Dylan Thomas
The birds of the winged trees flying my name Above the farms and the white horses I rose in rainy autumn And walked abroad in a shower of all my days. – Dylan Thomas
December 26, 2008
Jack Arrives
Sarah and Christopher Lynch of Edgartown announce the birth of a son, Jon (Jack) David Lynch, born on Dec. 19, 2008, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Jack weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces at birth.
Commission Adopts Green Energy Policy for All New Building and Development
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission early this month unanimously approved a new policy aimed at regulating and reducing the amount of nonrenewable energy used in certain new construction projects. The new policy only affects larger construction projects that qualify for review as developments of regional impact (DRIs).
The Vineyard Gardener
By LYNNE IRONS
About 30 years ago I spent my first Christmas morning alone. My children had a spend-over visit with their father. I was lounging in bed, feeling a bit sorry for myself, when I heard a ruckus in my kitchen and a loud, “Hey!” It was Craig Kingsbury with my donkey,…
Vineyard Count
I hope you all had a merry Christmas and that you are now thinking about spending some time outside scouting different Vineyard habitats for birds. This is important because Jan. 3 is the day set we aside for the Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count.
Island Musicians Invited To Play Mainland Festivals
Three Falmouth Academy students from Martha’s Vineyard have earned places in competitive, high school music festivals — the Senior Southeast District Music Festival, which will be January 9-10 at Brockton High School, and the Cape and Islands Music Festival to be held February at Barnstable High School.
From Little Acorns
This year, the oak trees were nature’s underachievers.
Naturalists, landscapers and backyard rakers noticed a lack of acorns this fall. No apocalypse, unless you are a squirrel, but of interest nevertheless.
New Teachers and Features at Featherstone
When Featherstone Center for the Arts launched its annual autumn appeal, the focus was on family members of multiple generations who participate in the arts at Featherstone.
Newly nominated board member Andrea Quigley’s granddaughter Ashley Biggs has enjoyed the Magic Garden summer camp for two years. Ms. Quigley herself has participated regularly at…
Good Luck Juliet Benoit
Good Luck Juliet Benoit
West Tisbury native Juliet Lynn Benoit is in Orlando Florida this week to compete in the world-famous Millie Lewis Actors, Models and Talent Competition, which runs from Dec. 30 to Jan. 4. Ms. Benoit was one of only 24 performers selected to participate in the competition out of an…
Art Club Seeks to Identify Subject of Painting
This was painted in 1884 by John Noble Barlow, who was one of the earliest members of the Providence Art Club. Now Chris Ratcliffe is researching the painting, which has been in his family for some years, and would like Islanders’ help in identifying the scene.
Chris Ratcliffe writes:
The Louisa Gould Gallery to Host Post Holiday Party
The Louisa Gould Photography and Gallery annual holiday party is on Saturday, Dec. 27 from 4 to 6 p.m. A new exhibit, The Portrait Paintings of John Holladay and Louisa Gould, will be on view. Other artists showing new works at this time are: Anne McGhee, Meg Mercier, Rachael Paxton, Ovid Osborn Ward, Marjorie Mason,…
Chapter 32: ’Twas the Night Before Moby
In this yearlong serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after two decades to help her eccentric Uncle Abe keep his landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Abe has a paranoid hatred of Richard Moby, the chief executive officer of an off-Island wholesale nursery, Broadway. Convinced that…
News Flash: Astronomer Traces Christmas to June, Not December
It was too late to postpone Christmas this year when an Australian astronomer announced that his calculations prove a bright star appeared over Bethlehem about 2,000 years ago — on June 17, not Dec. 25.
Scholarships Awarded
Scholarships Awarded
Ryan Antolick and Ana Sargent from the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School have received the John and Abigail Adams achievement scholarship. Students who are granted this scholarship have scored in the advanced category in either mathematics or English language arts section of the grade 10 MCAS test and in the proficient…
Miriam Carroll to Marry Mattias Fenton in Spring
J. Kevin Carroll and Linda L. Caroll of Fairfax Station, Va., and Oak Bluffs, formerly of Walpole, announce the engagement of his daughter, Miriam Adams Carroll, to Mattias R. Fenton, son of Heidi B. Fenton of Pittsburgh, Pa., formerly of Hanover, Germany.
Chilmark
JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
(slaterjn@comcast.net)
Hopefully, as you read this, you will have had your fill of holiday feasting and company and conversation and be ready for a distraction. So, since this is traditionally a slow news week, I will resort to writing about non-news experiences.
Like…
Aquinnah
JUNE MANNING
508-645-2574
(lthslnks@gis.net)
Barry and Grace Reeves graciously opened their Totem Pole Inn on Christmas Eve to host an evening of fellowship following the Candlelight Service at Community Baptist Church. Delicious delicacies and hot beverages were served as people gathered and participated in singing Christmas carols. Thank you…
Vineyard Haven
NANCY GARDELLA
508-693-3308
(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)
I admit I’m powerless against technology. Special thanks to Jill LaPiana at Cumberland Farms who was so patient in helping me set up the temporary cell phone I had to purchase there. My regular one, which I’m still learning to use, is not operative. Jill…
Chappy
MARGARET KNIGHT
508-627-8894
(margaret02539@yahoo.com)
Chappaquiddick took on the look of winter this past weekend when snow and stormy weather continued on for several days. Unlike the rest of the Island, Chappy barely got enough snow to cover the ground — maybe an inch — and the wind kept it…
Temperatures
Temperature: Precip.
Day Max. Min. Inches.
Fº Fº
Dec. 19 41 27 .00
Dec. 20 37 31 1.08*
Dec. 21 36 31 Trace
Dec. 22 47 19 .62*
Dec. 23 24 18 .00
Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 38º F.
West Tisbury
JOHN S. ALLEY
508-693-2950
(alleys@vineyard.net)
We may not have had any snow on Christmas Day, but the weekend before we sure did. The automobile traffic in town was nearly non-existent most of the day as families gathered around their tree to exchange gifts and enjoy a family dinner. Relatives…
Sophomores Speak Out
This year has been all about change. Change is happening in the United States, from the price of gas to the election of Barack Obama. Change is affecting Americans in both positive and negative ways. Even though our New Year’s resolutions last year included change in America, we all can’t help but worry about how…
Shellfish: Our Neighbors, Our Dinner
Shellfish and the human species have a long affiliation. For the most part, it has been an unequal relationship with the shellfish providing sustenance, health benefits and ecological services and in return receiving human abuse through over-consumption, over-harvesting and destruction of their habitats. On the positive side, we humans have exalted shellfish in our art…
Headline Makers
Headline Makers
Good news is in awfully short supply these days, as a scan of any daily newspaper confirms. People are starting to wonder — is there anything left but bad news?
To that end we perused the Gazette over the last year looking for good news, and happily found plenty…
Awards Ceremony Honors Kimberly Watts Peaslee
Kimberly Watts Peaslee, PhD, has been awarded the $10,000 Donald W. Banner Corporate Intern Scholarship. The Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation awarded only two students in the country with this prestigious recognition. The presentation was made on Dec. 3, 2008, at a luncheon in Washington, D.C.
She is the daughter of Mr. and…
Last Nights of 2008
The nights ahead this weekend are moonless. New Moon is tomorrow. The moon appears only briefly on Sunday night, when it is right under the bright planet Jupiter and Mercury. All three are close to the horizon and tough to see.
Piece by Piece, Firefighters’ Museum Arises
The plywood is up, the roof is ready for shingling. The new Oak Bluffs fire station which will house the old 1929 Maxim fire truck, Engine No. 2, is far from finished, though, and work continues in haste. It won’t just be a garage, it will be a firefighters’ museum.
Oak Bluffs School Announces Honor Roll
The following students have made the honor roll at the Oak Bluffs School for the first trimester:
Sixth grade honors go to: Diamond Araujo; Mia Arenburg; Emily deBettencourt; Mariah Duarte; Nyssa Duarte; Ivy Fournier; Ryan Gonsalves; Yannick Gonsalves; Chad Guyther; Cal Howard; Emily Kleinhenz; Noah Keinhenz; Madeleine Moore; Kelsey Moreis; Austin Morley; Grace…
Vineyard Doctor Helps Zambian Mothers
Some physicians, at a mid-point in their lives, might find an altruistic impulse, or if they’ve had the impulse all along, the need to express it more fully. So it is with Oak Bluffs obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Jason Lew, with his wife, Injy, and their three daughters, Olivia, 23, a Middlebury College graduate (who…
2009 Last Night, First Day Celebration Expected to Be Largest in Twelve Years
It is said that the concept of celebrating the New Year has existed for as long as earthly agriculture, as farmers were the first to notice and record the cyclical nature inherent in the procession of seasons.
About 4,000 years ago, the people of ancient Babylon welcomed the new year in what is…
So the Ponies Can Go Round and Round
There is no store where you can order parts for the Flying Horses, the oldest operating carousel in the United States. So in Mike (Panhead) Fuss’s motorcycle workshop in Vineyard Haven, a space almost hidden from view at the end of a dead-end lane, where parked motorcycles announce his business better than the Offshore Cycle…
You Don’t Have a Cell Phone? Good Luck Finding a Pay Phone
The disappearance of pay phones around the Island has raised public safety concerns in Tisbury and Edgartown.
In Tisbury, town officials pay a monthly fee to keep a pay phone working at the somewhat remote Park and Ride parking lot near the town water tower.
When the pay phone was removed…
Commission Calls for Full Review of Revised Bradley Square Plan
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission agreed last week that a full review of the revised plan for Bradley Square is in order and set a public hearing for early next month.
At its regular meeting Thursday night the full commission disagreed with the recommendation of its land use planning committee, which on Monday voted…
Airport Runway Project Slated to Begin in 2009; No Expansion
Work is set to begin sometime after the New Year on a major overhaul of the runway configuration at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport. The project calls for 300 feet of runway on the airport’s main airstrip to be dug up and removed and then rebuilt on the eastern side of the runway in Edgartown.
…
One Family Shuns Bulldozer to Give Another a Home
Resting unfinished on 18th street in Edgartown is a two-story, two-bedroom wonder. The wonder is not revealed so much in the sturdy shingled Colonial construction itself — though its new owners will tell you proudly they “just love this house so much” — but in the story of how it came to be here at…
Happy New Year
The Gazette office closes at noon today and reopens Monday. The office will close at noon on Dec. 31 and reopen on Friday, Jan. 2, when the paper will publish as usual. Happy New Year to all our readers!
