish for the Pierson girls cross-country team at the New York State championship meet in Vernon.

The Nov. 3 vote in the Sag Harbor School District to approve buying five lots near the high school with C.P.F. help was significant. It forces all of us to rethink what preservation means for the East End.

People, it seems, have been voting against their best interests for years, since Reagan proselytized on behalf of trickle-down economics, which turned out not to raise all boats, just yachts.

Cerberus came out of the water last week, formally ending my sailing season.

Notes from a five-night film festival at sea, sponsored by the Turner Classic Movies channel.

With the approval of a new .5-percent tax on most real estate sales for affordable housing, there is a serious risk of misuse and political influence taking precedence over sound decision-making.

A charming upstate downtown can get a guy thinking.

As New York magazine’s pioneering “Insatiable Critic” and the first foodie, a term she coined, Gael Greene made dining out a sensual experience to be savored.

They say it’s “the beautiful game,” and yet some teams that play soccer in a less beautiful, even ugly fashion, can win as often as not — as Half Hollow Hills West did here on Halloween — through untrammeled will.

Out of seemingly nowhere, on Monday my 12-year-old told me in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to vote for anyone who was not “a minority.”

One of my great pleasures is perusing old cookbooks to see how people ate and entertained in other eras.

East Hampton Town needs to make clear what it is up to in buying a nearly 19-acre piece of vacant land off East Lake Drive in Montauk.

The scope of what will happen if the Republican Party takes control of the House is mind-boggling.

The Group of 7 has decided to cap the price it will pay for Russian oil. There may be lessons for that challenge in U.S. history, from World War I to the coal wars of 1922.

This would be a good Hallowe’en to be visited by ghouls and ghosts because the Mohs surgery I’ve had lately has prompted Mary to sing “My Funny Frankenstein” from time to time.

Most East End voters will find three propositions on the back of their ballots this election, labeled One, Two, and Three. We believe that each should be approved.

There is, as you may know, homelessness in East Hampton Town.

A friend called a single flower that emerged from a thin cosmos plant on my office window this week the “miracle on Main Street.”

On Sunday at dinner time, the evening before All Hallows Eve, my son, who just turned 13, decided he wanted to wear a costume for the first time since he was small.

Helicopter companies and others who sued East Hampton Town over its attempt to gain more control of its airport won a temporary victory in state court last week, but the celebration was premature.

Any trip I make west, at some point past the cultural demarcation of the Shirley-Mastic area, I head back to the future with 90.7 FM, WFUV out of Fordham.

Last year a group of us decided to tackle our ecological despair with action in a landscape we love — East Hampton and eastern Long Island. We started in our own yards.

In the race for New York governor, there is only one real choice.

“You’re wondering why no honking, where are the a-holes? Why is it so peaceful?”

My father leased the Sail Inn for about a decade in the last century, and in doing so drove himself to an early death for ignoring Rule #1 of bar ownership: You can’t be the best customer in your own saloon.

On Main Street in East Hampton Village, it never stops.

Once more unto the gravel trails of Van Cortlandt Park.

Oct. 22, 1962: I was ordained to ministry in the Presbyterian Church, and President Kennedy addressed the nation on the Cuban Missile Crisis.