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
November 20, 2009
H1N1 Vaccinations
H1N1 Vaccinations
H1N1 flu vaccinations are available for anyone in the following high risk groups:
Pregnant women,
People who live with or care for children younger than six months of age,
Children six months through four years of age,
Children five years through 18 years…
Single Bid at Foreclosure Auction Wins Colonial Inn
After just a single bid at a foreclosure auction yesterday inside the Colonial Inn in Edgartown, Jack McConnell and Tom McConnell won ownership of the hotel, condominium and retail complex overlooking the harbor on North Water street. Their bid was $2,050,000; there were no other bids.
The McConnells were part of a larger…
Edgartown Approves Transfer of Community Preservation Funds
Fallout from the Island Affordable Housing Fund’s recent shortfall in payments for the Island’s rental assistance program emerged at the Edgartown selectmen’s meeting Monday. The board approved a request from the Edgartown Housing Trust to transfer up to $10,000 of Community Preservation Act (CPA) money to assist tenants and landlords in Edgartown who are part…
Lillian Hellman Fund
Lillian Hellman Fund
The Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard announces the establishment of the Lillian Hellman Recreational Fund. Through a bequest from the estate of Lillian Hellman, this fund supports recreational, leisure and education activities for school age children on Martha’s Vineyard both after school and in the summer months, with preference given…
Football Fans Lament Loss of Big Game
There was a noticeable feeling of loss around the Vineyard this week.
“I can’t believe we’re not playing Nantucket this weekend,” one man lamented Monday while waiting for a haircut at Bert’s barber shop in Vineyard Haven. “What is the world coming to?”
For the first time in nearly 50 years, Nantucket…
Community Services Posts Budget Deficit as Demand Waxes
Twin effects of the recession — less funding and more needy Islanders — led Martha’s Vineyard Community Services to post a deficit of nearly a quarter of a million dollars this year, according to the annual report enclosed in today’s Gazette.
The deficit is half that which Community Services accrued the previous year.…
Greenest Design in America Is Right Here
Much like President John F. Kennedy’s challenge 50 years ago to beat the Russians to the moon, the green energy movement has tapped into many Americans’ competitive streak.
This competitive spirit is embodied perfectly in the West Tisbury home of Alexander Boyle, which recently won a national award for the most innovative green…
Beer, Wine Plan Hiccup: How Many Is Too Many?
How many restaurants in Tisbury should be allowed to serve beer and wine?
Half the town’s populace, the last time they were counted, thought none should be allowed. Now the state is suggesting it might allow just five licenses. But the Tisbury selectmen are asking for 19.
And even that number…
Emergency Services Plan Goes To Ballot After Tisbury Meeting
Tisbury voters overwhelmingly endorsed a plan to spend some $7 million on a new emergency services facility at Tuesday’s special town meeting.
Concerns that townspeople might not be in a spending mood, given the tough economy, proved unfounded, and the article providing for the bulk of the money — $6.8 million — was…
Housing Fund Gifts Declined
Contributions fell sharply and cash evaporated while debt soared at the Island Affordable Housing Fund between the years 2007 and 2008, audited financial statements show.
And the public was led to believe that the fund was flush with money from fund-raising, when in fact the opposite was true, said T. Ewell Hopkins, executive…
Aquinnah Voters Adopt Rules on Wind Turbines
After nearly two years of rejections and revisions, Aquinnah voters agreed at a special town meeting on Tuesday night to adopt a bylaw to regulate private and public wind turbines. Crafted as an amendment to the townwide district of critical planning concern, the bylaw is the first of its kind to be adopted on the…
Thanks Taken
What if you wrote you are God’s elect, self-chosen
to bring order into a “new world,”
settled by natives seen as stray commas,
or apostrophes, in illiterate forests, a wilderness
hostile to your godly virtues of order and control,
a wilderness whose trees you fell…
Remembering a Protest From 40 Years Ago
On Nov. 15, 1969, a million peo ple, give or take a few hundred thousand, marched on Washington to protest the war in Vietnam. It was my first major demonstration. You never forget your first.
A House Razed, But Not Erased
Editor’s Note: The following piece by Polly Woollcott Murphy was published in the Gazette on Dec. 2, 1983. Mrs. Murphy, who began writing for the Gazette in 1940 at the age of 17, died on Nov. 15 at the age of 86.
Housing Fund Pledges Transparency
Living and raising a family on Martha’s Vineyard for the last 11 years has provided me with a broad knowledge of local charitable organizations, each striving to protect what is special about our Island community. Despite the daunting number of nonprofit organizations, there is an impressive level of respect and support shared among these groups.…
Share the Load, Mr. Moneybucks
T he rich are different from you and me,” Scott Fitzgerald once said to Ernest Hemingway. “Yes,” Ernest replied, “they have more money.”
Scott was preternaturally conditioned to see rich people through a veil of romance. Hemingway viewed them simply as members of the bourgeoisie (not artists, as he was) if of the haute…
Letters to the Editor
PAYING TOO MUCH
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
On Tuesday the town of Tisbury voted to give the Island Housing Trust, a private, nonprofit land development company, $160,000 to help pay expenses related to the Lambert’s Cove Road affordable housing project. This vote upsets my stomach.
How can affordable housing upset…
Stray Blooms
Stray Blooms
Bring Back The Game
Bring Back The Game
Ag Fair is Best in Show
Ag Fair Is Best in Show
The Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society won four awards including the Best of Show honor at the 2009 Massachusetts Agricultural Fairs’ Association Media Awards competition held this month in Marlborough.
The fair’s poster, by the Vineyard Gazette’s Morgan Lucero, was awarded best of show.
Four Candidates Seeking to Fill The Lion’s Throne in Senate Race
For 60 years the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy championed many liberal causes, from immigration reform to civil rights, but he regarded national health care reform as the cause of his life. After his death in August, many Democrats adopted the slogan “Win one for Teddy,” to revise their party’s flagging efforts for national health…
Tisbury Flu Vaccinations
Tisbury Flu Vaccinations
Tisbury School students will get H1N1 flu vaccinations today. A clinic took place at the Edgartown School yesterday.
Superintendent Dr. James Weiss has sent notices and forms to parents at all Island schools notifying them that stucent vaccination clinics have begun.
The deadline for return of…
Conflicts of Interest Arise for SSA
The knock-on effects of the financial crisis continue to manifest themselves in diverse and unforeseen ways. This week they paralyzed the board of governors of the Steamship Authority and forced them to the cost and bother of having to convene a special meeting.
To explain, you must start with one of the giant…
Oak Bluffs Selectmen Approve Changes for Dreamland Space
Oak Bluffs selectmen unanimously approved an application to alter the premises over Danny Quinn’s Pub, allowing Mark Wallace to move forward with plans to create a banquet hall facility that could accommodate large events such as weddings, dances and balls.
Selectmen agreed to sign off on an application that will be sent to…
St. Andrew’s Church Announces New Rector
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, at the corner of Winter and Summer streets in Edgartown, is happy to announce the calling of its new rector, the Rev. Vincent Gerald (Chip) Seadale. The parish is enthusiastic that Fr. Chip will first preach and celebrate the Eucharist on Sunday, Nov. 29, at 9 a.m., which is the beginning…
Charter School Review
Charter School Review
The Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education will conduct a Coordinated Program Review of the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School. As part of the review, department staff will visit the charter school during the week of Dec. 14. Such visits are routinely conducted by the department to satisfy federal and…
Friends, Old Foes Fete Linda Marinelli
The P.A. Club was packed with old friends and even a few old political foes on Friday night. Tricia Bergeron was there. So was Patricia A. Costa, who was Oak Bluffs town treasurer for 22 years, and Florence Ben David, who worked in the assessors’ office for the same number of years. Town counsel and…
A Door to the World Closes in Edgartown
The day after Thanksgiving, John Chirgwin, Island native and longtime owner of the Golden Door in Edgartown, will set off for his home in Bangkok. His trips abroad are too many to count, at this point — he’s been traveling the globe since his post-college years in the early 1960s. But this time, there will…
Please Adopt Us
Please Adopt Us
Please note: the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard will have reduced hours during Thanksgiving week. The shelter will close at noon the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. It will close again at noon on the Friday after Thanksgiving; Saturday hours will be from 8:30 a.m.…
Temperatures
Temperature: Precip.
Day Max. Min. Inches.
Fº Fº
Nov. 13 53 48 .00
Nov. 14 56 52 .14
Nov. 15 66 55 .20
Nov. 16 65 53 .02
Nov. 17 61 42 .00
Nov. 18 53 43 .00
Nov. 19 57 35 .00
…
Welcome Christopher
Welcome Christopher
Rubiana and Maxlei Barbosa of Edgartown announce the birth of a son, Christopher Amaro Barbosa, on Nov. 16 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Christopher weighed 8 pounds, 15 ounces at birth.
Hello Jayde
Hello Jayde
Samantha Miller and Gary Borandi of Oak Bluffs announce the birth of a daughter, Jayde Elizabeth Borandi, born on Nov. 12, 2009, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Jayde weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces at birth.
Chappy
Margaret Knight
508-627-8894
(margaret02539@yahoo.com)
I was on the other island last weekend, and got an excellent view of both Nantucket and the Vineyard from the air on the way home. As we came in over the Vineyard, the morning sun sparkled off all the ponds along the south shore.…
Vineyard Haven
NANCY GARDELLA
508-693-3308
(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)
Alert your friends in need that Red Stocking applications are still available at the banks and must be returned by Dec. 7. If you wish to send a donation or volunteer, call Lorraine Clark, 508-693-0725. Lorraine and Kerry Alley, along with their merry elves, work…
Chilmark
JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
(slaterjn@comcast.net)
It has been another week of warm weather with lots of sunshine in Chilmark. I’ll be happy to open with that sentence every week, but it is late fall and I will probably soon have to change my tune!
Word has reached…
Aquinnah
JUNE MANNING
508-645-2574
(lthslnks@gis.net)
The Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribal Youth Council will be sponsoring their spaghetti dinner this evening at the Tribal Building at 7 p.m. Tickets will still be available at the door.
Edgartown
KATHIE CASE
508-627-5349
(kathleencase@comcast.net)
I think if we didn’t know it was November, with the weather the way it is you would think it was spring. I have had people tell me hey have lilies with buds on them in their gardens, and if you look around town the…
Happy Thanksgiving
The Vineyard Gazette office will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. The newspaper will publish on Friday as usual and the office will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day. Correspondents are reminded that early deadlines apply this week.
Leonid Meteor Shower
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the Leonid meteor shower fell short of impressive. Some thought the shower was going to produce a hundred or more meteors in an hour of watching. This observer saw about three meteors in ten minutes.
Beatles Book Follows Fab Four From Liverpool to Abbey Road
It’s irresistible to start this review of Vineyard author Tom Dresser’s new book about the Beatles, It Was 40 Years Ago Today, by saying it’s a Magical Mystery Tour of the Fab Four who Please Pleased [Us] through a Hard Day’s Night lasting six years, spanning the spectrum of I Feel Fine, to wanting to…
A Fiery Competition: Firemen Win Wing Battle
At a booth with working firefighter lights on top, the Edgartown Firemen’s Association and their Fire House Special Wings won, over 11 other hot competitors, at Sharky’s restaurant’s inaugural Wingfest last weekend, where hundreds of patrons ate more than 5,000 chicken wings to raise more than $5,000 for the Martha’s Vineyard Boys’ and Girls’ Club.
Hello, Blue Eyes
Hello, Blue Eyes
The Vineyard Haven library has announced a Paul Newman Film Festival, with screenings on Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. from Nov. 24 to Dec. 29. The festival, sponsored by Newman’s Own Co., will feature Newman’s Own lemonade, popcorn and other special treats. For information on the festival schedule, call 508-696-4211.
Cronig’s Gets Greener
Cronig’s Gets Greener
While building a new deli section in their Vineyard Haven store, Cronig’s Market also has shifted to more biodegradable and compostable items made from corn and bulrush. The gocery store already shifted to different packaging for its meat products; now a new line from Vineyard Haven retailer Eco MV means…
Buílle Shamrocks the Katharine Cornell Theatre
Buílle Shamrocks the Katharine Cornell Theatre
Oak Bluffs Tree Lighting Announced for December 2
The annual Oak Bluffs tree lighting ceremony in Oak Bluffs will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 2 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Post Office Square. The community is invited to join in the caroling, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The Vineyard Classic Brass Ensemble will perform a medley of traditional holiday carols and board of…
Deaf Education Specialist, Fulbright Scholar Speaks
Dr. David S. Martin, deaf education specialist and Professor and Dean Emeritus at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, will speak at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 22 at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard in Vineyard Haven. His talk, titled One World: Unity Among Differences, will focus on his research and teaching of problem-solving…
Winter Farmers’ Market Fills Larders
You step out of the drearily grey yet balmy November day into the cavernous anteroom of the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury, and you’re confronted with that symbol of country comfort: the black cast-iron soup pot. There are two actually: curried butternut squash or kale, brought to us by Morning Glory Farm. This reporter placed…
Organic Turkeys
Organic Turkeys
The Farm Institute and Family Farms Organic have teamed up to bring you the most delicious turkey for your friends, family or your local food bank.
When you buy a 12 to 16-pound organic turkey from Family Farms Organic for $100, Family Farms will donate approximately 25 per cent…
The Vineyard Gardener
By LYNNE IRONS
Short-Eared Owls
The sighting of short-eared owls at both Wasque and Katama in the last two weeks is exciting. This owl used to breed on the Vineyard in the 1980s but verification of its breeding on Island has not been possible since 1986. One wonders why. Is it lack of food, climate change, habitat loss, predation or…
The Big Apple
They say that one a day keeps the doctor away.
This snazzy marketing message was meant to urge the public to eat apples for health, though the real message behind it was to promote an effort to eat apples, rather than drink them. This adage was coined during Prohibition in order to convert…
Fourth Graders Take Over Vineyard Playhouse
A trio of ten-year-olds crowded the ticket booth of the Vineyard Playhouse last week, earnestly peddling imaginary tickets to playhouse employee Geneva Monks. This was their dress rehearsal, preparation for last Saturday’s production of Cave Critters Unite, the play created by Bridget Mello’s class at the Edgartown School for their part in the playhouse’s Fourth…
