Dan's Papers - December 14, 2007 - The Hampton Subway Newsletter

Delays: There were no reported delays this week. This is the seventh week this year out of a total of forty-eight that there were no delays.

Happy Birthday to Carla Edison, our valued Executive Platform Attendant Associate who celebrated her 49th birthday last week. This is her 14th year with Hampton Subway. Congratulations again.

Appeal to our riders: The police have asked us to put this notice in the newsletter, asking that riders be on the lookout for who is stealing the new light bulbs from the stations. We are experiencing an upsurge in thefts, possibly because we are now using those new long lasting, low-wattage fluorescent bulbs that have come into vogue and cost more than regular bulbs. If anyone knows anything about this problem, or sees anything amiss, please report it immediately to a subway employee.

BREAKING NEWS
The police say a Hampton Subway surveillance tape shows who the perp is. It was taken at 2 a.m. at our Hampton Bays station and shows a white male with a knit ski cap pulled low over his head bringing an aluminum ladder down to the subway. Although the surveillance camera does not show high enough to observe the actual light bulbs, it does show this man, who appears to be of foreign extraction, climbing up the ladder off the picture and then climbing back down bearing a light bulb. He puts it in a sack. He does this at several locations. Then he leaves. Anyone observing such a person please report him immediately.

ANNUAL "COUNT THE CARS" CONTEST BEGINS
We are beginning our annual "count the cars" Christmas program. The question is, how many cars are there on the Hampton Subway line? Parents are urged to take their children to the Montauk Yard to count them as they do every year. There is a good view of the yard, where all the cars are kept, from the brow of Fort Hill in front of the Montauk Manor. Through the courtesy of the Manor management, we have placed a yellow metal bin there that says COUNT THE CARS on the side, and children and parents are invited to write their guess on a piece of paper along with their names, addresses and phone numbers, and slip them into the slot on the top of the bin. The winners get a free ride with the motorman in the front of the lead subway car leaving from Montauk at 5 p.m. on Christmas day. He dresses as Santa Claus. HINT: One half of all the cars owned by Hampton Subway are in the Montauk Yard getting serviced at any one time.
And while in Montauk, drive around and enjoy the facilities. Rent a boat, play miniature golf, go fishing, whatever. The Montauk Chamber of Commerce has asked us to print this message.

COMMISSIONER ASPINALL'S WEEKLY MESSAGE
On a recent trip back to San Francisco to see old friends, where I formerly worked as the Assistant Commissioner for the BART subway system, I observed various street performers and artists working at the subway stops.
As a result of this, Hampton Subway is proud to announce the opening of "Subway Gallery" at the western end of the platform at our East Hampton station. It will consist of a small area on the platform that will be roped off with the sort of velvet ropes you see in movie theatres, behind which we will have a rotating art show.
The opening reception for our first show, I am excited to announce, will be next Saturday at 5 p.m., when we will serve free wine and cheese and feature the work of the famous Italian sculptor and performance artist Giuseppe de Antonino from Milan, now spending the winter in a barn on the Miller Farm in Water Mill doing his work here. De Antonino is not only a sculptor, but also a musician, a diarist, an abstract expressionist painter and a dance choreographer for the art projects he calls "happenings."
I went to his studio last week to see how he is coming along and was met not only by the artist himself, but by his dog Euro and his wife, the Finnish Olympic skater Astrid-Eeva Vapaavuori, who served me homemade cakes and herbal tea.
I will not give away what De Antonio is preparing for this show, his first American exhibit, but I will say that he is working on these amazingly beautiful and luminous mountain structures that rise, some of them, to ten feet in height and appear to be some sort of repetitive objects that look like light bulbs that he has welded all together. It is quite something.
In any case, I hope to see you all there on the East Hampton platform at 5 p.m. next Saturday for wine and cheese for this important cultural event.