Most of us tend to pull down the shades when we think a neighbor may be involved in wrongdoing, although media treatment of notorious incidents when people were witness to but did nothing about a mugging or suspected child abuse has done much to awaken an understandably reluctant public.

Last week's early morning drug raid in Montauk and East Hampton also could be described as a wakeup call. Many in the community knew the men and women arrested as persons who "did drugs" - and they know others. In the everyday world, there isn't much individuals can do, whether their inclinations are on the side of cracking down on crack or helping those whose lives have reached dead ends. It takes police action to begin the process.

Those who took offense that the predawn raid was turned into a media event should consider the impact of the subsequent stories and photographs on youngsters who are being warned by their elders to avoid drugs. Education against drug use can look pretty hypocritical when kids have neighbors, some of whom are parents, who seem to use drugs with impunity.

That being said, however, we urge the law-enforcement officials involved to see that those found guilty are sentenced to long-term, in-patient rehabilitation programs rather than prison. Despite its celebrity, this is still a small town where understanding and positive rather than merely punitive sentencing should be possible.

The Tempest," a magical tale of shipwreck and reconciliation, was the last complete play Shakespeare wrote before retiring from tumultuous London to a quiet country gentleman's life in Stratford.

Behind him were the epic histories, the towering tragedies and rowdy farces. This is a comedy of love and forgiveness, the work of a mature playwright lured, as he mellowed, by the pleasures of peace.

Perhaps symbolically, our hero, Prospero, surrenders his occult powers to "retire me to my Milan, where every third thought shall be my grave." We do not feel his first and second thoughts will be lugubrious at all, but rather graced by serenity and joy.

Sailors' Yarns

Set on an imaginary island, "The Tempest," first performed in 1611, was no doubt inspired by tall tales of the New World told by explorers bent on discovering a new trade route to the Orient.

According to Rudyard Kipling, a reference to "the still-vexed Bermoothes" in Act I probably reflects the popular fascination with a recent shipwreck in Bermuda.

In a letter to the London Spectator about the creative process, Kipling theorized that Shakespeare may have picked up ideas for incidents in his play from "nothing more promising in fact than the chattering of a half-tipsy sailor at the theatre."

Surprising Shapes

Whatever the provenance of "The Tempest," it remains, despite its production problems, one of the Bard's most beguiling plays, and perhaps his most popular.

Daunting stage directions like "Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet," and "Enter divers Spirits in shape of dogs and hounds," may challenge directors, but their inventive solutions have electrified audiences for centuries.

Dark Horse Productions' "Tempest" -- which opened on Friday at Guild Hall's John Drew Theater and will be performed again tonight through Saturday and next Thursday through Dec. 14 at 8 and at 5 p.m. on Sunday and Dec. 15 -- brings us many such ingenious and thrilling surprises, along with riotous slapstick episodes and an array of glittering, lovely moments.

It also strays on occasion, with performances and directorial decisions varying greatly. But more of this later; now for the good parts.

A World Laid Waste

Glyde Hart, Dark Horse's artistic director and our director here, has tellingly situated her "Tempest" in an apocalyptic future.

In Dominique De Cock's bluntly rashy set, Shakespeare's desert island appears as an industrial dump. Prospero's cell is hidden behind the rusting grille of an abandoned tractor-trailer. We're in a world laid waste by brutal progress.

The evening opens with a stunning display of thunder and lightning as the tempest rages to the drums of Ms. Hart and her guest artists, while dancing "waves" (Prospero's spirits) pound up the aisle and dash against the sinking ship on stage.

Cast Adrift

Sailors and noble passengers rock on the heaving deck; the theater is a storm-tossed sea; the wreck is near.

The Oscar for best actress goes to the fantastically charismatic Eve Montgomery as Ariel. A truly splendid John Drew debut.

The scene shifts to the island, where Miranda (Sarah Reilly), daughter of Prospero (Christopher Linn), accuses him of magically brewing up the storm. We learn that Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, and that the shipwrecked nobles are his mortal enemies.

Twelve years ago, Alonso (Richard H. Schneider), King of Naples, and Sebastian (Steve Lilja), his brother, conspired with the evil Antonio (Evan Thomas), Prospero's brother, to usurp his dukedom and set both father and daughter adrift in a frail boat, which, however, miraculously brought them ashore.

Accompanying Alonso is his son Ferdinand (Michael King), who, of course, falls in love with Miranda of the opposing royal house. But since this is a comedy not of errors but of the righting of wrongs, we are assured of a happy ending to the family feud.

Two spirits also inhabit the island: Ariel (Eve Montgomery), "an airy sprite" who implements Prospero's magic and, for some, represents the creative leaps of poetry, and Caliban (Tom Leo), "a savage and deformed slave," a half-beast who might personify the more lumbering gait of prose; he certainly was modeled on the myriad New World monsters reported by Sir Walter Raleigh and other explorers.

Then there are Shakespeare's beloved buffoons: Trinculo (Ruby Rathbone), a jester, and Stephano (T.J. Parlette), a drunken butler who enthralls Caliban with his "celestial liquor," the first of the great "enablers."

The Oscar for best actor of the evening goes to Mr. King as Ferdinand, in this reviewer's humble opinion. His whoops of boyish exuberance at the discovery of first love, his headlong passion, steal not only Miranda's heart, but the audience's as well.

Solid Performances

As for supporting actor, Tom Leo brings a mysterious resonance to his Caliban, grappling us to his beastliness as if he were some endangered species we must care about at the peril of our own humanity.

As Prospero, Mr. Linn has a world-weary cynicism that, oddly, works very well in his complicated role, and is a nice dramatic contrast to his Jesus-like looks.

Mr. Parlette is also fun, as is the hilarious Ms. Rathbone. Mr. Thomas makes a perfectly wicked Antonio, and Jesse St. Louis a compassionate counselor, Gonzalo. Messrs. Lilja and Schneider give solid performances.

Charismatic Ariel

The Oscar for best actress goes to the fantastically charismatic Ms. Montgomery and her Ariel. What a beautiful sprite she makes, with a mischievous edge, an impish twinkle, and the perfect body of the talented dancer she is.

A graduate of the Gene Frankel Theatre Workshop in New York, with films, commercials, and music videos to her credit, she's a stellar addition to the East End acting pool. We witness a truly splendid John Drew debut.

Ms. Reilly's Miranda, however, is sweet but not as vivid as she might be.

The production values are top-notch: Randy Lee Hendler's choreography, Steven Espach's lighting, Laura Flynn's musical direction and composition, and Ms. De Cock's designs.

But the direction falters at times, and the performances seem to lose concentration and fade into inaudibility. We are also confused by inconsistent anachronisms and apparently random leaps backward and forward in time.

Especially the gestures and costumes don't seem to know what century this is. There'll be an Elvis Presley pelvic thrust followed by a courtly bow, or street-gang guns and combat pants alongside Elizabethan sabers and doublets. The device doesn't quite work.

The dialogue sometimes falters, too, not unnaturally losing its way in Shakespeare's demanding language and lapsing into modern rhythms.

Indulgence

But hey, English children have had Shakespeare read to them so long at bedtime that the Bard's speech patterns seem as familiar as "The Cat in the Hat" rhyme schemes are to us.

And hey, as Al Pacino points out in his new film, "Looking for Richard," Shakespearean lines are extremely difficult even for highly trained American professionals to deliver well-- for amateur actors, nearly impossible.

So maybe it's picky to quibble about diction, and perhaps lapses must be forgiven in the joyful spirit of the evening. As Prospero entreats the audience in the play's epilogue:

As you from crimes would pardoned be,

Let your indulgence set me free.

The worst photo assignment I've had, oh forget it,

it would take too long to explain why I couldn't

follow-focus for a newspaper what would be too

repelling to record and emotionally impossible,

a jumper on the Empire State, and as I tried to

be a committed professional and slunk that way

nauseously, I found a crisis cop had talked him

down. I walked up to this scruffy young Irishman

like Mary Magdalene and gazed as the heavens

exploded and all the fire engines rumbled away,

back to their sheltered caverns of inaction, and

asked, my career reprieved from retirement, how

he did it, and he said "the guy just wanted to talk

to his father and we told him we could arrange it."

Sweet Dreams

Cryptic wisteria, that's an idea, I'll vine myself up

someone's legs. He will experience a vague flutter

like a lost continent below the sea. Crimson reefs

of molten lava surface as an unclaimed Eden through

his mind, nude and primeval, one rib too many, thrown

from a dream like a skipped stone rippling his thighs,

ripples rising and rising. I do not think birds will sing,

however. My imagery is too profusive. I'd boggle his

primeval thinking like a wrench. The machinery would

break down. I'd have to unvine fast before the entire

continent resinks, leaving but a puddle in its wake,

so don't tell me you're all ears, I know that game.

"Well, enough about my problems. What do you think

about my problems?" Excuse me, I'm falling asleep.

These poems are from Star Black's newly published sonnet sequence, "Waterworn" (Tribes Books, $10). Ms. Black, a former staff photographer for United Press International, is a regular visitor to Sag Harbor.

The large building rising on the north side of the Montauk Highway in Wainscott just west of the East Hampton-Southampton town line is not, as many passers-by have speculated, an office park or shopping center.

It's the Wainscott Motel's new office and an attached residence for the owners, the Hatgistavrou family.

It's also something of a statement.

Father And Sons

"We wanted it to be the prettiest building on the highway. We wanted to do something that let people know they're coming to the Hamptons," said John Hatgistavrou, one of three sons and the architect who designed the post-modern, shingled, cottage-like building.

When the building is finished sometime next spring, guests of the adjacent motel will have a cozy place to enjoy a continental breakfast or sit by the fire and read the paper, he said.

The project gave the family, which runs Ionian Construction in East Hampton as well, an opportunity to show off its skills. Two other brothers are also involved in the family business. Jim is an electrician, and Steve is a plumber.

Do-It-Themselfers

Their father, Angelo, who came to this country from Greece in the early 1950s and eventually started his own construction business in the Bronx, is the general contractor, or, as Jim joked, "the guy with the whip."

The father-and-sons team did much of the work on the new building themselves, although they did have the foundation dug and poured and a framing and roofing crew on hand.

The family bought the motel in 1986 after passing up an opportunity to buy another local motel a few years earlier. "It was in bad shape," said John. "There was no hot water, no heat, no TV."

Today, the 24-unit motel serves a clientele of mostly families and young couples, along with a handful of long-term guests.

The Place To Be

The Hatgistavrous came east in 1980 to build themselves a vacation house in Springs. It had not yet been completed when two men asked Angelo if he wanted to sell it.

"I thought they were joking," he said. But when they offered a check on the spot, he knew they were serious.

It did not take the family long to realize the East End, which was at the start of a decade-long building boom, was the place to be.

The Hatgistavrous obtained a variance from the Southampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals in 1988 to enlarge their pre-existing, non conforming motel, but chose to sit on the project for a while. They finally broke ground late last year and got started in earnest in April.

They hope to be finished by Easter.

Seven years ago, Chris Harris and Gary Bradhering, who used to scribble the names of their favorite restaurants and hotels on street maps for future reference, decided to turn their idea of a street-map-and-guidebook-in-one into a business.

Working out of their homes, the two produced guide maps for New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., cities they were well acquainted with, and set off for the American Book Sellers Show in Las Vegas in June 1990, "not knowing if anyone would like it," said Mr. Harris. "But the buying public warmed to the idea."

Imagine, said Mr. Harris, a tourist lugging a guidebook in one hand and a street map in the other. "You see all these great restaurants, but you don't know where they are," he said. "You can go out and buy a $20 guidebook or a $5.50 map."

Targeting Shoppers

Now, with 29 maps of mostly United States cities in publication and four more of Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, and Montreal due out in the spring, the company, Mapeasy, is thriving. Its products are found in bookstores across the country, and the firm also does customized versions for conventions and corporations.

The company is now expanding its line to include maps of major retail centers, to cater to shoppers.

Early next year, MapEasy, which is currently in an office on Gingerbread Lane in East Hampton, will move to larger quarters now under construction on Industrial Road in East Hampton looking over the East Hampton Airport. The move will give the company's 11-member staff some elbow room and also allow it to have an on-site warehouse.

MapEasy's success finds the East End, hardly a central location, becoming nonetheless something of a center for mapmakers. Streetwise Maps is located in Amagansett.

Focus For Mapmakers

"We occupy different niches," said Mr. Harris of the other company. While Streetwise produces more of a standard street map, including one for the East End, "we're not trying to map out the Greater Paris area - we're interested in tourist centers," said Mr. Harris.

The company has no plans to do a local map, he added, because "the market is limited."

MapEasy maps are clearly user-friendly. Printed on waterproof paper, they include pleasant drawings of major attractions and color-coded entries for hotels, restaurants, and retail shops which, thanks to computer graphics, look like they were hand-written by someone with excellent penmanship.

Happy Customers

There is no advertising charge for businesses that appear on the maps. "That's strictly an editorial decision on our part," said Mr. Harris. "We try to weigh a place on what we think our public wants."

A MapEasy user with a hankering for hamburgers while visiting New York, for example, could find choices ranging from McDonald's to the 21 Club.

The company updates its maps at least once a year and sometimes more often. Frequently, it adds new listings suggested by customers, who send in a steady stream of fan mail.

Staff members do most of the field work for new publications. "We take lots of photographs, and people come back with bags full of brochures," said Mr. Harris.

Ideal Surroundings

Not surprisingly, it is not hard to find volunteers. "I haven't had too many people upset about having to go out and do research," Mr. Harris said.

"It's a thrill for me to go to a new city and get the lay of the land and know where everything is," he added. He still does much of the scouting himself. "I have a natural curiosity. I always want to know what's around the corner."

Mr. Harris, who comes from North Carolina, heads the company's production efforts, while Mr. Bradhering, a Boston native, takes care of the business side. Mr. Harris first came to East Hampton to visit a friend. "I thought it was the greatest place I'd ever seen," he said.

The partners have also found it to be an ideal place to run their business. Communications are good, and MacArthur Airport in Islip makes travel easy, said Mr. Harris. Plus, the laid-back approach on the East End allows them to have a "very casual office," which includes a couple golden retrievers lounging under desks.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Davidson to Allan Ryan 3d, Day Lily Lane, $415,000.

A.P. Tuff & Assoc. to Cliffeton Green, Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, $240,000.

Tausik to Loren Skeist and Charles Gilbert, Lumber Lane, $675,000.

Ser to Richard DeRose, Scuttlehole Road, $260,000.

Hsia to Chad Leat, Butter Lane, $575,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Farrell to Elkhalil Binebine, Kettle Court, $650,000.

Greenberg to Dan Saltiel, Springwood Lane, $240,000.

Cavalero to Howard Cavalero and Michael Ehrhardt, Old Orchard Lane, $350,000.

Arthur to Stephan Weiss, Further Lane, $1,250,000.

Schneider to Kenneth and Kyra Rafferty, Newtown Lane, $235,000.

Iammatteo to Joseph Carri, Gould Street, $400,000.

MONTAUK

Matson estate to Wallace and Barbara Zeins, Old Montauk Highway, $314,500.

NORTH HAVEN

Hannigan to Maureen and Raymond Dee, North Drive, $1,200,000.

NORTHWEST

Lipoff to Aston Baker, Old Northwest Road, $765,000.

Rosenman to Barry Miske, Bull Path, $155,000.

Neidell to Nella Costella, High Point Road, $172,500.

Barnett Const. Corp. to Richard and Loree Rosenthal, Long Hill Road, $525,000.

NOYAC

Briggs to Gerald and Terry Shargel, Munchogue Drive, $625,000.

SAG HARBOR

Southwick to Kenneth and Mary Solomon, Harbor Watch Court, $285,000.

SAGAPONACK

Daniel to Ana Daniel, Hedges Lane, $1,375,000.

WATER MILL

Raphael to Katherine Parker, Little Noyac Path, $1,060,000.

It looked like the Alien, its mouth consisting of numerous hooks and fan-like appendages, the eyes oblong and black. Its undulating body looked like an armored snake with dozens of legs and two praying mantis-like arms tucked close and ready to spring.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Capt. Harry Clemenz, who discovered the creature in Lake Montauk while hunting scallops with a dip net. He netted it, placed it in a bucket, and ran to his fish books for help.

Angling For Herring

Squilla empusa was its name, the common mantis shrimp, otherwise known as the slasher shrimp for its ability to slash a fish, other shrimp, or a fisherman's finger with its knife-like appendage. Good thing it was only seven inches long.

Mantis shrimp are native to this area but uncommon. Their range extends from Cape Cod to as far south as Brazil. They like to burrow in sand or mud and can be found both in shallow water just below the low tide line and in ocean depths of 500 feet.

Captain Clemenz's catch was perhaps the most spectacular of the week.

Striped bass are still around but the absence of any surf until Tuesday morning has kept them off the beach. As a result, the standings in the Montauk Locals surfcasting tournament had not changed as of Tuesday afternoon. The tournament ends on Sunday.

The silvery greenish-blue herring have been sought by bass and by fishermen seeking bass. For several weeks now boating fishermen have choked the entrance to Montauk Harbor angling for herring that have congregated there. After taking on a supply, fishermen head for the rips around Montauk Point. Boaters have continued to report strong catches of bass stuffed to the gills with herring.

Two Sets Of Rods

Capt. Mike Vegessi of the Montauk party boat Lazy Bones said he has been rigging two sets of rods for his two half-day trips each day. One set is rigged with tiny herring jigs, with which he lets his customers catch their own bait - easily done as the herring have been thick from the jetty west all along Gin Beach.

The other set of rods is rigged with bass hooks and weights for drifting bunker chunks out into the rips. "It's been absolutely terrific. All big fish, very few throwbacks. We have fish up to 35 pounds almost every trip," Captain Vegessi said on Tuesday. The Lazy Bones will call it quits early next month.

The daily bass bag-limits are filled so fast each day that charter boat captains have been splitting their time between the rips and the slack water out by the Southwest Ledge, where blackfish and sea bass live.

The South Fork Natural History Society will hold a book party and signing to celebrate the publication of three books by SoFo members: "The Pictorial Guide to the Living Primates" by Noel Rowe, a nature photographer, "Winds of the Fish's Tail" by Richard Hendrickson, a naturalist and weatherman, and "Winged" by George Held, a poet.

The reception will be from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Vered Gallery in East Hampton, which is itself displaying an exhibit of nature photography and painting: "Nature at Its Best."

Mr. Rowe is director of Primate Conservation Incorporated, a foundation that funds field research of primates in their natural habitat. He has traveled all over the world to photograph mountain gorillas in Zaire, langurs in India, lemurs in Madagascar, and snub-nosed monkeys in China.

Mr. Hendrickson has been observing weather for the National Weather Service in Albany from his farm in Bridgehampton since the 1930s. His book provides a wealth of information about hurricanes, northeasters, beach erosion, blizzards, and summer heat on the South Fork.

"Winged" is Mr. Held's first chapbook of poems, many of which grew out of observation of his Sag Harbor garden. He teaches literature and creative writing at Queens College and is co-editor of The Ledge, a poetry and fiction magazine.

Mary D. Killoran of Sag Harbor and Sarasota, Fla., president of the Eastern Long Island Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will retire from that office this month after serving 10 years.

Mrs. Killoran said she felt it was time to move on and let someone else assume the burden of leading the organization.

During her tenure as N.A.A.C.P. president, Mrs. Killoran also joined the League of Women Voters, the National Organization for Women, and the Anti-Bias Task Forces of Riverhead, Southampton, and East Hampton Towns. She met with members of Congress and other legislators and representatives of business and other organizations to lobby for her constituents and keep them informed.

She attended every national conference except one, and missed only two state conventions - and those were because of the expense involved.

Mrs. Killoran said she had worn out two cars traveling back and forth to workshops and other meetings on Long Island alone.

Rewards Of The Job

Her branch participated in sit-ins at the County Criminal Court in Riverhead and a three-year-long discrimination suit that was ultimately thrown out of State Supreme Court. The branch also earned at least four outstanding performance awards from the national and state organizations during Mrs. Killoran's tenure.

She said one of the most rewarding parts of the job had been to accompany a parent to court when a child was in trouble. "Just sitting there with the family was often most comforting," Mrs. Killoran said.

She counted many police personnel, County Legislator George Guldi, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., Southampton Town Justice Deborah Kooperstein, and Congressman Michael Forbes among her friends, Mrs. Killoran said.

"I still have little respect for the slow wheels of justice and I will continue to fight against that wherever I am," she said.

A Long Career

In 1995 Mrs. Killoran was honored by the East End Women's Network for outstanding community work. Prior to that her name was entered into the Congressional Record for outstanding work at the request of Congressman George Hochbrueckner.

While she led the local N.A.A.C.P. branch, Mrs. Killoran worked as a medical transcriber for Hamptons Gynecology and Obstetrics in Southampton until 1994, when she retired for the second time. She had worked as a district manager for AT&T for 27 years prior to that.

She won good citizenship and alumni awards from Bridgehampton High School, from which she graduated before going on to earn bachelor's and master's degrees at Brooklyn College, where she majored in business administration. She attended Yale University under the sponsorship of AT&T when she was employed in recruiting and hiring for the company during the early part of her career.

Time To Travel

She is working part-time as a receptionist and writing the "East of Eastville" column for The East Hampton Star. If things had been more open for African Americans in the field of journalism when she graduated high school, she said, she would have aimed to be a foreign correspondent.

She said she hoped to spend as much time as possible in Florida, Europe, and the Caribbean, and has been asked to serve on the executive board of the Sarasota, Fla., branch of the N.A.A.C.P.

When she is not out of town, Mrs. Killoran said, she would be happy to assist whoever is named her replacement.

"When the Eastern Long Island Branch was first formed, I was its only youth member," Mrs. Killoran said. Now, she said, "I am working on my 'Golden Heritage' membership."

Charges that Brookhaven National Laboratory has been involved in weapons development surfaced at the forum sponsored by the World Affairs Council on Nov. 9 at Southampton College.

M. Sue Davis, the associate director for reactor safety and security at the lab, said that "bomb production has never been part of our mission, only research."

Two weeks later at Guild Hall, however, William J. Weida, an economics professor from Colorado State University, read excerpts from the Department of Energy's $415-million budget for the lab to the audience.

Dr. Weida said it showed $250 million related to nuclear research, $12 million allocated to weapons development, and $2 million for weapons testing. Brookhaven has obvious links to the national laboratories at Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, which are almost entirely devoted to weapons development, he said.

Those scientists representing Brookhaven at Guild Hall suggested that Dr. Weida's information was inaccurate, but he insisted that the Department of Energy had allocated those funds for the purposes cited and he retorted that lab officials were guilty of misappropriation if the money was spent in other ways.

Having been pressed for details on defense research at the lab on Nov. 9, Dr. Davis said such information was secret for national security reasons.

"I could tell you but then I would have to kill you," she joked.