All the changes in society (Do you text at the table? Can you check your email in front of people at a cocktail party?) means that we need a Miss Manners for this era, and I volunteer. Etiquette lesson number one in my column: now, with caller ID, it is wonderful to see who you are about to engage with. You are under no moral obligation to answer telephone calls from friends, neighbors, relatives – anyone – who is calling from Florida, Barbados, or any points south. Let it ring, let them leave a message if they dare — and they will — telling you what the temperature is and which server is bringing them which drink poolside. For your own sanity, erase the message ASAP. The caller is the rude one, not you who will not answer. Case closed.

This whacky weather has resulted in the rescheduling of many planned events. Arnie Riesman had to cancel the poetry cafe at the Vineyard Playhouse last Tuesday night for the second time. It is now rescheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 24. Featured poets will be Rose Styron and more of your favorite Islanders.

The Vineyard Haven Public Library had to cancel, for the second time, the movie The Good Lie on Tuesday. This is the second cancellation of the movie about the Lost Boys, the orphans of the revolution in Sudan in 1983. Betty Burton is not sure at this point if or when it will be scheduled in the future.

Richard Paradise of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society knows how to throw a party. Accept your invitation for the 87th annual Academy Awards next Sunday, Feb. 22, at his theatre in the Tisbury Marketplace. You can schmooze with your fellow Islander film aficionados, walk the red carpet, and dress Hollywood for the occasion. I wish I could be there.

Speaking of movies, how wonderful to hear that Mark Snider of the Winnetu Oceanside Resort in Katama has agreed to lease the Strand and the Capawock for the next 10 years. He has started a nonprofit, the Martha’s Vineyard Theatre Foundation. Mark will be renovating the theatres and working with Richard Paradise to present more movies more often. I personally want to thank Mark. But I think a really big tip of the Tisburian hat goes to Ben Hall Jr. and his family who have kept the love of film alive on-Island for so many years.

Confidential to Lyn K: Nonna has just finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. She has a bio of Primo Levi and a bio of Fiorello La Guardia waiting on her table. I am reading Michael Moore’s Here Comes Trouble. I really enjoy the way he writes. I have ready 1848, Year of Revolution, by Mike Rapport. Every few years I read another book about 1848. If you think the sixties were something, get your hands on this book. It makes us Boomers look like pre-K.

Here’s a shout out to Warren Gosson, Kara Best, and all Islanders who have sent me fascinating pictures of the ice floes in the harbor. Is the SSA back on schedule now? Are the kids going to be in school in July? You know, I had some appointments in Boston this month. I never thought I would be grateful that emergency surgery in New York kept me from attending my appointments in Boston. Grateful I am.

The birthday bandwagon pulls along Warren West, Laura Artru, Ben Davey and Michael Dowling today. Tomorrow is a party for Michael Cecilio, James Holenko, Nisa Kontje and Marie Boas. February 22 honors our favorite dad, George Washington, and Thomas Dommerich Dunn. February 23 smiles on David Gardella and Reid MacPherson. February 25 is claimed by Rosie Piccione. And on Feb. 26 Natalia Oliveira takes the cake. Many happy returns.

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