EDITORIALS
To Go or Not to Go
It is remarkably uncomfortable to find ourselves in the position of defending Supervisor Bill McGintee, who, along with most of the rest of the town board, presided over East Hampton Town’s very own fiscal crisis. However, if he actually did resign, as a petition with over 1,200 signatures demands, the chances are good that things would only get worse.

Fair Winds on Bluff Road
A rainstorm may have swamped the celebration at the opening on Saturday of the East End Classic Boat Society’s new Community Boat Shop, behind the Town Marine Museum in Amagansett, but the forecast is undeniably brightening on Bluff Road. Hammer-weilding members of the society worked for years to raise the walls of — and, perhaps more of a challenge on an overcrowded philanthropic scene, the funds for — the shop. It will be used for boat-construction classes for the public and volunteer building projects, all with an eye to preserving the endangered art of hewing watercraft from wood.

Still a Leap of Faith
Worry about the local economy only grew this week as Washington battled over a bailout bill that, depending on which extreme you are on, either saved the United States from financial ruin or was a step toward socialism. It was hard not to notice Monday’s 778-point trap-door fall of the Dow Industrial Average as the first version of a rescue plan failed in the House of Representatives. Residents of the South Fork, perhaps more closely tied to Wall Street’s ups and downs than those in many other places in the country, could not help but worry.

COLUMNS
Connections | Helen S. Rattray
A Case in Point
That’s all I need: another e-mail blast on matters of state.
The Mast-Head | David E. Rattray
‘And I’m in Your Corner!’
What ever happened to Mike Boguslawski?

Point of View | Jack Graves
If I Were President
Things, I suppose, have come full circle, for every time we see a conservative urging that we wait a minute before throwing $700 billion at the wretched credit market and think a bit before giving the treasury secretary carte blanche, we cheer.

GUESTWORDS | By Dan Marsh
Economy
There is something sad about a hay rake left out in the rain.

Relay | Laura Donnelly
Pandora’s Icebox
I’m afraid I might have a condiment fetish.