Requests for variances and permits purportedly made necessary by builders' errors have been backing up at the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals like the traffic that clogs Montauk Highway in Southampton each morning. More and more people, it seems, are blaming their contractors for improperly placed pools, accessory buildings, and other infractions of the town code.

Adam Miller, the attorney for the zoning board, said last week that since he came on the job in January, there have been 10 cases - about 10 percent of all the cases the board has ruled on in that period - in which applicants have blamed the misplacement, not only of pools and small structures, but of their very houses, on their contractors.

The board has been hesitant to approve any of the requests, calling the problems that applicants cite "self-created hardships."

Last week, from his office at the law firm Farrell Fritz in Bridgehampton, Mr. Miller said that many people building houses here are seeking cheaper labor, and are therefore signing contracts with out-of-town companies that might not be familiar with the town code. Such cost cutting is, he said, "costing them more" in the end.

Donald Sharkey, the town's chief building inspector, said that "local contractors may have a bit of an edge" when it comes to knowing just what can and cannot be done at a building site, and that most of "the guys out here" do adhere to regulations. Nonetheless, "dubious" construction procedures sometimes come to light.

Often, those seeking to build on the South Fork do not take into account the time and money that might eventually have to be spent on variance requests. When the zoning board denies permits for structures that have already been built, applicants might be required to remove them, and that can be expensive. "People are surprised at how strict the Z.B.A. is out here," Mr. Miller said.

The owners of one house recently claimed that a pool had been placed in the wrong part of the property by the contractor. They asked the zoning board for variances that would allow the pool to remain there. The board said no. "The contractor's name had come up before," Mr. Miller said. Nonetheless, the owners had signed a contract that made them, not the builder, responsible for any errors. The board requested that any illegally situated parts of the pool be removed.

Rachel Kleinberg hired two Port Jefferson contractors who were unaware of local setback regulations to install a pool and a patio at her house in Springs, and violated those regulations in the process. The patio contractor told her that he wasn't even aware that a building permit was required before work could begin. Ms. Kleinberg confessed that she, too had been ignorant of the requirements. The Z.B.A. granted her two variances, of under four feet each, though one board member voted against her request.

"Contractors have to be more responsible," Mr. Miller said. The owners can sue them in civil court, as well as bring action with the East Hampton Town Home Improvement Contractors Licensing Review Board, he pointed out.

Jon Tarbet, who served as the Z.B.A.'s attorney before Mr. Miller, said that out-of-town contractors aren't always to blame. "Locals don't always know the code either," he said. He added that people buying houses as investments or second residences "may have never spent any time here, and have no core knowledge."

Mr. Tarbet recalled an application last year for height and pyramid variances filed after the house was built, in part by an East Hampton builder. The board denied the application and asked that the gabled ends of the roof be cut off. That case is still pending, he said.

Both Mr. Miller and Mr. Tarbet agree that contractors should be held more liable.

Next Thursday, the East Hampton Town Board will discuss changing the code to allow the licensing review board to levy steeper fines. A requirement of 10 hours per year of continued education in any building-related field could also be included.

As it stands, the code requires that all home improvement contractors licensed in East Hampton must agree to abide by all local zoning ordinances. Ignorance of the code is grounds for the denying a license or its renewal.

Yet, contractors who build houses from the ground up need no license and no insurance. The board is considering a change to the code that would require that any contractor working on a job costing more than $500 obtain a license.

Ms. Kleinberg suggested that the Building Department should provide "easy-to-read lists that tell homeowners the dos and don'ts of construction." That information, she said, along with code education for contractors, could prevent mistakes and tighten the loophole that allows owners who flaunt regulations to blame their contractors.

John Hatgistavrou, owner of Ionian Development in Wainscott, said that since he has a crew of up to 60 people on a job, someone on the site is always familiar with local regulations. He recommended that owners hire local contractors. If they hire out-of-town builders, he recommended consulting a local surveyor or attorney.

Those prepared to spend a large amount of money on a construction project should hire the most qualified people at the beginning of the project, not after it's finished, he said. "If you buy cheap, you buy twice," he said.

Since January, the East Hampton Town Building Department has issued 1,062 building permits, of which 140 were for new houses and 189 for swimming pools. About $125 million has been spent on additions and new construction from January through July.

Because the Building Department makes as many as 280 inspections a month, mistakes are bound to be found. But one deinal after another has made it clear that the zoning board plans to hold everyone to the code, even if the owners bought their property sight unseen.

A State Supreme Court Justice in Riverhead has ordered Oxford Health Plans, the health insurance company, to continue providing in-home nursing care for an East Hampton infant who, doctors say, could die without it.

The company has threatened to cut off the coverage. Its attorneys are scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 1 to argue the case.

Oxford, the managed-care company under contract to provide major medical coverage to the Casey family of Georgica Woods Lane, has been paying for intermittent in-home nurses for Christopher Casey, who was born on April 25, since his discharge about two weeks later from North Shore University Hospital.

Infant At Risk

Christopher was a patient at North Shore for about six weeks, where a team of a dozen specialists treated him for life-threatening congenital conditions, including esophageal reflex and apnea. Breathing stops and starts unpredictably in individuals who have apnea.

Because the baby was diagnosed as being at high risk for sudden infant death syndrome, his doctors recommended 24-hour nursing care.

Oxford, however, reduced the number of daily nursing hours it will cover from 12 to six, and has threatened, almost weekly, to cut off coverage entirely, according to Anne Casey, the child's mother.

Oxford's Response

In response to inquiries, Michael Barlow, the company's manager of "media relations," said Oxford was "making every effort to resolve these issues with the family and is providing nursing care pending the result of the legal proceeding."

Christopher and his mother were the subject of a July Star article recounting how Mary Ellen McMahon, an East Hampton Village public-safety dispatcher, and Mary Mott, an emergency medical technician, worked with Mrs. Casey to get the infant breathing again after he regurgitated his formula, choked, and became cyanotic - blue from oxygen deprivation.

Christopher was rushed to Southampton Hospital, where he remained for two days.

Dr. Barbara J. Cusumano of Southampton Pediatric Associates wrote twice to Oxford, reiterating her opinion that the infant "needs 24-hour nursing care" as neither parent is a medical professional, nor should they be "expected to act in that capacity."

Fear Of Infection

In a Sept. 19 letter, the doctor added, "I do not feel keeping a young infant in the hospital, as has been suggested by your company, is the answer either, because of the obvious detrimental effect this would have on an infant's development, as well as risk of nosocomial infection."

Nosocomial refers to infections patients may contract while in a hospital.

Mrs. Casey notes in legal papers that Oxford "insists that I can be trained to insert the suction tube deep into my son's trachea to clear it when it clogs and . . . to resuscitate in the event of respiratory arrest."

Justice Howard Berler issued a temporary restraining order on Nov. 6, forcing the insurance company to continue its nursing coverage. He issued a continuance of the order on Monday.

"Lethargic" At Birth

Christopher was born at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, after a 48-hour labor during which Mrs. Casey experienced bouts of abnormal bleeding. The baby was "lethargic" at birth, had difficulty nursing, and lost weight soon after.

Despite his mother's efforts to communicate to the medical staff that "something was wrong," the nurses said "I was just nervous," Mrs. Casey recalled. Mother and baby were discharged after the now-standard 48-hour stay, the baby weighing less than 5 pounds.

Stopped Breathing

Soon after their return to East Hampton, Christopher stopped breathing and went "limp," his mother said. After examining him at Southampton Hospital, Dr. Cus u mano referred the infant to specialists at North Shore.

Mrs. Casey recalled having "almost collapsed, with a newborn to be transferred, and I had to sit on the phone" to secure authorization from Oxford.

"If you're vulnerable, and don't get it together to call them," she observed this week, "they don't have to pay."

Deny Home Nursing

Mrs. Casey was referring to the common requirement by managed-care companies that patients and/or their families secure permission from a company administrative representative before being admitted to a hospital.

After the six-week hospitalization, Oxford denied the home nursing care. The couple decided to hire a nurse "on our own," starting with a night shift, as Mrs. Casey was unable to sleep.

Mrs. Casey said that soon after the Star article about Christopher's rescue appeared, Oxford "suddenly" agreed to cover a single 12-hour shift. That became eight hours, and now it is six.

"Every week, they say, 'This is the last week,'" the mother said. The cost of 24-hour private registered nursing care can be as high as $1,000 a day, she said.

High Costs

Meanwhile, the Caseys have spent more than $3,000 on special formula for the baby and $10 apiece for a variety of prescriptions and co-payments to physicians, totaling several hundred dollars. That is in addition to their annual insurance premium of more than $5,000 for family coverage under Oxford's "Freedom" plan, one of the insurer's top-of-the-line policies.

Mrs. Casey said the North Shore doctors told her they had "never seen a case like this."

"They still have no prognosis," she said. "The stress is enormous. I'm exhausted."

Mrs. Casey and her husband, Daniel, a contractor, also have a daughter, Katie, 41/2.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy issued a fire warning on Monday for all parks and public lands within Suffolk County. With hardly any rain on the East End in August and only 1.3 inches in July, conditions are similar to those that preceded the catastrophic Pine Barrens brushfire 10 years ago.

It was in 1995 that 6,000 acres of the Pine Barrens burned. It took firefighters from all over Suffolk and Nassau Counties almost two weeks to put out the fire. The barrens comprises 102,000 acres covering portions of Brookhaven, Riverhead, and Southampton Towns.

Similar events have occurred on the South Fork. In 1986, a brushfire in Montauk burned 2,500 acres in Hither Woods.

"We are on a heightened state of alert," said George Gorman, director of operations for New York State Parks on Long Island, a division of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. "My understanding is that Montauk is one of the driest areas on Long Island right now," he said.

As of Tuesday night, his office had yet to close any of the Montauk parks, although it will do so if the "dryness alert" continues, Mr. Gorman said. The Parks Department has increased patrols, put up fire prevention signs, and posted warnings notifying campers that campfires are prohibited in Hither Hills.

Charles Grimes, chief of the Montauk Fire Department, said that most brushfires in Montauk are caused by burning cigarettes, and Mr. Levy has cautioned people not to throw cigarettes on the ground or out of car windows.

Two Montauk brushfires this spring were caused by smoke bombs, Chief Grimes said. He added that smoke bombs once topped the list of fire hazards, along with lighted cigarettes, but the department has been discouraging Montauk businesses from selling them.

The chief advised that bonfires be built far from dunes and beach grass, and said that they should be doused with water and covered with sand or dirt before the site is abandoned.

Those who build campfires, particularly in wooded areas, should take extreme care, Chief Grimes said. Only fires in approved containers - metal barrels used for grilling, for example - are allowed in Suffolk County parks, according to Mr. Levy.

Daniel Lester, chief of the Amagansett Fire Department, said that still-burning or smoldering charcoals should not be placed on the ground until they have been extinguished with water. Chief Lester reported that there have been just two small brushfires in Amagansett this summer, both of which were quickly extinguished.

"Carelessness is the real problem," Chief Grimes said. He advised exercising caution whether building fires or using matches, lighters, sparklers, or anything else that can ignite a fire.

Judy Jakobsen of the Central Pine Barrens Wildfire Task Force said that "fire danger" ratings - low, moderate, high, very high, and extreme - are based on weather forecasts and the measure of moisture in grass, twigs, sticks, and other "fuels" on the ground.

The fire danger rating in the Pine Barrens is now "high," she said.

The Eastern Long Island Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and more than a dozen others representing the Huntington Crossway neighborhood in Bridgehampton, held a press conference Tuesday morning on the steps of Southampton Town Hall to criticize the methods used to arrest and prosecute street-level drug dealers.

Those who spoke repeatedly said they approved of the yearlong attempt by the Town Police Department's street-crime unit and other agencies to rid the neighborhood of drug dealers.

However, during the conference and in telephone interviews, the group had three complaints: that police strong-armed the families of suspected dealers, that prosecutors aimed for long prison terms and denied those arrested - some of whom were teenagers - any chance at rehabilitation, and that neither complaint would be the case in a white neighborhood.

"Terrorized"

"Children and adults are being terrorized in their homes. We object to these late night and predawn drug raids . . . so reminiscent of the Klan night riders," Lucius Ware, president of the local N.A.A.C.P., told reporters from three newspapers, a radio station, and two television stations.

He and others charged that the police and prosecutors had become overzealous recently. Henry Lee Hodge, who lives on the Sag Harbor Turnpike and is the youth director of the Bridgehampton Child Care Center, recalled that two years ago Capt. Anthony Tenaglia of the town force had attended a community meeting to answer complaints from residents about too few patrols.

This had been followed by a series of sweeps that has netted some 100 arrests in Southampton Town since October of 1996.

Early Morning Question

Now, residents want the early morning house raids to stop and police to limit their surveillance and arrests to the streets where dealers are known to hang out and where some have been videotaped selling to undercover officers, Mr. Hodge told The Star last week.

Captain Tenaglia, reached Tuesday afternoon, called the press conference a case of "grandstanding."

"If the intent is to air concerns and have them addressed, then they should have come first to this department. . . . Our only purpose is to rid neighborhoods, not just in Bridgehampton, but all over town, of drug dealers. We make no distinction as to skin color," he said.

In telephone interviews, residents said police had raided houses on Hampton Court, the Turnpike, and Huntington Crossway looking for suspects who live elsewhere.

Wrong Man

"These houses have small kids living there. What if someone makes a wrong move and someone gets shot? It could end up being a child," Mr. Hodge told The Star.

William Street, Dock White, Paulette Harding, Bridgette Myrick, and other residents said at the conference that their children had been awakened during the raids by police officers shining flashlights into their bedrooms. They said the children remained frightened that police might come back.

Evelyn Harris said police came looking one morning for her son, who does not live with her, but instead took her boyfriend, Alejandor Diaz, away in handcuffs. He was released hours later, without an apology she said, after fingerprints, questioning, and a lineup revealed they had the wrong man.

Morning's Defended

"We did not violate anyone's rights," asserted Captain Tenaglia. He and Lieut. Tom Talmage, a spokesman for the state police, said that early morning arrests were safest for everyone involved, that suspects and their families were "asleep, quiet, and there's less of chance of resistance," as the captain put it.

William (Curly) Street, who has relatives who have appeared in the police news from time to time, said his house had been the target of predawn visits four times. Once, police came looking for and found his brother, but the other times left empty-handed.

"They were looking for my nephew. He visits his mother here sometimes, but he hasn't lived here in 10 years or more," said Mr. Street. He said that he had asked to see a warrant each time and that each time police refused.

Out In Boxers

On the third occasion, he claimed, a state trooper put a gun to his face when he asked for a warrant. "I was so nervous looking down the barrel of that gun, I was shaking," he said. The fourth time, he found the telephone wires outside his house "fresh cut" after police left.

"There was 15 or 20 cops surrounding my house, banging on the windows and doors. I opened the door and said let me put some clothes on, but they said no. They made me stand out in front in my boxers," he said.

Mr. Street also said police used abusive and obscene language. "I don't have any problem with them arresting people who went the wrong way. . . . Show me a warrant and I'll cooperate. The police act any way they want but I'm not going for it anymore," he said.

No Warrants

"There's no Al Capone living in this neighborhood. You don't need 20 cops to arrest one person. And, if they've been investigating so much, why don't they know these addresses aren't any good?" Mr. Hodge said.

"I understand they're doing their jobs but they could go about it in other ways. There's no need to be ransacking people's houses and scaring small children," he added.

Police do not carry arrest warrants when they are looking for suspects, although arrest warrants allow them to search a given premises, said Captain Tenaglia. He added that none of the raids mentioned had involved search warrants. If they had, police would have been required to show them.

Captain Tenaglia and Lieut. Talmage said they had not heard any complaints from neighborhood residents before being questioned by The Star. Both agreed that the department uses the most recent address listed for a suspect in police and motor vehicle records, and that their officers follow the letter of the law when executing a warrant.

Absent from the press conference were those residents who asked police to clean up the neighborhood.

The Concerned Citizens of Huntington Crossway formed last year to address drugs in the neighborhood. Members "asked for the support of the police and community activists," said Joyce Crews, a member who is a secretary at the Bridgehampton School. Since then, she said, there has been measurable change for the better.

"It's Better"

"It used to be that we couldn't even go outside our front door without having to interact with this stuff. There's still some of it going on, but it's better and I appreciate it," she said.

Ms. Crews said she believed there were "good and bad" police, that any complaints against them should be brought to light, but that they generally were doing what needed to be done.

"The people whose houses are getting raided should clean their houses if they don't want the police there. I'm not saying my house is cleaner than anyone else's, but, if there's something in my house that shouldn't be, then the police are welcome," she said.

Poverty The Root

Those who spoke out against the raids acknowledged that police were not at the root of the problem. They say poverty is.

"These kids don't want to choose drug-dealing as a career," said Mr. Hodge, who called jobs, not prison, the answer. Sending someone to prison puts a financial burden on the entire community, added Mr. Ware.

"When these young men are taken away from the community, their families are then being supported by the general public. . . . Until we reach the time when we have recovering people in the community, rather than addicted people going to prison and addicted people returning to the community, rehabilitation is cheaper," he told The Star.

Mr. Ware said community leaders would open talks with police and intended as well to speak to the judges who approved the warrants.

Three weeks after the Suffolk County Health Department served East Hampton Village with a violation for operating a bathing beach at Two Mile Hollow Road without a permit, the future of the beach continued to be debated at a village board meeting on Friday.

Several regular beachgoers objected to the village's plan to build a bathroom and station lifeguards at Two Mile Hollow, while others said the changes were long overdue.

"We feel it will ruin the culture of the beach," said Annette Kunin, a town resident who has been going to Two Mile Hollow for 30 years. She wondered why the Health Department had singled out Two Mile Hollow and seemed unconcerned with the lack of facilities or protection at Wiborg's Beach. "This seems like retaliatory, discriminatory action based on what happened two years ago," Ms. Kunin said.

In 2003, some Two Mile Hollow neighbors calling themselves the Further Lane Association began to complain to police and the Health Department about problems at the beach. They hired private investigators to patrol the beach, which has long been popular with the gay community, and to videotape evidence of public urination, public sex, littering, and trespassing on the dunes.

Police stepped up patrols and in one night charged a number of people with public lewdness and disorderly conduct. There was an outcry from the gay community and a number of public meetings on the issue, but since then there has been little conflict over the beach until recently.

Early this month, the Health Department told the village that it would take legal action if it did not actively and regularly enforce its no bathing policy and immediately install bathrooms at the beach.

The department claims its concern is triggered partly by the fact that there are so many parking spaces at Two Mile Hollow. "When you have a 200-car parking lot and hundreds of people on the beach and dozens of people in the water . . . people are using it, and they're entitled to protection," Martin Trent, acting chief of the department's office of ecology, said last week. To qualify for a bathing beach permit, a beach needs lifeguards and bathrooms.

Mr. Trent said that Wiborg's Beach, which has neither lifeguards nor bathrooms, is considered mainly a surfers' beach, so is exempt from those state sanitary code rules.

"How many people drowned at Two Mile Hollow?" asked Ginny Hennenberg, another longtime beachgoer. "I would like to see the facts that back up the claims. I, too, think this is retaliatory action."

She and others opposed to lifeguards at the beach suggested that complaints be filed against Wiborg's Beach for not having bathrooms or a lifeguard. "We want to be consistent."

Michael Rosenbaum, who lives near the beach with his family, disagreed. "I find it ironic that some people feel they ng protection. I would ask why we have been discriminated against for so long by not having a lifeguard and a bathroom." If the village waits until someone drowns before putting a lifeguard on the beach, "we'd hang our heads," Mr. Rosenbaum said.

Dolores Danzig, who lives on Further Lane, said bathrooms and lifeguards are a good idea, but wondered what the village would do about the potential for more traffic and more people at the beach.

"I think there are a lot of us on Further Lane that don't necessarily agree with everything the Further Lane Association has proposed," Douglas Danzig said. He urged the board "not to change the character and nature of the beach from what it has been for 30 years. . . . You have the ability almost on any weekend to drive in and find a parking spot there."

Without bathrooms, "it literally smells like a urinal there," Mr. Rosenbaum said.

"Why is it I'm sitting here feeling like Two Mile Hollow is being offered up as the sacrificial lamb?" Ms. Kunin asked.

"Unfortunately, the board of trustees has been put in a very unique situation," Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said.

"The Health Department has said to the village, you have two options - run this as a public bathing beach, install a bathroom, and provide lifeguards," said Larry Cantwell, the village administrator. "The other option is essentially shut the beach down, prohibit people from bathing there, and enforce that prohibition. Those are really the two choices that are currently visible to the village."

"The Village of East Hampton, rightly or wrongly, has been taken to task by the board of health," Mr. Rickenbach said. "You pick your battles. There's a time when you litigate and a time when you sit down and try to do the best for all involved."

While the village had already complied with some conditions contained in a consent order from the Health Department, the mayor had not signed that consent order.

"Although the charges relate specifically to Two Mile Hollow, the order provides that the village enforce the no bathing policy on all nonbathing beaches," the village's attorney, Linda Riley, told the board. "The village can sign or proceed to a hearing. If the hearing goes against you there could be civil penalties and fines of $2,000 a day."

The village board passed a resolution on Friday authorizing the mayor to sign the consent order.

"I support the idea of having a facility down there," Edwin L. Sherrill Jr., a board member, said, "This time they really mean business. I understand the people like to go there and see kind of a natural beach, but the whole climate has changed."

Barbara Borsack, another board member, said she would hate to have to provide lifeguards and bathrooms at Wiborg's and Old Beach Lane "because the tax implications are huge and they're going to have to be reflected in the cost of beach stickers at some point."

Also at Friday's meeting, the board formally rescinded a 25-mile-per-hour, villagewide speed limit. The speed limit was changed earlier this summer before the board realized that such blanket changes are not allowed by the state when the speed limit is to be reduced to under 30 miles per hour.

The village also gave commendations to Rebecca Mikan and Vincent Tuths, teenagers who work for the Maidstone Club and came to the aid of a woman who was being assaulted on the beach near the club on June 28. They were recognized for their "judgment and character." The assailant, who was tied to similar attacks in the village and in Southampton, was arrested that day.

Five 18th and 19th-century houses and the Sag Harbor Methodist Church will be featured on a Sag Harbor Historical Society walking tour of Main and Madison Streets on Friday, Nov. 28. The structures are the latest Sag Harbor landmarks that have served as models for miniature replicas, a series of ornaments created by the Headley Studio in Sag Harbor annually since 1994.

Stops will be made at the Victorian Beaux-Arts-style house where F.B. Hope, a clock maker, resided in the 1860s, and four houses built and owned by Sag Harbor whaling captains: the 1790s Federal-style Sybil Douglas House; the New York townhouse-style house built by Samuel L'Hommedieu, a whaling expedition financier, for his bride; the Napier House, which has been transformed from a small 18th-century house to a Georgian mansion-style structure with a hipped roof to its current Italianate look, and the Union Street house that was owned by Jared Wade, a whaling captain and prominent 19th-century resident.

The 1835 Italianate Methodist Church will be the last stop before a reception at the Headley Studio, a co-sponsor of the tour. A raffle of the five new ornaments, which will be on display, will be held, along with a tasting of wines from Duckwalk Vineyards.

Three one-hour tours will depart from Headley Studio on Madison Street at 3, 4, or 5 p.m. Advance purchase of tickets, which cost $8.50 and are available at the studio, has been recommended.

On Saturday night we ate at the Three Mile Harbor Inn in East Hampton, and it provided a salutary lesson: A restaurant is only as good as its chef, and, in the musical-chairs world of East End eating, you can never be sure which chef is where.

Also, one should never have preconceived notions about a place. I had eaten at the inn a couple of times in the past and had it pegged for basic prime-rib-and-two-veg - stomach-filling but unpoetic.

So, taken by surprise, my conversation during the meal consisted of variations upon "Hey! This is really good!"

Eye-Openers

If the food was an eye-opener, so were the prices. The Star has reviewed a restaurant a week this year, and a certain resignation had set in that good entrees average between $18 and $28.

Not down at Three Mile Harbor, they don't! A roast Long Island duck in a fruit glaze, which could not have been bettered, leaves the starting gate at $14.95 and romps home an unchallenged winner.

Starters begin at the reassuring prices of $2.50 for a house salad or $1.75 for a bowl of soup, with the highest price being $8.95 for steamed clams in a white wine or tomato sauce.

Pastas range from $9.95 for a linguine marinara to $16.95 for linguine frutti di mare, entrees from $11.95 to $16.95 (though a big filet mignon may cost you a little more).

Highly recommended as a night-before-paycheck bargain is the tuna steak on a bun, with comes with french fries and cole slaw and only costs $7.95. Now these are good prices.

The Three Mile Inn is a cozy, '50s sort of place with sheet music by Nat King Cole and Perry Como on the walls. When you're in the wood-ceilinged dining room you could be just about anywhere - it certainly doesn't have a Hamptons feel.

No Glitz

There's no Hamptons glitz about the waitresses, either, who greet regulars by name and keep a motherly eye on their customers.

So, what the chef, Steven Orban, had to do when he took over was keep the home-cooking atmosphere while at the same time introducing some zing and excitement to the menu. He seems to have done very well.

The entrees come with a choice of soup or salad, and the cream of broccoli soup of the day was excellent. It makes one thoughtful. A fresh-broccoli soup can contain only so many ingredients and take only so much time to make, so why should it cost $1.75 here and so much more elsewhere?

Wings Of Fire

The shrimp cocktail was shrimp cocktail - no surprises. The salads were fresh and crisp and unpretentious. The Manhattan clam chowder was full of clams and avoided any bitterness in the broth.

The wings of fire, we were warned, were not particularly fiery on this occasion. They weren't fiery, but they were certainly delicious, and, served with celery and blue cheese, fun and kind of silly.

The entrees were beautifully served on broad-edged white plates prettily drizzled with a latticework of different sauces and finely chopped parsley. This kind of appetite-arousing touch makes a world of difference in the enjoyment of the meal, but is, particularly in the less expensive places, often neglected.

Regulars Vouch

Two members of our party are regulars at the Inn and they say the chef has a particularly good touch with fish. Certainly the salmon, which was one of an extensive list of specials on the board, was very good.

They also spoke warmly of the lamb chops and the pot roast and the turkey pot pie and the meat loaf. And, as mentioned before, the duck was terrific.

The juicy garlic-pepper pork chops were really good, without a hint of the fibrous dryness that so often sends them to the stomach floor like a plummeting Titanic.

Desserts, too, were a mix of the homey and the imaginative.

There was a strawberry gateau made with an angelfood cake that was frankly too dry and a nice creamsicle sundae, made with orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream. The tiramisu was delicately original and had obviously been prepared with care and thought.

A rumor suggests that the Three Mile Harbor Inn may close for the winter months, which would be a pity. We really need good year-round restaurants like this that don't charge an arm and a leg.

Hands, in every imaginable interpretation, are the subject of an exhibit of photographs that opens this weekend at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton.

"Collection in Context: Selected Contemporary Photographs of Hands From the Collection of Henry Mendelssohn Buhl" will open on Saturday and run through Jan. 4.

The photographs, dating from 1947 to 1995, are by 67 artists, including such masters as Richard Avedon, Judy Dater, William Eggleston, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Annie Liebovitz, Sally Mann, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, and Cindy Sherman.

Contemporary Spirit

According to the show's curator, Marianne Courville, "In 'Collection in Context,' the image of the hand reflects the spirit of contemporary photographic art, a spirit defined by disparity and integration among an expanding range of styles from the traditional, with its sense of formal training and documentary concerns, to the conceptual, in which photographic techniques are used to challenge the veracity of conventional representation."

There are famous hands - Mick Jagger, Leon Golub, Picasso - and the tragic hands of murder victims and hookers. There are hands rolling cigars, hands plucking chickens, hands blessing, and hands damning. And perhaps the most chilling image is Gilles Peress's photo of a Bosnian child, a casualty of war, who has no hands.

Mr. Buhl, the collector, will join Ms. Courville for a discussion of the photographs on Saturday at 5 p.m. The talk will focus on Mr. Buhl's motivations and interests as a collector and Ms. Courville will discuss the collection's content and historical significance. A reception will follow from 6 to 8 p.m.

Then And Now

East Hampton

November 16, 1997

Dear Helen:

Patsy Southgate is right that today's sitcoms have changed our view of young people's lives, although I often wonder if Seinfeld et al. are mirroring what's happening or making up a model for the young in the suburbs to follow when they move to the city.

However, the fact that so much is different is one of the reasons "Barefoot in the Park" is fun to see. Rather than deja vu (as in "So what else is new?") it is a comic view of the way we were before Kennedy's assassination, the march on Washington, antiwar demonstrations, the rise of feminism - all the things that have changed the world so drastically. "Barefoot" is a window on a giddy, simpler past.

The set is very like the rooms pictured in women's magazines in 1963. The drapes, screens, and paintings may be a bit much, but you could make wonderful finds in the trash at curbside in those days. A friend of mine once found a bentwood rocker in perfect condition.

Foreign food was still regarded with suspicion. Ideas of dressing for company were more formal. Drinking habits were not like now.

Girls were still afraid of their mothers' opinions. Part of the celebrated romance of Manhattan was finding an affordable apartment with a fabulous feature, never mind the inconveniences. The view through the skylight here is certainly fabulous.

I never knew anyone who wanted to walk barefoot in the park, but did know people who went to Central Park to make angels in the snow. The carefree, lighthearted approach was admired. Drugs had not yet tainted the scene.

You weren't afraid to park your car on the street (although you could rarely find a space close by), and a trip to another borough for dinner wasn't out of the question.

What about now? Well, walkups still exist wherever a brownstone has become apartments, and people still laugh at anyone who would live six flights up, but some do and for much higher rent. Being inventive with bizarre living spaces is still the name of the game.

Today few people in their 50s feel old or out of it.

Dueling among newlyweds is probably different because expectations have matured, living together in advance is common, and therapists are around to run to. (Therapists are never mentioned in this play.)

Your own sensations of recognition enhance the viewing of "Barefoot," but just the pleasure of seeing an attractive cast perform a funny play with panache - and they do - is a fine reward.

MILDRED GRANITZ

On Sacrifice

East Hampton

November 11, 1997

Dear Mrs. Rattray,

Yesterday, Monday, Nov. 10, 1997, I visited Robert Keene in his small office on South Main Street, Southampton. I hadn't seen him since he closed his bookstore on Hampton Road. He is the Southampton Town historian. He remembered me after I jarred his memory a little. We talked of many things as two old men are wont to do. He is 80 years old and I am 74 years old. He spoke of Miss Dorothy King of the East Hampton Library.

Today being Veterans Day and with people arguing over the value of one vote, I am thinking of my two brothers, Willard Norton Jr., a marine in World War II, and Gerald Norton, an army private in World War II. Also Wilmot Petty, a friend of mine and a marine who died in the Pacific on his second tour, and Robert Hudson, an army medic who died in Europe. They in effect died that I might live. If Nazism had triumphed I would be dead because I am both mentally and physically impaired.

By "one vote," Adolf Hitler took over the Nazi party in 1923, the year I was born. Who knows, maybe he would have faded from the scene if he had lost. But he didn't, and millions died that we might live. Those who lament that life isn't fair are usually those who have never sacrificed too much. To give your life that others might live - that's sacrifice.

Sincerely,

DONALD NORTON

Poor Bird

New York City

November 1, 1997

To Whom . . .

I am writing to you about a problem, and I hope you can help.

I visit my niece in East Hampton often (she teaches school there), and I find my enjoyment of your beautiful town is muddied by a lovely, huddled swan in the pond.

I will contribute $100 to bring a companion to the poor bird, and I'll do whatever is needed to support this cause.

All creatures need us to make their lives just a little bit better.

Thank you,

KATE C. BUTLAR

Please address correspondence to [email protected]

Please include your full name, address and daytime telephone number for purposes of verification.

When the Fortuna II miraculously righted herself, all that was left on deck was Rich Voorhees, the youngest and most recent addition to the crew. Everything and everybody else had gone overboard in the split second it took a freak wave to break and stand the 50-foot longline fishing vessel on its port beam more than 100 miles at sea on Friday.

At the Deep Water Seafood docks in Montauk on Monday the three-man crew of the Fortuna gathered again on deck before packing out the catch from their rudely interrupted trip. Capt. Richard Wright and Frank Guire, a deckhand, unabashedly indulged in hero worship before the third member of their crew, Mr. Voorhees, the hero himself.

Winter Weather

They had already thanked him from the bottom of their hearts many times, and over a few drinks - "sea breezes," said the captain with a look and smile that communicated the appropriateness of the vodka and cranberry mixture. The look also said that the word "breeze" didn't do justice to what the Fortuna was out in on Friday.

The boat is based in Northport but has fished out of Montauk for several years during tuna and swordfish season. Captain Wright has been in the habit of taking her south when the weather turns cold and when the migratory species he fishes for head south too. It's around this time of year that the weather can fool.

The Fortuna is not large for offshore fishing when the winter storms arrive. And they have arrived: Two weeks before, she was caught offshore in 70-knot winds that built seas large enough to break six of the boat's wooden ribs.

Last week's trip was the first after the boat underwent repairs at the Montauk Marine Basin. The National Weather Service had called for the storm, but Captain Wright thought the severest weather would be inshore of where they would be fishing in Atlantis Canyon.

Pulling In Line

The boat had left Montauk the previous Monday, Nov. 10. Early Friday morning, the crew was retrieving a section of 20-mile-long line which was buoyed at intervals with round plastic balls called dobs. They were midway through the trawl.

Captain Wright and Mr. Guire were at the hydraulic hauler that pulls gear and fish back to the boat. Mr. Voorhees was aft of them, rebaiting the hooks and attaching the dobs so the line could be set back into the sea to fish again. The first two men were on the port side of the boat and facing away from it. Mr. Voorhees was at the stern.

"We were heading down sea," Mr. Voorhees said, but angled slightly so the waves were passing diagonally under the boat, lifting the aft-starboard quarter first.

"Hold On!"

The ocean was white with breaking waves and spray - a force nine day, according to the Beaufort Scale of marine weather conditions.

"We were about halfway up a wave when the top broke. That's what pushed us over. I shouted, 'Hold on,' Mr. Voorhees said.

Neither crewman heard him. "I'm part deaf anyway, and I had the hood of my oilers up," said the captain. "I fully expected to see the boat overturned when I came to the surface.

"The green stick was in the water," he said, referring to the long pole used by boats under way for rigging trolling gear. It stands perpendicular to the deck of an upright boat, but was lying flat in the water before the Fortuna rallied. Stacks of boxes with their supply of hooks and the short "snoods" or leaders that attach them to the longline went overboard, as did all the butcher knives, gaffs, gloves, and paraphernalia that make up the deck of a fishing boat.

Mr. Guire was also in the water, caught up in one of the hook boxes and struggling to cut himself free. Both he and the captain were wearing layers of winter gear and heavy boots. "After the boat righted," Mr. Voorhees said, "I ran to the wheel and put it into reverse and let the boat drift down on Richard. He was 15 yards away. I lifted him in." The boat has a low freeboard with a gap in the bulkhead through which fish are hauled aboard. This time it received the captain.

But Mr. Guire, the deckhand, was 25 yards away and still drifting. Mr. Voorhees said that when the wave hit he was in the process of attaching a dob to the line, but let go to hang on to the three-foot-long, stainless steel rod with an eye on top that guides the longline when it pays off the stern.

Dropped The Dob

It was this handhold that probably saved Mr. Voorhees's life. It was the dob he dropped that probably saved the life of his fellow deckhand. Mr. Guire was able to grab it and stay afloat.

"It was like the Lord was pushing it right toward him," said Mr. Voorhees. "Without question it makes you believe - yes," he added. "I threw him a line, but he was so weak he couldn't grab it."

Neither could he fend off the Fortuna when she got within reach. He was being dragged under the boat. "I was trying to stay afloat with my boots on," said Mr. Guire. I was looking up at Rich from under water. I said, 'Don't let me go, please don't let me go.' "

Mr. Voorhees was able to pull his fellow crewman aboard. "He knew just what to do," Mr. Guire said on Monday. "If it hadn't been for his strength, I wouldn't have . . ." he said, unable to finish the sentence he didn't need to.

"There was nobody left on board but him," Mr. Guire repeated, as though awestruck at the thought that everyone might have gone over. The engine had been in gear.

"I lay on the deck for an hour puking water," he said. After recovering, he said, he joined the others in bringing in the rest of Fortuna's gear which had been set earlier. It took 13 hours. Mr. Guire said he worked with two dobs tied to him.

No More

"That ended my fishing career," he said on Monday with a wan smile. He said he planned to go back to making a living as a steel worker. "I did that for 15 years, worked on the convention center, and four high rises. If you go, at least it's fast," he reasoned. He'd been with the Fortuna off and on for two years. It was his rescuer's third trip offshore.

Captain Wright said that as soon as the Fortuna II off-loaded its albacore tuna and swordfish, he would prepare to head south.

The three fishermen stood on the deck that had been at right angles to the sea far from shore less than two days before. They laughed nervously. They talked about time, about how it all had happened so fast. The entire drama, from near broach to Mr. Guire's rescue, lasted no more than 10 minutes, they said.

"At least it had a happy ending," said the captain. All nodded in agreement, but written on their faces, between the smiles, was the knowledge that the story might never have been told.