NANCY GARDELLA
508-693-3308
Let’s make our resolution this year to keep our resolutions. I missed Last Night events because I’m in my Old Country doing the Times Square thing — on television, of course, at my age. I had a fascinating drive down here on Christmas day, in the far left lane on 95 south going a speed I don’t want to mention since my mother reads this column. Two vehicles ahead of me, an uncovered and untamped down truck lost a sofa on the road. I almost became a scary kind of couch potato. Attention truck drivers without caps, there’s a reason for the rules! As stuffing and sofa parts spilled all over the road, I reached for my cell phone which I never use while driving. I called 911 and the state police said they were on it. Did you know that a 911 call from your cell is always free? Not that I wouldn’t have called anyway.
As many of you have been doing this past week, I have been enjoying several family visits. Cousin Cathy Cucurullo came by with her delightful nephew, 11-year-old Thomas. Nancy Gardella — no, not me nor Chamber of Commerce Nancy Gardella but the third one, my sister in law, Nancy Mac — has been visiting with my nephew Jonathan and her sister, Marie Boas. Sunday was family day at the Jannace’s, I caught up with Aunt Mary Alice and oodles of cousins and their kids. Jannace doesn’t sound Italian, I know; my grandfather anglicized it from the original Iannace.
Speaking of other cultures, don’t forget to call Cynthia at 508-955-9024 and reserve your seat for the 24th annual Robert Burns night dinner of our Scottish Society of Martha’s Vineyard. This is always my favorite social event of the year, and we raise scholarship money. The party will be Saturday, Jan. 24 at the Harbor View in Edgartown. Good friends, good food, raffles and entertainment.My Scottish Society bulletin had, as always, an interesting piece of news. Fascinated with language, as I am, I quote their explanation of the phrase “mind your p’s and q’s: “In English and Scottish pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts ...so in old England/Scotland, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them “Mind your pints and quarts and settle down.” Now, didn’t you always want to know that?
Our Vineyard Haven Public Library returns full force to regular programs on Jan. 6. Tuesdays the infants to two-year-olds are entertained from 10 to 10:30 a.m. with stories, songs and rhymes. Three to five-year-olds have their chance at 11 a.m. Chess club is available every Tuesday night from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. for six-year-olds through high school ages. A very special event at the Tuesday night evening lecture series, free for the grownups, will be this next Tuesday at 7 p.m. with a talk by paleobiologist Dr. Fred Hotchkiss. Dr. Hotchkiss will speak about the noble horseshoe crab, so common to our beaches. I’ll see you there.
Don’t forget drop-in crafts for kids ages five to ten on Thursday afternoons from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday nights at our library the teens are welcome from 6 to 7:30 p.m. for Wii games. Livin’ at the library, I love it.
I’m giving you a heads-up on next Friday’s film from the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society. Meet me at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 9 for a fascinating documentary from 2008, Encounters at the End of the World. The people who choose, CHOOSE, to live in Antarctica and do research are the stars. And you thought winter on the Island was cold.
The birthday bandwagon pulls along Joy Rogers, Sue Rabot, Anthony Masi, Madeline Noel Doup and Brian Doherty today. Tomorrow is shared by Carol Clark and Donna Tankard. Jan. 4 belongs to Barsha Tolin and Helena Nivala. And on Jan. 5 Jim Sishop and Anthony Iammarino take the cake. Many happy returns.
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