Mary Oliver
The wind wags its many tails. And in the evening the piled firewood shifts a little, longing to be on its way. —Mary Oliver
September 21, 2007
School Lunch
Charter School Monday, Sept. 24: Macaroni and cheese, ratatouille, pears and milk. Tuesday, Sept. 25: Corn chowder, grilled cheese sandwich, fruit smoothie and milk. Wednesday, Sept. 26: Sandwiches (ham and cheese, tuna salad or veggie and cheese), lettuce, tomato and sprouts, Moroccan salad, pineapple and milk. Thursday, Sept. 27: Pizza (plain cheese, pepperoni or pesto…
Wind from the West, Catch Derby Culture Lessons From the Best
For the casual fisherman, fishing the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby is like going from sandlot baseball to the major leagues. He realizes that a welter of customs, laws of natures, tips and superstitions have developed over centuries of Island fishing and more than six decades of derby competition to create a mind-boggling…
Murder By the Book
Court TV debuted a show last year called Murder By the Book. They invited five crime novelists to choose a true crime case that fascinated them, and present it in the series — full of interviews with witnesses and detectives and prosecutors. Linda Fairstein, pictured above, was selected for the second series.
Native Common Reed
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This old truism is making things difficult for the recently discovered native populations of Phragmites, also known as common reed or phrag. The phrag we all love to hate is an invasive tall grass that is becoming the dominant plant along the upper edges…
Island to Honor Unlikely Ladies’ Fight for Rights
On Sunday afternoon, a plaque will be unveiled in West Tisbury in celebration of a small group of town women who, nearly 50 years ago, took a little risk to play a part in a glorious, heroic and sweeping change in our national history.
The Pleasure of Fishing Without Catching Any
My childhood was of the dirt-beneath -the-fingernails variety. I spent fall afternoons uncovering salamanders from under old logs and trapping slugs to see if they did indeed wriggle up when sprinkled with salt. (They do.) Summer days found my cousins and me on Chilmark ponds filling buckets with blue crabs and moon jellies, and out…
Vineyard Gardener
By LYNNE IRONS Last Saturday’s rain made me so happy. There is nothing quite like waking up to that soft patter. It sure makes one’s bed enjoyable. I love the smell of rain especially on hot pavement. We are in desperate need of a slow, steady soaking.
Temperatures
Temperature: Precip. Day Max. Min. Inches. Fº Fº Sept. 14 75 51 .00 Sept. 15 74 55 .80 Sept. 16 66 50 .22 Sept. 17 67 45 .00 Sept. 18 67 55 .00 Sept. 19 72 55 .00 Sept. 20 68 57 .00
Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 69º F.
Sept. 14: Sunny Morning
Friday, Sept. 14: Sunny morning. Clouds on the increase in the afternoon. Humid and cool. Clouds are dramatic in the late afternoon; a mix of cirrus clouds and cumulus clouds stretch across the western sky. Rain arrives late at night. Stormy night.
Vineyard Canada Geese
Tisbury Great Pond looked like a Japanese painting, flat calm with a fine mist hanging just over the surface. It was so quiet it was eerie. The silence was broken by the honking of a flock of Canada Geese. The birds rose up in a V-formation through the fog and headed directly towards my kitchen…
The Fishermen
Island fish, like Island tourists, come and go with the seasons. Striped bass, bluefish, false albacore, bonito and scup and summer flounder all migrate. Yet there is one species of fish that once were caught here year-round. Winter flounder stayed in Island waters through the changing seasons. Next week the Chilmark Public Library is hosting…
Postcards Reveal Bustling Nature Of Circuit Avenue a Century Ago
A century ago Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs was a heady combination of sights, sounds and smells in the summertime. Exotic souvenirs, local produce and colorful parades were a visual delight. The sound of clattering hoofbeats contrasted with the sputtering of early automobiles. The aroma of spices from all over the world blended with the…
Diversity Discussion
Diversity Discussion Island Diversity Council hosts a showing of Race: The Power of an Illusion, Part 3, followed by a discussion, at 6:30 p.m. at the West Tisbury School cafeteria. All are welcome to discuss this important topic and how it affects our Island community.
Vineyard Sports Teams Plunge Into Season
The Vineyarders and Whalers renewed their long rivalry on the soccer field this past week. The boys’ team traveled to the Grey Lady to turn back a hostile crowd and defeat a talented team, while the girls lost a tight yet ultimately frustrating game to the Whalers at home. After defeating the Whalers last week,…
Federated Church Group Aids Katrina Homeowner
The Federated Church of Edgartown is sending volunteers on a 10-day mission to New Orleans in November to continue the rebuilding work the church youth group began last December. With the passing of the second anniversary of Katrina, and with so much left incomplete, inadequate, or non-existent in this still-ravaged area, the volunteers feel called…
Aquinnah
JUNE MANNING 508-645-2574 (lthslnks@gis.net) The Aquinnah town hall kitchen committee would like your input on Monday, Sept. 24 at 4 p.m. The committee is in the process of reviewing plans and designs for the new kitchen. Your input is definitely needed with regards to appliances, design, kitchenware and so on.
Data May Show Rise in Suicide Attempts by Vineyard Teens
In the last year and a half, about 16 youths (people 19 years old or younger) were admitted to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital for attempted suicide, according to hospital data recently acquired by the Gazette. In the year-and-a-half prior to that, seven youths were admitted for attempted suicide. Of the 16 attempted suicides by youths in…
Free Lecture Explores Healing Through Prayer
Learn how people around the world are using prayer for healing. National speaker John Adams brings his experience to the Island Thursday, Sept. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Vineyard Haven. With illustrations from his personal experience, Mr. Adams will show how anyone can use thoughtful, intelligent prayer to improve their…
Hello, Kahlia
Hello, Kahlia Jessica and Dolglas Nascimento of Vineyard Haven announce the birth of a daughter, Kahlia Victoria Nascimento, born Sept. 9 at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital. Kahlia weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces at birth.
Students Honored
Students Honored Three Vineyard students were named to honor lists for the fall semester at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, N.H. They are Eric Soikkeli and Kayla Mastromonaco of Vineyard Haven, who were named to the dean’s list, and Paige McCarthy of Vineyard Haven, who was named to the dean’s honors list.
Gazette Chronicle: 75 Years Ago
75 Years Ago From the Vineyard Gazette editions of September, 1932: “Millions viewed the eclipse.” So said the mainland newspapers, and the Vineyard added its thousands to the common mass. Plans for obtaining the best view of this unusual display in the heavens were formulated days previous in many cases, several of the larger pleasure…
Chappy
MARGARET KNIGHT 508-627-8894 (margaret02539@yahoo.com) A little bit of Cape Pogue Pond was splashed onto Charlotte, Nat and Pam Benjamin’s new schooner, at its launching last Saturday in Vineyard Haven. Pam asked Sidney and me to bring over a bottle of the pond water because they had organized the christening ceremony to use water from various…
Letters to the Editor
DESIGNATION PITFALLS Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
Chilmark
JANE N. SLATER 508-645-3378 (slaterjn@comcast.net) Fall may officially arrive Sunday but travelers are still visiting Chilmark . . . this time the Monarch butterflies. Have you noticed that they are increasing in number as they gather for their annual trip south? Congratulations to Bob and Carol Merry who greeted a new grandson, Charles Tomas Koenig,…
Shareholders, Corporators Approve Bank Merger
Shareholders, Corporators Approve Bank Merger Shareholders of The Martha’s Vineyard Co-operative Bank and corporators of Dukes County Savings Bank have approved plans for the two institutions to merge, bank officials announced.
Maria Arrives
Maria Arrives Ariana and Hugo Leoncio of Oak Bluffs announce the birth of a daughter, Maria Eduardo Ferreira Leoncio, born on Sept. 9 at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital. Maria weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces at birth.
East Chop
RICK HERRICK 508-693-8065 herricklr@verizon.net He loved a great party, said his old friend Stuart Richter. That’s exactly what wife Joan, and daughters Betsy, Lynnie and Allie provided in honor of Pete Perrine on Saturday night. Pete died of pancreatic cancer this past spring.
Wind Power Will Trump Oil-Fired Plants
Abundant wind power, with no fuel cost, is destined to replace the most expensive source of electrical generation — and that is from oil-fueled power plants. Allow me to explain. In New England, unlike the rest of the country, oil-generated electricity plays a large but diminishing role. Almost a quarter of the installed capacity of…
The Anesthesiologist is Out . . . Reeling In and Painting Fish
When anesthesiologist Stephen London first arrived at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in the early 1990s as a summer fill-in, he was stunned by the technology. The machine, used by Dr. Malcolm Dunkley, the first anesthesiologist on the Vineyard, was all manual. There was nothing automatic on it. The outdated version would not be found in…
Danielle Ewart
Danielle Ewart Danielle Ewart of Edgartown graduated from Westfield State College this past spring with a bachelor of science degree in biology.
Chilmark Sees Shellfish Restoration as Success
As the Chilmark shellfish department wraps up its first summer, efforts at spearheading restoration projects have been successful. Selectman Warren Doty, chairman of the board and liaison to the department, reported a low mortality rate among planted scallops and a very high production rate. “It has been a very successful season,” he said. To date,…
Brustein’s Shakespearean Dreams Alight in The English Channel
The playwright steals — lines, plots, anything that works. The playwright uses historical events, fashioning his own take on the characters within those happenings. He finds whole scenes come to him in his dreams. He writes fluidly in iambic pentameter. He doesn’t mind getting bawdy. The playwright is? William Shakespeare, sure. But there is another…
Oak Bluffs
HOLLY NADLER 508-693-3880 (sunporch@vineyard.net) It’s been confirmed by study after study: Praecox dementia, which seems to be a fancy term for losing your mind a good twenty or thirty years before you’re scheduled for Social Security, can be brought on super-extra early by trying to earn virtually all your annual income in the two months…
Arts District Retrospective For Virginia Reilly Gosselin
The Dragonfly Gallery, in conjunction with the Periwinkle Studio (diagonally across the street), is featuring a retrospective show of Virginia Reilly Gosselin’s art work spanning more than 50 years. A graduate of Endicott College in 1956, she worked in the art department of newspapers and advertising agencies until she began freelancing for Stanley Home Products.…
Harpists Break Out of Parlor For Foot-Stompin’ Celtic Show
Masters of the Celtic harp Gráinne Hambly and William Jackson will play a concert — and offer a music therapy workshop centered on the small harp — next weekend at the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven. Both events are on Saturday, Sept. 29 — the concert is at 8 p.m. and…
Vineyard Haven
NANCY GARDELLA 508-693-3308 (vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com) I am writing from my Old Country. I returned Nonna last Thursday so she could prepare for her Italian classes which begin next week. Iole really enjoyed spending her summer on the Vineyard, visiting numerous art openings, and seeing all her Island friends. We brought her three granddogs with us as…
Oak Bluffs Dredges and Moves Sand, Earth in Coastal Projects
In Oak Bluffs this week, great mounds of earth were being shifted, walls to turn back the sea were being built and beaches were being fortified and expanded. And although there seemed to be something Biblical to it all, in reality all the moving of sand and building of walls was more routine then epic.…
Hey, Let’s Put on a Show: IMP After-School Classes
The popular IMP after-school classes are back, on stage at the Oak Bluffs and Edgartown schools. On Tuesdays, grades six through eight meet at the Oak Bluffs School 4:45 to 6:30 p.m. On Thursdays, grades two to five meet at Edgartown School from 3:30 to 5 p.m.
West Tisbury
JOHN S. ALLEY 508-693-2950 (alleys@vineyard.net) Last Saturday we received less than an inch of rain but it was welcome. It was the second such rainfall in less than a week. Sunday was magnificent but on the cool side. People were doing a lot of outside chores and home improvements.
A Dredge With Potential
A Dredge With Potential
New Mindfulness Sessions Begin in Vineyard Haven
The Insight Meditation Community of Martha’s Vineyard, which has been meeting in the Unitarian-Universalist Chapel for the past 27 years, is entering a new phase in its growth as it becomes a recognized teacher-led Sangha (a Sanskrit word roughly translated as community), thanks to Chas Di Capua, teacher in residence at the Insight Meditation Society…
Fuel Outlook Concerns SSA
Faced with a potential million-dollar increase in fuel costs, the Steamship Authority will rework its budget for next year, examining cost cuts, fare rises or a fuel surcharge. Doubt was cast on the estimates for fuel costs contained in a draft budget presented to the SSA board at its meeting on Tuesday by Robert S.…
Yacht Owner Loses Harbor Court Fight
A former summer visitor to Chilmark plans to appeal a recent Middlesex Superior Court decision which favors the Chilmark selectmen’s right to manage their harbor and essentially keep him from spending more than 14 days a summer at a slip. Paul DeJesus, an aggrieved owner of a 70-foot Hatteras yacht, told the Gazette yesterday he…
Soup’s On: COMSOG Welcomes Fall With Festival
COMSOG, the Community Solar Greenhouse of Martha’s Vineyard, is continuing a 21-year tradition of celebrating the arrival of the fall season by welcoming Island residents and their families to its Fall Harvest Festival on Sunday, Sept. 30, from noon to 3 p.m. at the greenhouse off of New York avenue in Oak Bluffs.
Island Tribe Revives Casino Efforts
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has quietly developed a partnership with a successful Native American casino developer/operator, perhaps based in the northeastern United States, and is ready to re-enter the Massachusetts casino derby with a different approach. The tribe has been engaged in gaming-related proposals for 15 years without opening a casino, but…
Pat West Gaff Rig Race Competitors Battle Through Intense Squall Line
Weather was a big factor in creating memories in this past Saturday’s annual Pat West Gaff Rig Race. A squall line came through that will be talked about for years to come. Three schooners were the top winners in the race. The Island-built 65-foot schooner Juno, captained by Scott DiBiaso, won the race on both…
