Phoebe Legere would have been the archetypal mystery guest on that old game show "To Tell the Truth."

Imagine it:

"I am Phoebe Hemenway Legere, a classically trained pianist, versed in Chopin by the age of 9. I play more than a half-dozen instruments, including the accordion, piano, guitar, and cello."

"My vocal range effortlessly stretches four and a half octaves, and my show often includes standards by Cole Porter and Irving Berlin."

"A Vassar graduate and Mayflower descendant, I studied music at the New England Conservatory. I have written film soundtracks and screenplays, as well as theatrical works."

Shame, Depravity

"I am Phoebe Legere. I have a penchant for wearing homemade lingerie on stage and baiting the crowd with sexual innuendoes while playing the piano with my high heels."

"My backup band was called the Four Nurses of the Apocalypse, and one of my recent acts was titled 'Shame, Depravity, and Lesbianism in the Twilight of a Dying Civilization.'"

"I have played the blond bimbo type in such bizarre films as 'Toxic Avenger' I, II, and III, and written and directed my own movie, 'Marquis de Slime.'"

Will the real Phoebe Legere please stand up?

Anyone who knows the fiercely original Ms. Legere knows the performer is too multifaceted to be categorized. Those who don't know her now have a wonderful opportunity to get acquainted.

The cabaret innovator has just released her newest CD, "Last Tango in Bubbleland," a collection of wild new Legeresque pop compositions mixed with a balance of straightforward ballads, folk, and R&B.

The CD's lavish production and pop-oriented feel could spell a breakthrough for Ms. Legere, who, despite her years of nightclub renown and soundtrack projects, hasn't had much success in the record realm. "Last Tango" is packed with enough ambition, texture, and variety to prick up anyone's ears, Phoebe fan or not.

Marketable

From the first dance beats of "Amazing Love" and its rap-reggae intro, one can feel the pull toward the mainstream. The first four numbers are peppered with funk riffs, drum breaks, and pop-friendly choruses, all of which make for quite marketable material.

Yet none of Ms. Legere's trademark quirkiness is sacrificed in the highly produced mix. She still invites her listeners not to take it all too seriously, which has always been at the heart of the entertainer's act.

"I never thought that love would find us/As I lay working on my tan/But as we know, love runs the show, and it has since the universe began," she girlishly croons in the album's first verse.

Sex And Love

From the light dance feel of "Amazing Love," the CD moves into the more naughty realm of "Madly," a darkly atmospheric number contrasting sex and love, musically and lyrically.

"One hand on the wheel, and one hand on my thigh/He waves his glass and tells me lies/It's all so elegant and so debauched/We'll have sex and you can watch," Ms. Legere sings over an insidious funk beat, before returning to the song's purer, melodic chorus about falling in love.

The CD hovers in this kind of theatrical realm through "Love Bubble," in which Ms. Legere coquettishly declares (with English inflection), "Don't try to burst my bubble with your wretched little pin/Don't try to deflate me, just come on in/Be in my bubble, we'll float on the air/Don't try to drag me down with your lame suburban hair."

Rocky Or Bobby's?

The way Ms. Legere cloaks her toughness and swagger in her sweet and smooth voice throughout "Last Tango" is reminiscent of Debbie Harry in Blondie.

At the same time, the CD's lush production, swirled with electronic sound effects, spoken-word verses, and surreal images, seems like something Laurie Anderson might have imagined in a pop-music guise.

That might not seem very intriguing to those raised on the piano-bar Phoebe Legere - the Legere of show tunes, Edith Piaf numbers, and accordion solos.

In fact, the first block of "Last Tango" sounds more like a modern update to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" than an evening set at the loungy Bobby Van's, where, in the late '80s, Ms. Legere first endeared herself to East End audiences.

"Last Tango" isn't all about pop, however. Just as the funk and theatrics of the first numbers start to wear, the CD downshifts into the hauntingly pretty ballad "I'm Coming (To You)":

The Irish-tinged lament, about a woman struggling to rekindle a love affair, puts Ms. Legere's flawless voice back in the forefront. In typical style, she milks the title's sexual connotations.

After a brief return to guitar riffs and funk in "Armageddon A Go-Go," the CD ends with a block of more traditional gems, most notably the catchy R&B tune "Lady Friday."

While Ms. Legere and her producer, Tristan Avakian, may have laid their bets on "Amazing Love" to emerge as a single, "Lady Friday's" easy-rocking flow, catchy chorus, and great solos have all the trimmings.

Purely Phoebe

Another highlight is Ms. Legere's bittersweet serenade to New York City, "N.Y. Nightmare." As The Pogues did in their classic "Fairy Tale in N.Y.," Ms. Legere captures the bleakness of the city in an ironically beautiful melody.

The CD's final cut, a soft, sad folk ballad called "Stephanie," is also moving, and a fitting way to wrap up a nearly one-hour tour of Ms. Legere's versatility.

Though she is helped by a core of impeccable studio musicians on the CD, "Last Tango in Bubbleland" is pure Phoebe Legere.

A New Beginning

She is everywhere in the mix, providing her own elaborate backup vocals and filling the gaps not only with her patented piano and accordion, but also with cello, guitar, harmonica, bells, and even ukulele.

Much of the electronic enhancements that provide the album's rich texture also come from Ms. Legere, who plays the piano and accordion through a midi system as well as acoustically.

"Last Tango in Bubbleland" might imply an end to something (or maybe it's just a continuation of Ms. Legere's long-running Armageddon fixation), but with an impressive recording like this, she may be on the verge of a whole new beginning.

Aided by a $200,000 gift from the Mashantucket Pequots, owners of the wildly successful Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn., Southampton's Shinnecock Tribe is forging ahead with plans to build a 5,000-square-foot cultural center and museum, much as the Pequots themselves have recently done, though on a far smaller scale.

The Pequots' gift, announced this week, is the latest in a series of contributions the tribe has made to Native American historical and cultural projects around the country since 1993.

Beaver Creek Log Homes of Oneida, N.Y., which is staffed in large part by Native Oneidas, has been hired to build the center. The shell is expected to be completed by December. It will be constructed of white pine logs harvested on Iroquois lands near upstate Binghamton.

White Pine Exterior

The idea has been in the talking stages, on and off, for about four years, though only this year, apparently, did it begin to seem doable. A New York architect with a house in Southampton, Campion Platt, has met regularly with a committee of Shinnecocks since January, he said Tuesday, to discuss the project.

Mr. Platt is donating his services. "I am mindful as an American about what has happened to the Indians," he said this week, "and I want to be as helpful as I can."

The Shinnecocks intend to duplicate a museum built by Beaver Creek upstate, Mr. Platt said. That structure is featured in the current issue of Log Home Design magazine.

The architect described the firm's approach. First, workers assemble the complete building near the site where the logs have been cut. Then the logs are taken apart to be moved. Finally, they are reassembled on their permanent site. No nails are used in the process.

A Healing Spirit

One of Beaver Creek's principals is Jules Obomsawin, an Oneida. His wife, Robbin Obomsawin, is a subcontractor. "Our largest piece of equipment is a chain saw," she said this week.

Mrs. Obomsawin, a photographer as well, said the 14 to 18-inch, 40 and 60-foot white pine logs that will be used in the building are hand-selected for the clarity of the wood. Each, she said, will be hand-peeled and their cambium (sub-bark) will be hand-washed.

White pine, she noted, is believed to have a "healing spirit." For generations, she said, Native Americans have been taught to lean against a tree in a white pine forest if they feel ill.

The two-story cultural center, according to Mr. Platt, will contain a longhouse with a vaulted ceiling reaching some 17 feet, to be used for exhibit space and as a craft center, and a grade-level area, faced in stone, for classrooms and cultural activities.

The exhibits will contain original archeological and other native materials reflecting, said the architect, 10,000 years of Shinnecock heritage.

From a design point of view, the Shinnecocks' cultural committee was interested in making the center "as simple a construction as possible, in keeping with traditional longhouse style," Mr. Platt said.

A Learning Facility

The tribe had intended at first to renovate an old building on the reservation formerly used for oyster-farming, said Mr. Platt. That idea gave way to a more ambitious one, to construct a new facility on a new site, and to create a "learning museum, not just a building housing artifacts."

"That donation will go a long way to completing the structure," Mr. Platt said. About $100,000 remains to be raised, sources said.

The Pequots do not reveal how much their casino earns, nor how much they donate to charity. Under an agreement with the State of Connecticut, however, Foxwoods reports its gross winnings from its slot machines only - $600 million last year - and pays 25 percent of that to the state.

Pequot Beneficence

The Pequots' seven-person tribal council made the decision to donate the $200,000 to the Shinnecock Museum, said Arthur Henick, a spokes man.

The Pequots have in the past contributed $10 million to the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian, $500,000 to the Hartford (Conn.) Ballet for a new version of "The Nutcracker" that will incorporate Native American themes, and $100,000 to Connecticut branches of the Young Men's Christian Association.

Additionally, the tribe has invested some $700,000 in what Mr. Henick called the "first-ever mainstream film project by and about Native Americans." Called "Naturally Native," it is being written and directed by a California woman who is part Sioux, part Cherokee, Valerie Red Horse.

Remember the upstate lawmaker who dug into the legislative pork barrel a year or two ago and withdrew several thousand public dollars to build a clubhouse for his duck-hunting buddies back home? Called to account by a taxpayers' group, he protested that the project, which entailed tearing down an old blind, was a civic matter undertaken for the greater environmental good.

That fellow, resourceful though he surely was, had nothing on the legislator who managed to extract $15,000 from the public coffers this year to further the cause of whale-watching on Seneca Lake.

In the heart of the Finger Lakes District, Seneca is a freshwater body noted for trout-fishing, board surfing, and scuba diving, because of its deep, cold water. Anyone claiming to have seen a whale there, however, could rightly be hauled in for substance abuse, most likely LSD.

According to CHANGE-NY, a tax reform organization, the money - which represents just a tiny drop in a $609 million bucket of so-called members' items - or "pork index" - will be used for a festival at which boaters pretend to search for whales.

"Taxpayers across the state should be cringing because of this nonsense," said Thomas Carroll, the group's president. Some of the 4,400 or so schemes to be funded this year are legitimate, of course, but a good number, he said, are simply "election-year grants to hometown groups."

Scalers of Montauk mountain tops, take note. An avalanche of public funds sometimes descends where least expected, or deserved.

While there's good news - sufficiently good to rate a lead story in Tuesday's New York Times - in several recent reports showing that median household incomes continue to rise and that advances among minorities have been noteworthy, the salient fact, as far as we're concerned, is how little the tide has risen for all boats in this buoyant economy.

According to a Census Bureau release this week, "the number of poor Americans in 1996 totaled 36.5 million, representing 13.7 percent of the nation's total population. . . . Neither figure was significantly different from the previous year's estimate. In 1996, the average poverty threshold for a family of four was $16,036."

In addition, "the number of uninsured children under 18 grew to 10.6 million (14.8 percent) in 1996; both the number and percentage were statistically higher than the 1995 figures of 9.8 million and 13.8 percent, respectively. Over all, an estimated 41.7 million, or 15.6 percent, of Americans had no health insurance during all of 1996."

To no one's surprise, the percentage of the nation's income claimed by the wealthiest fifth continued to rise, as it has more or less steadily over the past 30 years, in contrast to the other four-fifths of the populace.

Is our economy healthy? It would seem so. Until we erase poverty and make personal health insurance universal, however, the cheering will ring hollow.

It took weeks for the East Hampton Town Sanitation Department to find the wall - the massive concrete wall at the back of the recycling plant in East Hampton. It was obscured for a good part of the summer by a mountain of garbage estimated, at its worst, to weigh 400 tons.

The pile is gone now, as are the visitors, welcome as they were, who generated most of it. With autumn here, the Sanitation Department has a chance to recover from its toughest summer ever and the town has a chance to evaluate its success at recycling.

Ten years ago, New York State established a goal to halve its waste stream, through recycling and other methods, by December 1997. East Hampton's own solid waste management plan was more ambitious, its goal was to exceed the state's. So how are we doing?

A report from the Sanitation Department states that the town has recycled slightly over 35 percent of its garbage so far this year. The figure includes the plentiful amount of brush from backyard gardeners and professional landscapers which the town turns into wood chips. If you leave the brush out, the town's rate so far this year drops to only 23 percent.

At one point, in April and May, the overall rate was above 43 percent; town officials say they are hoping for a return to 40 percent by the end of the year. That suggests that businesses whose peak is in summer, as well as seasonal residents and visitors, are not as adept at complying with the town recycling laws as year-round residents. It also suggests that the year-round contingent is a key to the town's achieving a 50 percent (or better) recycling rate.

In that vein, The Star and East Hampton Kiwanis have become partners in a plan to encourage the largest segment of the population, those who take their own trash to the dumps, to make their mark starting this winter. There are roughly 10,000 permits for self-haulers, as they are called at the recycling plant, and these are the folks we depend on to lead the way toward better compliance from everyone.

This weekend, members of Kiwanis and Star staffers will be at the East Hampton and Montauk disposal areas handing out refrigerator magnets that, in a neat 2-by-3-inch format, spell out the 10 categories of recyclables that self-haulers are mandated to separate from nonrecyclables.

Although changes in Town Hall earlier in the year made it difficult to get the magnets out to the public before summer, when they might have done the most good, the idea now is to get the year-round population further on track and to help those who arrive next spring jump aboard. Ten years ago, when East Hampton and New York set their goals, recycling was relatively new and a 50-percent rate seemed easily achievable. Harsh economic realities have interfered. Because the cost of doing what was planned is great there have been changes and staff cutbacks. Those in charge are left having to weigh the idiosyncrasies of an economy that makes it cheaper to truck a ton of garbage to a landfill in Pennsylvania than to recycle it.

We have to remember, however, that it is only cheaper in the short term.

Those nostalgic for the East Hampton of yesteryear will be sad to see another local institution, Snowflake, close its doors on Oct. 19. They may be happy, however, to hear that the owner of the Pantigo Road ice cream-and-hamburger spot and favorite Little League team haunt intends that it remain a place with special appeal for kids.

Michael Cinque of Amagansett wants to see the half-acre property continue in the same line of business, he said this week, and will make that a condition of the next lease he signs.

He envisions "a kid-friendly family joint, because I have two boys," who are almost at the age to start Little League themselves.

The Kitchen Sink

"The whole beauty of that place is it can be a great family" spot, said Mr. Cinque, where one could get a Coney Island hot dog and a "kitchen sink" sundae, the impossible-to-eat-it-all kind he remembers from his childhood.

Mr. Cinque, who also owns Amagansett Wines and Spirits and Wainscott Wines and Spirits, bought the property in 1994 for $375,000, under the name Amagansett Associates. He said he had "all intentions of actually running it" himself at the time, but "reality" set in; his other businesses were too demanding of his time.

He still hopes, in a few more years, to have the time to operate the business himself, and even has a name and some menu items in mind. The Snowflake is "definitely a landmark-type of joint in town," he said.

Rent Will Rise

David McMahon of Montauk, a former charter boat captain who has been running the Snowflake for the past 12 years, was philosophical about the expiration of his lease.

He said he had planned to sell the business anyway because it was time for him to retire.

"I imagine the people in East Hampton would be happy to see the property continue in the same sort of use," he said, adding that five people had expressed interest in buying his business, but the new rent was so high "that you couldn't make a profit."

Mr. McMahon kept the Snowflake open seven months a year. While Mr. Cinque interviews prospective lessees, he will be looking for buyers for his business equipment, such as the soft-serve ice cream machines.

Plenty Of Interest

Mr. Cinque said the cost of his mortgage was such that he had to raise the rent above what he said was an outdated sum. "It's strictly economics," he said.

"You can make it a year-round business," Mr. Cinque suggested.

He has received several calls a day for several days, he said Tuesday, from local residents interested in an operation similar to the Snowflake, and expects more in the days to come after placing advertisements in several publications, including The Star.

The property, at the corner of private Maple Lane, is in a residentially zoned neighborhood as well as in a limited business district, though the Snowflake's current use legally pre-exists zoning. If the business use is not continued it will be lost, and the property will revert to current zoning.

Limited Business

Joanne Pahwul, the assistant director of the Town Planning Department, said that on the advice of deputy East Hampton Town attorney Richard Whalen, she did not want to speculate what other kinds of uses might be allowed. "It's kind of a complex matter," she said.

The limited business district allows for certain low-intensity businesses which, in part, preserve the residential character of a neighborhood, though the use is limited to only a portion of a property.

It seems unlikely that the Snowflake building could be used for anything much different from what is there now.

The developers of more than 43 acres of woods stretching from Route 114 (Sag Harbor Turnpike) in East Hampton have gotten a little too far down the road with their subdivision - literally.

Well over a year ago, Deep Hollow Associates finished cutting a road onto the rolling property to serve 12 eventual house lots. The problem was, the partnership never had approval for the road. Now the dirt road and its steep dirt banks, directly across from Red Fox Lane, remain unfinished and prone to erode onto 114.

The subdivision, known as Hilltops, was nearing final approval when the East Hampton Town Planning Board last reviewed it in April 1996. The developers were told then that the plan would be ready for clearance once the Health Department okayed it, an earlier county approval having expired. The Planning Board signed off on the design of the road during that review.

Since then, the road has been cut, cleared, and graded. Deep Hollow Associates and their representatives on the application, George H. Walbridge Company, told the board last week they thought the map had been approved and weren't aware at the time that the Health Department approval had expired.

The Town Planning Department has recommended the developers begin some of the remaining work on the road to stabilize the shoulders, such as an erosion-control mat and the vegetation approved in the plans. Meanwhile, several members of the Planning Board proposed reporting the premature clearing and grading to the town's code enforcement officer or the State Department of Transportation.

The principals of Deep Hollow Associates are listed as Gregory Troutman and Robert Kramer.

AMAGANSETT

Principi Jr. to William and Lois Dannecker, Miankoma Lane, $395,000.

Fariel to Cherie Butler and Raymond DeMarco, Beach Avenue, $325,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Collins to Joseph and Ellen Wright, Mitchell Lane, $1,370,000.

Bet Tov Const. to Mary Clark, Aelfie's Way, $350,000.

Bauer to Edward Gordon, Mitchell Lane, $800,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Schieck to Barry Murac, Sherrill Road, $249,000.

Briggs to George Caldwell and George Castello, Amy's Court, $420,000.

Laupot to Madeline Beckwith, Miller Terrace, $165,000.

Wooded Homes Inc. to John Purcell, Two Holes of Water Road, $625,000.

Lipset to Rhonda Schulik, Treescape Drive, $215,000.

MONTAUK

The Star Co. L.P. to Karen Langdon, Leon Court, $220,000.

NOYAC

Fasulo to Kevin and Jerilyn Bock, Pine Neck Avenue, $180,000.

Gribetz to Mark Humphrey and Laurence Rundie, Deerfield Road, $575,000.

SAG HARBOR

Rodriguez estate to Waldtraut Biondi, Elizabeth Street, $224,500.

Vigilante to Achille Tagliasacchi, Redwood Road, $390,000.

Reichman to Robert Koening and Karin Mass, Hildreth Avenue, $220,000.

SPRINGS

Warner to Stefano and Marc Filiberti, Underwood Drive, $194,000.

WAINSCOTT

Ogden Jr. to John Thornton, Georgica Association Road, $2,050,000.

WATER MILL

Nichols to Arnott & Raffo Inc., Middle Line Highway, $425,000.

The John Jermain Library has received its single largest gift since Margaret Olivia Sage, the second wife of the millionaire philanthropist Russell Sage, donated the money to build it in 1910. A longtime supporter of the John Jermain, Jeanette Wagner of Glover Street, Sag Harbor, and New York, gave the library a check for $100,000 during a marathon reading Saturday of John Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley." The donation, a gift on behalf of the 80th birthday of her husband, Paul Wagner, is to be used for children's books and programs.

"One hundred thousand dollars is a lot of books," Jim Ashe, director of the library, said yesterday. He expects the money will be used not only for books, but also to redo the entrance to the children's room and provide air conditioning.

A body found dumped near the West Side Highway in Manhattan Tuesday morning was identified late yesterday as that of Nelson G. Gross, the owner of the Dark Horse Farm in Bridgehampton. The New Jersey resident, a developer and fallen political power broker, disappeared on Sept. 17.

Three New York City teenagers, one of whom is believed to have worked at a New Jersey restaurant owned by the victim, have been charged with a Federal offense, although it was unclear at press time whether the charge was kidnapping.

The body, with multiple stab wounds, was discovered 25 blocks from where Mr. Gross's silver BMW sedan had been found three days before in upper Manhattan, with a shatter ed window and one tire up on the curb.

Wife Waited At Farm

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is handling the case. A $100,000 reward had been offered for information leading to Mr. Gross's safe return.

The names of the three suspects, all male juveniles, were not released because of their ages. Federal statute defines a juvenile as under 18.

Elias Villeda, the barn manager at Dark Horse Farm, said Mr. Gross's wife, Noel, who is chairwoman of the New Jersey Racing Commission, stayed at the Mitchell Lane farm from the day of her husband's disappearance until Friday. F.B.I. agents visited the farm more than once, according to Mr. Villeda.

The family reported Mr. Gross missing late on Sept. 17 after he failed to show up there.

Two Passengers

Mr. Gross, 65, was last seen alive just after 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 17 driving the BMW away from his restaurant, the Binghamton Ferryboat, on the Hudson in Edgewater, N.J. There reportedly were two men in the car with him when he stopped at the Bank of New York just 100 yards away and withdrew $20,000.

A news report in The Record of Hackensack, which has been widely cited, quoted Michael Gross, his brother, as saying one of the two went into the bank with Mr. Gross, and was videotaped by a security camera. No member of the family could identify him.

The Record also reported that Neil Gross, Nelson Gross's son, waved as his father drove away from the floating restaurant but was ignored. Neil Gross told police he spoke to his father on a cellular phone a short time later, and was told whatever was going on was "just business."

Car Discovered

The elder Mr. Gross was to have met his wife about two hours later. The car was found on Riverside Drive near 160th Street. Reports say it may have been there for two days. Michael Gross told the press that authorities had been looking in upper Manhattan for the car but declined to say why.

It was found near a fire hydrant with one wheel up on the curb, leading authorities to speculate that whoever dumped it wanted it to be located quickly.

Mr. Gross, a political kingpin in New Jersey during the 1960s and '70s before a Federal conviction for illegal fund raising, had in recent years lived quietly, dividing his time among his restaurant in New Jersey, the Bridgehampton horse farm and the nearby Atlantic Golf Club, and a winter house in Palm Beach, Fla.

Managers at the Atlantic, which is not far from the farm, declined to comment, though one, who would not give his full name, said Mr. Gross, who was semi-retired, played often at the exclusive club. He did not have a regular foursome, the man said.

In his heyday as a political kingpin, Mr. Gross was the Republican leader in Bergen County and later for the entire state. He was a major fund-raiser for President Richard M. Nixon and an adviser to the Nixon Administration on international drug control.

Served Five Months

In 1970, Mr. Gross was among the targets of a Federal investigation into suspected mob activity in a union, but the investigation was dropped. His bid that year for a seat in the United States Senate failed.

In 1973, while fund raising for New Jersey Governor William Cahill, Mr. Gross was indicted on Federal fraud charges. He was convicted the next year of channeling illegal contributions to Governor Cahill's 1969 campaign, and served five months of a two-year sentence in a Federal prison.

A lawyer, he was disbarred after the conviction but was readmitted in 1984.

Real Estate Developer

After his release from prison, Mr. Gross did not return to politics but made a fortune in real estate.

In addition to being a partner in the Binghamton Ferryboat, he owned 12 riverside acres there that also house a catering business operating on a rebuilt barge. His other properties include a Paramus shopping mall and an office building in Hackensack.

A dinner theater at the Ferryboat called the Sidewheeler has been showing since March a mystery production of "Murdered by the Mob."

Classic Champion

The barn at the 12-acre Dark Horse Farm is home to Left Field, a thoroughbred who was the local grand hunter champion at the Hampton Classic last month, and four other horses.

Mrs. Gross, whose job it is to oversee horse racing and parimutuel betting in New Jersey, has in the past been a winning rider in the adult hunter class but did not ride in the 1997 Classic.

She trains with Charles Weaver, a noted trainer who owns the Old Salem Farm upstate. His farm has a separate number listed at Dark Horse but Brian Simonson, who works there and answered that phone yesterday, declined to say anything about the case.