| Issue #36, December 1, 2006 |
Letters
PICTURE PERFECT
Dear Dan,
Thanks so much for putting the photo of me with Alec Baldwin and Ron Livingston, in Dan’s Papers last week.
It was fun for me to see it there. Every week I look forward to reading Dan’s Papers. It’s great!
Hope you had a good turkey day!
Kevin Bodkin
Sag Harbor
You had your 10,080 minutes of fame. (Figure it out). – DR
TO MARKET, TO MARKET…….
Dear Dan,
Apparently the village of East Hampton bought the market, deal complete. What will they do with it? Are they accepting proposals to run it? Or have they already created a contract?
Oh no! Not another Citarella! Will there be a real farmer’s market-how supportive of the village?
Inquiring neighbor.
Karl Rosenberg
Via e-mail
Don’t know the answer to this. – DR
FACTS AND FIGURES
Dear Dan,
It was brought to my attention the above article appeared in your 11/10/06 edition. The author, one T.J. Clemente includes a quote citing a statement I made. Curiously, I’ve never spoke to T.J. Clemente or anyone else from Dan’s Papers regarding this matter.
If someone from your paper would have contacted me, I could have pointed out that the First Supervisory District had already ruled on the school boundary dispute in 1998 and, contrary to T.J. Clemente’s assertion, had ruled the 40+ parcels were to stay in the Wainscott School District. I had made this fact known to the Town of Southampton’s tax assessor, but he was under the impression Sagaponack incorporated village’s survey team and attorney could override a decision made by the First Supervisory District. Southampton Town Attorney, cognizant of the fact that school boundary disputes are to be adjudicated by the supervisory district of a region according to education law, directed the assessor to relent on the decision to place those properties in the Sagaponack School District and they were returned to Wainscott. So, in the end, justice has been served.
Dominic Annacone
Superintendent
Wainscott Common School District
Via e-mail
These things get so darn complicated. – DR
ALL THAT GLITTERS
Dear Dan,
I am writing in regard to some misinformation that appeared in the Who’s Here: Monica Asche article of the November 24 issue of Dan’s Papers.
In this article the writer claims that Ms. Asche “has perfected her skills at the art of gilding, and is one of only a few artists practicing this ancient Technique”.
I take exception to this description because, although gilding is a highly specialized craft that demands much skill, there are many fine artisans who practice gilding, of which I am one.
As a recent participant of the Gilding at the Smithsonian conference in Washington D.C. this past September, which drew gilders from all over the world, I am here to report that gilding is an ancient but not obscure craft that more than a few of us practice.
Dru Frederick
Art Restorer, Gilder and Fine Artist
Member of the Society of Gilders and the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
Via e-mail
Is Gilding a dying art? – DR
RE SIMPSON PROPERTY, SURFSIDE DRIVE
Dear Dan,
Ed Kleban and I were the first couple to live at 23 Surfside Drive – what is now the Simpson property. We rented for the summer of 1980, just as the last nails were hammered into the brand-new house. The original owner had died (in his 40’s) during construction, and the property was tied up with complex estate problems. Two years later on the day that the house went on the market, Ed bought the property for the full – then, extravagant – price of $750,000. Including the elegant Knoll furniture.
Ed named our home “Withering Glance” (writer Paul Rudnick called it “Withering Glands”). The Japanese style flat-roof house, designed by architect Kirby Grimes, nestled serenely and unobtrusively behind the dune. Our three prime oceanfront acres, bordering Sagg Pond on the east, gave onto the most beautiful vistas in the Hamptons. Or so we felt every moment that we lived there.
At the time that Ed bought the property, we knew that the town owned a right of way to the beach. Ed, the lyricist of A Chorus Line, was known as a curmudgeonly private person. But the beach goers who walked through the path never intruded on our privacy. To us, they were like figures in an Impressionist painting; they added charm to the summer scene as they did their slow-motion dance to the beach, trudging through the sand, barefoot, laden with beach chairs and babes in arms. On a few occasions, strangers in duress knocked on our door. This was before cell phones, and the poor sunburned wretches had returned from the beach to find their tires slashed after they parked illegally on the cul de sac near the beach path. We were never certain which of our neighbors was the self-appointed vigilante, though we had an idea.
Only once did we have a run-in with local authorities. It was fall. We heard gunshots, saw hunters with rifles near Sagg Pond, and called the police. The Bay Constable came right over. He informed us that the hunters were within their rights as long as they kept a legal distance from our property line. However, we were the ones who were in violation of the law: our pool wasn’t fenced in, and we had thirty days to correct this – or else. Ed loved to tell that story. It gave pentimento to the pride we felt in ownership of a house that had the hubris to occupy paradise. As Ed’s wrote in his song, “What I Did For Love”: “the gift was ours to borrow.”
Ed died of cancer, at 48, in 1987. I just read in Dan’s Papers that this was the year that unpaid taxes called into question access to the right of way. The Glance was sold in the spring of 1988. A few years later, our beautiful Kirby Grimes house – built in 1979 – became a “tear down.” A new, larger house now occupies the site that is no longer The Glance. It saddens me that the serenity of this treasured Hampton haven has been wantonly shattered by a fracas over a modest footpath. I hope that the town, along with the current owners, can find a peaceable solution that benefits the entire community.
Sincerely.
Linda Kline
East Hampton
Via e-mail
Fowarded the map and deed to the Town Attorney. – DR
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