How many big guns does it take to make a great theatrical experience?

Consider the consortium of giants who created "Ragtime," the $10 million musical with the cast of 58 now playing on the cavernous stage of Broadway's colossal new Ford Center for the Performing Arts.

Garth Drabinsky, the zillionaire Canadian impresario and owner of Livent Inc., which brought us the recent "Showboat" revival, not only funded and produced the venture but also built the theater, an opulent melding of the old Lyric and Apollo theaters that runs between 42nd and 43rd Streets.

Local Titans

The director is Frank Galati, who wrote and directed the technically awesome, Tony Award-winning 1990 stage adaptation of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," a three-hour extravaganza with a cast of a mere 35, then the most costly and ambitious American play ever to hit the Great White Way.

A pair of local titans supplied the words. The novelist E.L. Doctorow of Sag Harbor, winner of all the major literary awards, wrote the 1975 world-wide bestseller the musical is based on.

The playwright Terrence McNally of Bridgehampton, of the Tony Award-winning "Love! Valour! Compassion!" and "Master Class," created the book. He also has written two hit musicals, "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "The Rink."

The noted team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens collaborated on the music and lyrics, while the resident director of the Lincoln Center Theater, Graciela Daniele, designed the choreography.

First-rate creative genius was also brought to bear on the spectacular sets, by the award-winning Eugene Lee, and the gorgeous costumes, by the acclaimed Santo Loquasto.

Jonathan Deans created the brilliant, if rather overmiked, sound, while Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer collaborated on the truly smashing lighting design. Minor production values were clearly also handled by top people.

Families In Collision

Billing itself as "The Last Great Musical of the Century," "Ragtime" is set at the century's dawn in a turbulent New York City teeming with immigrants and black migrant workers from the South, and in a tranquil suburb.

The plot, and there is a lot of it, follows the fortunes of three families that symbolize the dream-seekers and the establishment types guarding the pot of gold, and dramatizes their collision courses.

We first meet a WASP family living in Victorian splendor in the whites-only enclave of New Rochelle. There's The Little Boy (Alan Strange), who serves as the evening's bug-eyed narrator, Mother (Marin Mazzie), a sheltered young matron, and Father (Mark Jacoby), a fireworks magnate off on an expedition to the North Pole with Admiral Peary (Rod Campbell) and his Arctic Club.

Sharing their mansion are Grandfather (Conrad McLaren) and Mother's Younger Brother (Steven Sutcliffe), a gentle soul who will become a fanatical civil rights activist.

With its parasols and tennis balls, this family seems invulnerable to change, oblivious to the "wretched refuse" swarming through Emma Lazarus's "golden door."

Little Coalhouse

This serenity is shattered by the discovery under a clump of hydrangeas of a black infant who has been abandoned by his washerwoman mother, Sarah (the magnificent Audra McDonald).

He turns out to be the illegitimate son of the great jazz pianist Coalhouse Walker (the charismatic Brian Stokes Mitchell).

Good Protestant Mother takes Sarah and Little Coalhouse under her wing, greatly enriching her life but infuriating her Irish-immigrant working-class neighbors.

Jewish Immigrants

When Coalhouse Sr. rolls up for a visit in his resplendent new Model T Ford, members of the local volunteer fire department trash the car and beat him up. Denied justice in the courts, the radicalized black musician and his supporters resort to violence.

Meanwhile, on the Lower East Side, the third strand of plot comes to life as Tateh (the delightful Peter Friedman), a Jewish immigrant from Latvia, struggles to support his daughter, The Little Girl (Lea Michele), by making cut-out silhouettes of passers-by.

A move to working backbreaking shifts in a Massachusetts textile mill involves him with the anarchist Emma Goldman (Judy Kaye) and the bloody labor strikes of her International Workers of the World. He and The Little Girl flee to California.

Historical Events

Once these narrative lines have been set in motion, we are swept into a maelstrom of historical events that engulfs the characters in clashing philosophies and political themes for which they seem to become the mere spokespersons.

A sort of heavy-duty, industrial-strength social conscience overtakes the action, and scenes clang into place freighted with moral significance.

In case we are slow to get the point, actual public figures besides Emma Goldman and Admiral Peary come forth to instruct us.

For example, the escape artist Harry Houdini (Jim Corti) appears as an inspiring metaphor for the poor in dead-end jobs, Henry Ford (Larry Daggett) as a ruthless union-buster, J. P. Morgan as an elitist robber baron, and Booker T. Washington (Tommy Hollis) as an advocate for racial equality.

Critic Unmoved

This is all excitingly acted, sung, choreographed, designed, lighted, and technically enhanced - but has the consortium of giants who labored on "Ragtime" brought forth a mouse or a masterpiece?

Well, actually, they've created something of a monster. Not a monster, exactly, but a three-and-a-half-hour musical with beautiful, perfectly formed moving parts that doesn't move us, that has no soul.

God knows "Ragtime" tries for the soul animating the novel, every fiber of it straining. But soul, perhaps, is not something a consortium of giants can will into being.

And "The Last Great Musical of the Century"? Let's hope it's still waiting in the wings.

The Grand Cafe

66 Newtown Lane

East Hampton

324-9207

Open every day for breakfast and lunch. Open for dinner in the summer.

Pass by the sidewalk tables outside the Grand Cafe on Newtown Lane on any Sunday morning in July and you'll get a perfect summer-in-the-Hamptons vignette.

As you zoom past, racing to the dump with a load of overripe garbage or vying with the mob for the Last Parking Space in East Hampton Until Labor Day perhaps, you catch a glimpse of sidewalk tables packed with suntanned summer people. Bronzed arms flex newspapers, stir coffee, pet fashionable pooches. Every table is packed.

But winter is different: Not only will you be able to amble in at lunchtime and get a table, but you'll probably be able to park right outside as well.

Any Which Way

One of the commonest complaints you hear about East Hampton these days is that there aren't any "real" stores left, that the place has been taken over by boutiques. But we should count our blessings that we do still have a few cafes - places where you can get eggs and bacon, a tuna melt, or coffee and a slice of apple pie.

Of all of them, the Grand Cafe has the most comforting menu - one of those almost impenetrable spread sheets laden with specials, combos, sandwiches ad infinitum, eggs and omelets any which way, and pie whatever.

The food, however, is definitely an improvement on standard diner fare.

Staples, Yes

Most of the staples are dead sure bets - the black bean soup is always great and the Belgian waffle with fresh fruit and cream is a great summer breakfast - but a recent lunchtime survey came up with a mixed report card.

The winning dish was crab cakes, served with a mesclun, diced tomato, and goat cheese salad. The combination of the spicy, crunchy, hot crab cakes and the fresh, sharp salad worked very well and at $10.95 it was a real bargain.

Another unusual combination, cheese blintzes with fresh fruit, didn't work so well. The blintzes were extremely greasy and the cheese filling was not very nice, although their recipient was compensated by the massive helping of melon, strawberries, oranges, and bananas that came along.

Tant Mieux

Whoever was on duty in the kitchen seemed a little temperature-challenged on this occasion. The pastrami sandwich, which looked wonderful, was stone cold in the middle. The rare hamburger came completely raw and had to be sent back.

To the chef's credit it returned with a new bun, and the accompanying french fries, crisp pickles, and homemade coleslaw were excellent.

A soup and sandwich special is always a safe bet. The soup was a pleasant beef barley with plenty of heft, and the roast beef sandwich came on a good, crisp peasant bread and was tender and moist.

It was promoted as "rare," which it wasn't, but as it was just to the taste of the guy who ordered it, tant mieux, as they might say down the road at some fancier place.

They'll Be Back

The spinach and feta omelet was baked in the oven, thus bidding farewell forever to that high point of an omelet's existence - a firm golden outside and a moist, barely cooked inside - while achieving instead a uniform dryness.

We do seem to have struck out with a few dishes on this occasion, but those present that day were all regular visitors to the Grand Cafe.

They know it for reasonable prices, fresh, unpretentious food, and friendly, if sometimes harried, service. The occasional greasy blini won't keep us away.

Erosion Barrier Allowed

A State Supreme Court Justice ruled on Friday that Ronald and Isobel Konecky, who live next door to William Rudin on Dune Road in Bridgehampton, may install a temporary steel barrier to protect their house from the erosion that has ravaged the beach.

Justice Peter F. Cohalen ruled that the Koneckys, whose house has been partially undermined, were entitled to the emergency protection. The ruling requires them to remove the steel after 30 days, but it allows them to apply for time extensions.

Lisa Kombrink, the Southampton town attorney, said the town would appeal the ruling.

Neighbors Sued

The Koneckys were among a group of eight neighbors, including Mr. Rudin, who sued the town in 1994, when it demanded they do an environmental impact statement as part of an application to build a line of connected steel revetments.

Mr. Rudin later settled his portion of the suit individually when the town gave him permission to build a subsurface dune restoration system with a series of sand-filled tubes.

The settlement between Mr. Rudin and the town in no way precluded other neighbors from pursuing their own erosion-control efforts, Ms. Kombrink said.

Violations Denied

Mr. Rudin's project caused an uproar when the town allowed him to construct a massive steel cofferdam to protect the construction site this fall. Many blamed the structure for erosion during a series of fall and winter storms that scoured away the beach on either side of the Rudin property and washed away dunes protecting Scott Cameron Beach.

The town has advised Mr. Rudin that his project violated the terms of the settlement because it blocked access, left construction debris on the beach, and was not covered with sand.

But in a letter to the town last week, Mr. Rudin's contractor for the project, Aram Terchunian of First Coastal Corporation in Westhampton Beach, denied the violations and argued that the problems were caused by weather and naturally occurring erosion.

His Day In Court

Meanwhile, the Town Trustees, who issued Mr. Rudin a separate permit, have threatened to revoke it, primarily because the structure blocks the public's right to pass along the beach. The Trustees have asked Mr. Rudin and his representatives to meet with them at 1 p.m. on Monday at Town Hall to discuss the matter.

"We have to give him his day in court," Scott Strough, the Trustee president, said last week.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has also become involved. Mr. Thiele said he would introduce legislation that would prohibit the State Department of Environmental Conservation from issuing tidal wetland permits in cases that would block access to public lands.

"Self-Centered Actions"

In a release, Mr. Thiele acknowledged that the legislation was aimed at preventing reoccurrences of the problems in Bridgehampton.

"Today, we are seeing a few public property owners on the beach in Bridgehampton seeking to protect themselves from the inevitable impacts of erosion at the expense of the public," he said in a release. "There are alternatives to these self-centered actions which are causing the permanent loss of the public right to use their beach."

New life is about to be infused into the historic Main Street property where the East Hampton director Sidney Lumet filmed part of his successful 1981 mystery thriller "Deathtrap."

The property, at 121 and 123 Main Street, set back from the street and accessible only by a narrow lane, was recently sold by Harold Rosinsky, a manufacturer, and his wife, Claude, for $2.16 million.

Its new owner is Kenneth Kuchin of Park Avenue, Manhattan, and Princeton, N.J., who recently sold his central New Jersey bus business and retired. The western portion of the property, with a poolhouse and swimming pool, at 123 Main, was purchased jointly by Mr. Kuchin and his partner, F. Bruce Anderson.

Because the main house is attached to a historic windmill, the property is part of East Hampton Village's Main Street Historic District. And, because of that, the Village Design Review Board had to okay any renovations, which on Jan. 21 it did.

An Accurate Replica

In front of the property, at 117 Main, is the late 18th-century Jeremiah Miller House, which Edward DeRose bought in 1885 and behind which he constructed what has become known as the DeRose Windmill, a "faux" structure, but an accurate replica of an authentic East Hampton windmill. According to Robert Hefner, the village's historic preservation consultant, its authenticity can be found in the "height of the octagonal tower, the width at the base and cap, the conical cap, the few small windows, and the windshaft and sails."

"Vivid Example"

It is, Mr. Hefner wrote in a memorandum to the Review Board, "one of the most vivid examples of the close relationship between East Hampton's local architecture and the architecture of the early summer colony."

The De Rose estate came to be known as "Millfield." A 1903 article about it in Architectural Record included a photograph of a small gambrel-roofed cottage attached to the windmill.

Several additions to it produced the three-bedroom, two-story residence Mr. Kuchin began this week to renovate.

A View Of The Steeple

James McChesney, a Southampton architect, said he designed a roughly 600-square-foot addition to the house, including a new dining room and mud room on the first floor, and a maid's room and bath on the second. The kitchen is to be renovated and a first-floor powder room to be moved.

The poolhouse will be modernized, and in the windmill, the first floor will become a library, and the second floor an office, plus deck.

Its windows will be largely maintained, and two new ones added.

The owner said he wanted a view of Main Street, particularly, he told the Review Board, of "the church steeple," just across the street.

AMAGANSETT

Quigley to Christiane Celle, Napeague Lane, $480,000.

Savage to Scott and Mary Formby, Timber Trail, $425,000.

Summ to Herbert Weiss (trustee), Broadview Avenue, $835,000.

Lewis (trustee) to Jane Herrick and Ed Wollman, Devonshire Lane, $155,000.

Weilman to Daniel Feinstein and Allison Ryba, Gansett Lane, $450,000.

Catalfo to Lawrence and Margaret Jaeger, Shipwreck Lane, $625,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Whiskey Hill Inc. to HME Dev. Corp., Bridge Hill Lane, $215,000.

Whiskey Hill Inc. to HME Dev. Corp., Bridge Hill Lane, $190,000.

Whiskey Hill Inc. to SME Inc., Bridge Hill Lane, $175,000.

Akhavan to Fred Brettschneider, Newlight Lane, $524,000.

Whiskey Hill Inc. to Robert Tamburini, Bridge Hill Lane, $165,000.

Jefferys to Anthony and Michele Tagliagambe, Meadows West, $249,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Rose estate to Steven and Arlene Ferris and David and Deborah Londin, East Hollow Road, $650,000.

Schwartz to Jonathan and Heidi Wald, Cross Highway, $335,000.

Mascia (part interest) to Alfred and Violetta Koch, Squaw Road, $180,000.

Palmer to Camille Romita, Middle Lane, $2,100,000.

Kiley to Lynn Jerome, Horseshoe Drive North, $357,000.

Schlosberg to Roger and Edith Foster, Boatheaders Lane, $161,000.

Kahn to Larry and Willa Hoffner, East Hollow Road, $999,000.

Weil to William Ruder, Jericho Road, $210,000.

MONTAUK

Squaillacioti to Dennis and Zita O'Brian, South Essex Street, $217,000.

Darrell to James and Rosanne Hatgipetros, Farrington Road, $365,000.

Sutter to Daniel and Julia Stavola, Prospect Hill Lane, $185,000.

Chang to Timothy and Diane Frost, Coolidge Road, $375,000.

NORTH HAVEN

O'Brien to Andrew and Joanna Kruszynski, Tracy Drive, $193,000.

NORTHWEST

Rallyn Homes Inc. to Louis Papa, Mulford Avenue, $250,000.

Lutz to East Hampton New Dev. Corp., Kettle Court, $272,000.

NOYAC

Fank to Bruce and Kelly McMahon, Mill Road, $180,000.

SAG HARBOR

GST Sag Harbor to Anna Tweed, Bay Street, $293,500.

Covey to Joan Maggi, Stanford Court, $213,000.

Govoni to Lawrence Hama and Carol Jazwinski, Noyac Path, $255,000.

Casella to Robert and Joy Lewis, Hampton Street, $565,000.

Iriminage Ltd. to Jonathan and Regina Gilson, Bluff Point Lane, $160,000.

Loomis to Maria Kosky, Redwood Road, $232,500.

SPRINGS

Denton to Dwayne Denton, Old Stone Highway, $210,000.

Sinenberg to Shawn and Rohan Mishler, Rutland Road, $152,000.

WATER MILL

Morrill to David Steinberg, Deerfield Road, $227,500.

Sleep, the essential restorative, is imperfectly understood in human beings and even more mysterious in nonhuman animals. However, much of the little we know about our sleeping habits does seem to apply to those of our pets as well.

Studies have shown that the content of an animal's slumber consists of periods of slow-wave sleep interspersed by shorter rapid-eye-movement phases.

In humans, REM sleep is associated with dreaming. Since the brain activity of animals during REM sleep is similar to a human's, it is reasonable to conclude that they, too, dream.

Animals, Too, Need Dreams

Another indicator that animals do dream is that sleep deprivation not only causes them to become physically ill but also mentally unstable.

It seems likely that dreaming fulfills the same purpose for our pets as it does for us, giving the brain a chance to process memories of past experiences.

Vegetarians, take note: Creatures high on the food chain get more sleep. Predators such as dogs, cats, and humans who consume protein-rich meat can afford the luxury of sleep. Herbivore prey animals, like cattle, sheep, and horses, must eat almost ceaselessly to obtain the requisite nutrition.

And, of course, they must also stay alert and vigilant lest they become protein for the predators.

Cats, consummate hunters that they are, are champion snoozers. They sleep away 60 to 80 percent of their lives.

It has been estimated that a typical 9-year-old cat will have been awake for only a mere three years of its life.

Unlike humans, who sleep for large blocks of time, cats take, well, cat- naps. They intersperse their active day of hunting or, more likely, hanging around the can opener, with many naps of around a 40-minute duration.

Interestingly enough, though cats are widely reputed to be nocturnal hunters who are active at night, recent studies have shown that the bulk of catnaps, 75 percent, occur during nighttime.

Lost In A Dream

A napping cat first goes into slow-wave sleep, during which it is resting but still very quick to awaken should something interesting occur.

If the slow-wave phase is undisturbed, the cat will enter the REM state, and remain in it for about 10 minutes. During this sleep phase, the cat is quite oblivious to its surroundings.

Observant owners frequently note that the cat seems quite lost to its dreams, quivering its paws and whiskers and sometimes muttering softly.

Sleep Cycle Of Dogs

Dogs do not spend as much time sleeping as cats do, but they do have very similar sleep patterns.

Many dog owners assume that their dog sleeps through the night just as they do, but a study conducted at Cornell University revealed that canines only spend about 60 percent of nighttime hours asleep.

Research has disclosed that dogs have a typical sleep-wake cycle of 104 minutes, consisting of 56 minutes awake and 48 minutes asleep.

Given the dissimilar slumber habits of dogs and humans, it is a tribute to the obligingly patient nature of dogs that they let us sleep undisturbed through the night.

Lydia's Dream Life

Dogs give the appearance of having an active and exciting dream life. Their legs move as if they're running, their whiskers twitch, and they may give voice to yips or soft barks.

Obviously, thrilling events are taking place in the Land of Nod.

My dog, Lydia, seems to have a recurring dream of greeting near and dear friends. Her only obvious REM activity is a happy, sustained tail-wagging.

However, as endearing and intriguing as a dreaming dog might be, the old clich‚ about letting sleeping dogs lie contains a great deal of truth; a dog startled from REM sleep will often snap or snarl.

Horses Take Turns

Herbivores, because of their vulnerability to predation, have evolved to need less sleep. When in a group, these animals will often take turns napping, a survival tactic that insures that there is always at least one animal on watch to give warning to the sleepyheads.

Horses, lacking the horns and tusks of most other herbivores, have only their swiftness and agility as a defense. Despite their imposing appearance and considerable power, they fight only when cornered. Fleeing the scene is their preferred defense.

Since rising from a prone position takes at least two seconds, and two seconds are too many when the lion is on your tail, horses evolved with the ability to sleep standing up.

On The Side: Deep Sleep

Horses may sleep standing up, but they cannot dream while standing up. REM sleep can only occur when an animal (of any species) is prone on its side.

Horses need REM sleep as much as any animal, so they will stretch out for short 30-minute snoozes throughout a 24-hour period, usually spending a total of about two hours a day lying down.

Lying down is not as restful for them as for us, for not only does a prone position conflict with the horse's instinct to be highly mobile, but, due to the considerable weight of an adult horse, their respiratory and circulatory systems are negatively affected by the position.

Ironically, sleeping lying down demands more energy from the horse than sleeping standing up. Quite possibly this is further indication of the necessity of dreams.

When in REM sleep, horses give off the same physical indications as dogs and cats do that they are dreaming.

Some horses can be quite lively and noisy during REM sleep. While spending many nights in the barn during foaling season, I witnessed many different styles of REM sleep among horses.

One young mare in particular, Queenie, seemed to have especially exciting dreams.

During her waking hours, Queenie was a rather mellow and self-effacing creature, but in her dreams she seemed to become considerably more dramatic.

She'd whinny softly and repetitively, toss her head spiritedly, and move her legs in a prancing pattern.

No Nightmares

What I wouldn't give to know what was in that head at that moment!

It is unlikely that we will ever know for sure if our animals dream as we do.

Happily, though, researchers have never reported an incidence of nightmares among animals. No creature has ever been reported jolting awake in an inexplicably fearful state.

So, if animals do indeed dream, we can reasonably assume that all their dreams are sweet.

The Rev. Calvin O. Butts 3d, the pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, will be the keynote speaker at Southampton College's first Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration next Thursday. The talk will also start the celebration of February as Black History Month.

Dr. Butts, whose talk will begin at 7 p.m. in the college's Fine Arts Theatre, has been a prominent civil rights activist since the 1960s. He helped establish the Thurgood Marshall Academy, has taught urban affairs at City College and black church history at Fordham University, is a board member of the United Way, and led a group that painted over liquor and cigarette ads displayed on inner city buildings.

Gospel Music, Too

He holds degrees from Morehouse College, Union Theological Seminary, and Drew University. The East End National Organization for Women is participating in Dr. Butts's presentation, and the organization's president, Melissa A. Walton, will introduce him.

Next Thursday's celebration will also include gospel music performed by Leon's Inner Voices and a reception with college faculty, staff, students, and members of the community. Winners of an essay contest headed by John Strong, a history professor at the college, will also be announced.

The celebration of Black History Month will continue at the college on Feb. 19, when Jerry Domatob and Wallace Smith will discuss "The Media and Identity: How the Media Inhibits People's Identity." Dr. Domatob is the communications coordinator and an assistant professor of communications, and Dr. Smith is the director of Southampton College's radio station WPBX.

On Feb. 23, Dr. Allison Dorsey, an assistant professor of history at Swarthmore College, will discuss the important roles black women played in the postbellum South. And, on Feb. 26, a concert featuring Sanga of the Valley and Drums of Life will bring the sounds of such musical traditions as calypso, reggae, rhythm and blues, and New Age.

Like Americans everywhere this week, reporters at The East Hampton Star found themselves talking about the scandal surrounding President Bill Clinton. In an entirely random survey, here are some of the comments they heard.

"We should get on with running the government. I think [Monica Lewinsky] is lying. I'm not a big Clinton supporter but it seems to me the Republicans and the media have something going here. It's a shame whenever one party takes over the other party has to resort to muckraking. It's been going on since Watergate. There's nobody lily white in this country, especially in Washington."

Dave DiSunno

Fire Marshal

East Hampton Town

"If he's done it, he's slime. But I think there has probably been a lot of slip in [the White House]. It's probably a job requirement. I think you should have a certain moral character, though. . . . One of them is lying and we're all willing to believe it's him. I think it's really sad, but he's given us ammunition in the past."

Sheila Dunlop

Librarian, East Hampton

"I don't think there is a real issue there. It's between him and Hillary. As long as he's running this country correctly, I have no problem. As for the vow he made when he married and whether he's kept it, that's between him and Hillary."

Carl Johnson

Basetball Coach, Bridgehampton

"If he suborned perjury, that's important. If that is true, it's very important. I don't think much of the rest of it, but if there was any subornation of perjury, the man should face the penalty. . . . It's a crime. It's a felony, actually, not even a misdemeanor."

Edward W. Horne

Retired East Hampton

Town Justice

"I really think that the whole thing is the press going after something that is really so unimportant. I'm not offended - let him do what he wants. The idea that the Presidency could be brought down by [...] is ridiculous. Nor is it an issue that the girl was only 21. I was married by 21. Who knows what goes on between two people."

"So I think it's yellow dog journalism and the enemies of Clinton trying to stir up stuff to bring him down."

Galen Williams

Landscape Designer

East Hampton

"The basic issue is that the freedom of the press has changed so greatly since F.D.R., or even Eisenhower or Kennedy, all of whom had affairs. The issue is also did he break the law by lying. I think the way in which he's handled this has greatly undermined his ability to handle the Presidency."

Judy Teller, East Hampton

"Starr is just trying to find some dirt and Tripp is trying to write a novel. It's all so blown out of proportion compared to what they should be doing."

Elizabeth Sarfati

Librarian, East Hampton

"If you listen to the media, it's like the end of the world. It's a tempest in a teapot. He's not the only President who's screwed around. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt."

Ali Cole, East Hampton

"I don't know that I have a strong opinion - I don't dislike Clinton, but I'm disappointed. . . . There's something about us that loves to tear down our heroes."

William J. Fleming

Attorney, East Hampton

"There are really only two answers to the whole thing. We shouldn't get involved in the President's sexual issues. We don't even know if it's true, but humans are sexual animals. It's possible it happened. It happened with previous Presidents. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it but maybe the most important thing is how it influences younger people who look up to the President and are not hardened to reality like we are."

Mickey Miller, Springs

"It's not important to me. Men just seem to have an agenda. Why should we have to be subjected to the President's indelictos? He has Secret Service. He must know that everything he does is scrutinized. But the nation should not be focusing on this at all."

Jennifer Monroe, Montauk

"If he did what he is alleged to have done, it was stupid to begin with, but it would be triply stupid to make categorical denials. It could be that Clinton is telling the truth about never asking anyone to lie and that what he and Vernon Jordan advised Miss Lewinsky was to take the Fifth Amendment."

"My own opinion is that who a President sleeps with or commits adultery with is totally irrelevant."

Victor Rabinowitz

Attorney, New York City

"They're wasting their time and making us the laughing stock of the world. If it's true, it's true, but it should wait until he's out of office."

Trisha Cusimano, Montauk

"I think the pervasiveness of the media in every aspect of politics except the important matters is absurd. . . . He's a lame-duck. Let him finish out his Presidency. It's an embarrassment."

Meg Cossentino, Montauk

"Aside from the possible deplorable act, it's an ax job on the part of the Republican Party. They'll go to any lengths to demean this guy. It saddens me because there is so much emphasis in this country on naughtiness and sex. . . . I really think if it's true, he should have owned up to it from the start."

John Pelligrino, East Hampton

"He's gotten out of it before. He just doesn't know when to quit. Just because he is President, it doesn't mean he should be able to get away with anything. I think he should suffer the consequences."

Ted Tillinghast

Owner, East Hampton Hardware

"I was watching CNN and my 6-year-old and my 10-year-old were standing behind me. I didn't see them and the discussion was whether oral sex was different than sexual intercourse. Then my 6-year-old asked me if President Clinton is in trouble. I said, 'He might be. He may have done something bad."

"Part of the downside of this is that things you don't want the kids to hear are on mainstream television. You try to [monitor] the shows they watch. I never had to worry about CNN."

Joe Gaviola, Montauk

"Too many reporters. Too much newsprint. Not an issue in sight."

Tom Friedman

Owner, Who'd A Thought,

East Hampton

"From what I've watched and the clips I've read, I think it's a joke and the whole thing is a waste of time. If his wife can stay with him and eat with him, why should we, as a country, have a problem with it? . . .It should stay in the bedroom."

Nabil Bahi, Springs

A continuing leadership dispute among the Montaukett Indians threatens to delay, if not derail, the tribe's effort to gain Federal recognition.

The feud pits Robert Pharaoh of Sag Harbor against Robert Cooper of East Hampton. Mr. Pharaoh says his claim to be chief, or grand sachem, by ancestral right was recognized by the tribe in a 1995 election, while Mr. Cooper, a former East Hampton Town Councilman, claims to have been elected chief at a tribal meeting held in Amityville in November.

"Until I step down, he'll never be chief," Mr. Pharaoh said this week. "And I never plan to step down."

The Spotlight

In often bitter tones, Mr. Pharaoh denounced Mr. Cooper as a man who wants the spotlight for himself and who is attempting to take credit for Mr. Pharaoh's work on behalf of Federal recognition.

"He loves to be in the media," Mr. Pharaoh said. "No one is acknowledging him as chief of anything. Basically, he's just full of hot air. What can I say?"

Mr. Pharaoh is working to create a cultural center similar to the one now being built by the Shinnecock Tribe in Southampton, part of his attempt, he said, to resurrect the Montauketts.

He questioned whether Mr. Cooper was not more interested in bringing casino gambling to the East End. "They're talking about gaming," he said. "That's not in our best interest."

Feds Confused

After publicly announcing that he had been elected chief at the November gathering attended by 45 members of the tribe and taking the role of spokesman to the press, Mr. Cooper this week declined to discuss the matter.

"It's not in the best interest of the Montauketts that Pharaoh and I get in a fight in the newspaper," Mr. Cooper said. "It's getting out of hand. This is becoming a circus."

The dispute has caused confusion at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Federal agency charged with reviewing tribal claims.

"Leadership Change"?

Lee Fleming, the bureau's regional administrator for New England, said the agency first became aware there was a problem late last year, when it began receiving letters about Federal recognition from Mr. Cooper.

"It is my understanding they have gone through some leadership change," Mr. Fleming said. Although Mr. Pharaoh notified the bureau of the tribe's intention to seek recognition in July 1995, it has not heard from him since, the official added.

"We have asked Mr. Cooper what is going on," he said. "We want to work with the petition group that submitted the initial letter of intent."

Mr. Pharaoh said he saw no need to get back in touch with the bureau until he had finished compiling the tribe's case.

"The document is finished," he said. "We're at the stage where we are just tying up some loose ends and reviewing it."

Could Cause Delay

Unless both factions refused to work together, the leadership dispute would not necessarily doom the tribe's application for recognition, Mr. Fleming said.

However, he noted, it could cause delays by forcing the Government to sift through additional documents.

"We're hoping if there is something going on between two different factions that they would try to resolve it themselves," he said.

Federal recognition means, among other things, financial aid and help inclaiming ancestral lands. Gaining it, however, is a process which can take years to complete.

A tribe must prove it has an ongoing history and community and political ties. It must also provide the Bureau of Indian Affairs with a tribal roll and a "governing document."

Finally, it must prove that it is not a splinter group from another recognized tribe, and that its status under Federal law has never been terminated.

'I'm willing to put my genealogy side by side with anyone, and we'll see who's chief.'

Robert Pharaoh

While Mr. Cooper was unwilling this week to talk about the feud, saying only that "there's always competition in families; it's not uncommon," Mr. Pharaoh said he was eager to set the record straight.

"Blood Lines"

He said Mr. Cooper "had no authority whatsoever" to call the November tribal meeting, and claimed his rival had invited only his allies to the election.

"He handed out ballots with just his name on them," Mr. Pharaoh said. Elections of tribal officers, he added, traditionally take place in June.

Furthermore, Mr. Pharaoh said the position of chief is passed down by blood lines, and said his own election was largely ceremonial after he stepped forward to lead the tribe in 1995 following the death of his mother, Olive Pharaoh.

"I'm willing to put my genealogy side by side with anyone, and we'll see who's chief," he said.

Maria Pharaoh

Ralph Bunn of Wheatley Heights, who serves on Mr. Pharaoh's council and is a genealogist for the tribe, agreed.

"In my mind, there is no question about who is rightfully chief," he said. "We have always recognized the Pharaohs. Robert Cooper is not of Wyandanch Pharaoh's lineage."

While both men are great-grandsons of Maria Pharaoh, a Montaukett queen, Mr. Pharaoh traces his lineage to her first marriage to David Pharaoh, who has been referred to as the tribe's last king, while Mr. Cooper traces his to her fourth marriage, to a member of the Fowler family, Mr. Bunn said.

Support Pharaoh

Mr. Bunn said the present infighting began because Mr. Pharaoh was slow in following up his initial approach to Washington.

"Because he didn't call a meeting as soon as some of the native cousins would have preferred, Bob Cooper stepped up and organized what he is now calling the Montaukett tribe," said Mr. Bunn.

"The animosity is not so much [Mr. Cooper] calling himself chief, because anyone who knows anything about the Montauks knows he is not," said Jim Devine of Montauk, who also serves on Mr. Pharaoh's council. "It goes back a few years."

Mr. Devine claimed Mr. Cooper had once approached Mr. Pharaoh's mother and asked her to "abdicate in his favor," which, said Mr. Devine, she refused to do.

A Mistake?

Mr. Pharaoh confirmed that account. "If she were alive, he wouldn't be trying this," he said.

Mr. Devine also charged that many of the group who elected Mr. Cooper at the meeting in Amityville may have thought they were merely naming him to head the recognition fight.

"People are very upset up there," he maintained. "We can expect a resolution as soon as the group realizes they have been deceived. I think that is in the process of happening right now."

Mr. Bunn, too, said "people will be asking for a recount," but he held out hope the matter could be resolved amicably.

Common Goal

"Our group has done as much as it can to make it known that this is going to cause a conflict," he said. "But I believe we can resolve it, because we all want the same thing: recognition."

"The only thing I can tell you is we are working very hard to do what is right for our family," said Mr. Cooper. "It's never easy, but time will mend it."

"When I started this quest for Federal recognition, my goal was to get the Montauketts what they deserve, to correct an injustice," said Mr. Pharaoh. "This is not about being chief."

The spirit of invention lives on the east shore of Mecox Bay in a neo-Mission style hacienda with baby blue stucco walls and teal roof tiles.

In a borrowed garage at the Kelman compound, which sits nestled in the beach grass like a clutch of Easter eggs, Russell Wilson is adjusting the finer details of two inventions he has developed, each from a wisp of an idea to a functioning appliance.

Mr. Wilson, a builder who speaks with the soft drawl of a Colorado cowboy, said he is inspired by the owner of the estate, Dr. Charles Kelman, best known for developing the technology and instruments used in ultrasound surgery - on cataracts, for example.

Working In The Garage

Dr. Kelman, who likes golf, turned half of his oversized garage into a virtual golf course. There is a mural of an imagined fairway on the wall, an Astroturf tee where he practices his swing, and camera mounts to the rear that project a holographic image of the arcing ball onto a wall-sized screen.

Mr. Wilson, who helped build the estate for Dr. Kelman, uses the other half of the garage to tinker with his own inventions, a humidifier in the form of a decorative waterfall, named the "Humidifall," and his "home recycling center," which saves space in the kitchen by crushing plastic, metal, and glass containers.

Recycling Complexities

He said he sees possibilities for new inventions all around him but through his job is especially attuned to the sort of appliances that would make a house more comfortable. He is a partner in L.S.M. Development, a Riverhead-based builder of high-end houses and commercial buildings, and his partners and subcontractors have helped him obtain materials, design parts, and work out glitches.

The idea for the recycling machine came to him shortly after he moved to Water Mill from Colorado five years ago. He was quickly acquainted with the local rules for recycling and just as quickly saw why everyone complained that separating and storing the various, mandated types of recyclables takes up too much room.

Why Not A Waterfall?

He figured those plastic soda and milk jugs take up the most room and crushing them flat would save space. He started sketching, and is now marketing a machine the size of a kitchen cabinet - it can be custom-made in any style of cabinet, he said - that uses a V-shaped series of metal rods to flatten plastic and metal, and crush glass.

One drops a recyclable container in the top, presses a button and, whammo, the crushed container falls through a diverter into one of three compartments.

On Labor Day weekend, when Mr. Wilson went home to visit Colorado, he saw a waterfall in an office building. It brought to mind the two-story waterfall in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, and he thought, "Hey, why not do that in a house?"

The Humidifall

That whimsy became the Humidifall, small enough to fit in the corner of the living room. It can be made in a variety of cabinet styles, in cherry, maple, or mahogany wood, and can be further customized with marble, ceramic tile, or artwork to fit the decor.

For a romantic effect, it is backlit, and at the push of a button you can turn on the soothing sound of a babbling brook, he said.

And, to broaden the marketing possibilities, Mr. Wilson designed it to be used either with a refillable tank or a hook-up to a permanent water source. A sample is going on display this month at Suffolk Lighting in Southampton, where he bought the fixture for backlighting it.

Common Sense

A patent for the Humidifall is pending. The New York Testing Laboratories determined it can raise the humidity in an average-sized bedroom from 35 to 70 percent and maintain it there, a positive preliminary finding, said Mr. Wilson.

Mr. Wilson's brother, Jim, has begun marketing the device through his office in St. Louis. The recycling center is patented for home use, and New York Testing is now troubleshooting that as well.

Mr. Wilson said the process for turning an idea into a machine involves a series of hit-or-miss decisions. But, given a choice between state-of-the-art mechanics and what he calls "farmboy technology," he prefers the latter, meaning simple common sense.

Solving Problems

For example, he discovered an early version of the recycling machine required too much torque to crush glass bottles. The machine already weighed about 200 pounds and was the size of a compact dishwasher, nearing impracticality for a home kitchen, so the option of "a huge gear box and a bigger motor" became a deal-breaker.

Instead, he solved the torque problem by screwing horseshoe studs into the tines of the rollers. That concentrated the torque in the center of the rollers yet didn't reduce their effectiveness on plastic and metal, he said.

"We haven't thrown in anything that can stop it yet," laughed Mr. Wilson. He swiftly grew serious at the suggestion, though, that some youngster may want to experiment with the family cat.

Taking It Further

Safety was a constant priority during the development process and an important part of the ongoing testing, he said. As a result, there is a safety switch in the lid; the rollers don't start to turn until it is shut, and they stop when it is lifted, he said.

Mr. Wilson has relied on East End cabinetmakers, machinists, and other specialists to help make the various components of his machines but is now in search of manufacturers who would take on the entire process, start to finish. And, even as he continues to fine-tune, he and his brother are finding commercial possibilities for both devices.

They displayed the prototypes three months ago, at the U.S. Department of Energy's Yankee Invention Exposition, in Connecticut.

Commercial Uses

Restaurant and bar owners who watched demonstrations of the recycling machine said they pay for garbage disposal by the pick-up and could save a lot of money if their garbage went into the Dumpster compacted, said Mr. Wilson.

"We also thought this could be mounted on a garbage truck, and the driver could make fewer trips to the transfer station each day if he could crush the containers as they went in," he said, adding he envisioned apartment buildings and condominium complexes would be interested in communal machines.

While invention may require imagination and the ability to turn a concept into a physical object, it need not cost a lot, he said. The prototype of the recycling machine cost about $900 to build and the Humidifall about $3,000 to develop, not counting patent fees.

You Just Need Nerve

"We all have ideas and a few years later see it on the market and think 'Oh, I should have done that when I had the chance.' You just have to have the nerve to go through with it," he said, adding that he has had some help.

Dr. Kelman has provided inspiration and moral support, he said, and his partners and subcontractors have advised him along the way.

"It's just like working on the farm. Everybody contributes," he said.