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
March 18, 2011
News Update: Sunday, March 20 – Controlled Burn In Progress
The Nature Conservancy is conducting a controlled burn at the Katama airfield between 1 and 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 20.
News Update: Sunday, March 20 – Plane Crash Lands on State Beach
Two Vineyard residents were treated for minor injuries after their plane crash-landed between the bridges on Joseph Sylvia State Beach on Saturday night.
Jean Dupon, 67, and Susan King, 45, both of Edgartown, were treated and released from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, state police trooper David Parent confirmed.
The single-engine Piper aircraft…
Need for Self-Sufficiency Drives New Strategies at Housing Trust
The Island Housing Trust is dramatically increasing its fund-raising as part of its aim to become a self-sufficient organization, after a thorough reexamination of its organization over the past year was prompted by financial fallout at its longtime funding source, the Island Affordable Housing Fund.
Apple Appreciation
Apple Appreciation
Katie Brewer won an Apple i-Pad as part of the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank’s customer appreciation week, when customers and visitors were treated to refreshments and gifts from Feb. 22 to 25 in all eight branches of the financial group.
Each branch held a raffle drawing for a $50…
Town Granted Three Spots at School Table
On Monday the Up-Island School District agreed to grant West Tisbury more representation during the completion of more than $1.5 million worth of repairs to the West Tisbury School in the coming months.
While selectmen had hoped to assemble a formal building committee to oversee the repairs, on Monday they were content to…
Grants Awarded
Grants Awarded
Social Media Talk
Social Media Talk
Mounting a social media strategy can be a tongue tying experience. It’s an essential component to business strategy today and yet the world is still so new the path is foggy at best. This Tuesday, March 22 from the 6 to 8 p.m. the lighthouse blinks through the mist.
Tisbury Wetlands Violation Spills Over Into Neighbors’ Property
The scope of one homeowner’s unpermitted dredging and filling work on Mink Meadows Pond became apparent on Tuesday night when conservation commission members heard from a land surveyor and the contractor who carried out the work.
Oliver Carson Wins Bee
Oliver Carson Wins Bee
For the second year in a row, Oliver Carson, now a seventh grader, won the Oak Bluffs School Geography Bee sponsored by National Geographic. Oliver edged out sixth grader Ellie Hanjian in the final round by knowing that the tallest mountain in Africa is Mt. Kilimanjaro. Oliver has taken…
Fire Extinguished as Compromise Reached in Fire Chief Negotiations
Chilmark fire chief David Norton took a little heat of a different kind on Tuesday night, as he pushed his case with selectmen for a pay raise of more than 50 per cent.
Mr. Norton’s current stipend is $21,000. He wanted it upped to $33,000. And that figure, he suggested, was giving the…
Rotary Club Offers Short-Term Student Exchange
Vineyard residents between the ages of 15 and 19, in the upper one third of their academic class, who want to be a world traveler, should take note of the Rotary Club of Martha’s Vineyard offer of a short-term exchange in 2011. With the short-term exchange the Island student will go overseas for about three…
Rod and Gun Club Celebrates Centennial
This is the big centennial year for the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club. While the club members haven’t yet figured out how to celebrate, they’ve taken one first step to capitalize on the milestone: They’ve come out with 100 special, limited edition, numbered hats.
Teepa Snow to Present Series on Alzheimer’s, Dementia
Anyone affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia will be interested in a Monday video series featuring the highly regarded expert and presenter Teepa Snow. Ms. Snow is known for being funny in a very respectful way in order to humanize this debilitating disease. Friends, family members and caregivers of any age can learn from these videos…
Women’s Network Grant Open to Island Businesses
The Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network will offer a $2,500 grant to a Vineyard-based business person who wishes to improve their business skills, grow or improve an existing business, or start a new one.
The grant, offered for the second year by the four-year-old network, is open to all Vineyard business people, men and…
Listeners Go Inside NPR at Offshore Ale
You’re late for work, the caffeine hasn’t quite kicked in yet, and your morning dose of NPR is gently waking your brain up on the car radio. Or perhaps it’s the end of the day and you were too busy to read the papers, so you tune in for the radio news on the hour.…
View of Vineyard Avenue Immigrants
Kerry Alley of Oak Bluffs sees a parallel between some of the hardships being experienced by Brazilians on the Vineyard these days, and those of a century ago when the Portuguese arrived on the Vineyard. “There were a lot of them,” Mr. Alley said of the earlier immigrants. “They did all the work nobody…
South by Northeast: A Yankee Goes to the SXSW Festival
Last week I spoke at the renowned South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. SXSW, as it is usually written, began as a music, and then film, festival and is one of the most “happening” events on the planet. Recently, a third component joined film and music: “Interactives.” This means cyber-stuff and all that 21st-century…
Island Housing Trusts Takes its Measure
The year 2010 was one of significant chal lenges and accomplishments for the Island Housing Trust. The accomplishments include the successful completion of 12 green affordable homes, and the reassessment and development of governance practices and a strategic business plan. The challenges include clarifying the trust’s value to the community and its role in relation…
Honor Guard Bids Farewell to Comrade
Sheriff Christopher S. (Huck) Look would have been pleased by the fellowship that arose at Tuesday’s service at the Edgartown Whaling Church. All his grandchildren, his family, many of his friends and a lot of his colleagues in the profession from across the state were there. Police chiefs and officers from every Island town, and…
The Sound of Spring
Beldan Radcliffe alerted the Gazette last Friday that she heard pinkletinks at Pilot Hill Farm on March 10, followed by Karen Huff, who heard peepers, her “favorite sound,” around Farm Pond on March 11. Welcome, harbingers of spring!
Sheriff Look Dedicated Life to Service
To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides; Sheriff Christopher Look both absorbed the sun’s warmth and shared it generously. On Feb. 22, in Hollywood, Fla., the sun set for Christopher Stetson Look Jr. when he died peacefully with his beloved wife Marjorie at his side.
Putting the Brakes on Human Trafficking
S lavery is an ugly part of our past that we would gladly forget. But what if you were to discover that slavery is not a thing of the past? What if you were to discover that slavery exists today in every part of the world, including our own country? I was stunned a few years…
Limbo Living
Limbo Living
Lent, for those who observe, is traditionally a period of waiting. But one does not need to be a churchgoer to feel a sense of being caught in a holding pattern at this time of year.
Thinking Forward
Thinking Forward
On Sunday the Vineyard Conservation Society held the last of its winter walk series at Pilot Hill Farm on Lambert’s Cove. The theme of the walks this year was education around the local impacts of global climate change. For the past few months those attending the walks have trod on ground…
Downtown Dance Man is Hatching Plans Up-Island
David White, by his own admission, was a terrible dancer. Just as well.
Top Scientist Explains What to Expect When Expecting 50,000 Winter Flounder
Plans are under way to raise 50,000 juvenile winter flounder in Vineyard waters next year. The work on the two-year $308,000 National Sea Grant project has already begun but the biggest hurdle won’t happen for another year.
Frog Fungus Nothing to Croak About
The pinkletinks have reported their survival of another winter. The feat’s miraculousness does not wane with repetition, converting, as they must, their blood into antifreeze each winter through ramped-up glucose production, reaching something like a state of suspended animation. With each peep they hear, Islanders are reminded that they too have survived another winter, if…
Islander in Japan Recounts Quake
Editor’s note: Alex Baynes, a class of 2000 graduate of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, recently arrived in Yokosuka, Japan, near Tokyo, where he is serving as a Naval officer. The Gazette asked Mr. Baynes for an account of his experiences of last Friday’s devastating earthquake, and the impact of the tsunami and the…
Community Preservation Money is Under Pressure
Since it was signed 10 years ago, the state’s Community Preservation Act has seen more than $12 million spent on housing, historical preservation and conservation on Martha’s Vineyard. But now there is growing pressure for Vineyard towns to reconsider their commitment to the CPA.
On Tuesday this week, Tisbury selectmen voted to attach…
Town Devises Strategy to Buy Field Gallery
West Tisbury is one step closer to owning and preserving the Field Gallery and sculpture garden this week, after the community preservation committee agreed to fund a large part of its acquisition.
Trouble in Lagoon Pond Adds Urgency to Recovery Efforts
Lagoon Pond is in trouble. Island residents heard a familiar story on Wednesday from representatives of the Massachusetts Estuaries Project about another degraded coastal pond on the Island, but town officials say that they are determined to find a solution.
Temperatures
Temperature: Precip.
Day Max. Min. Inches.
Fº Fº
March 11 48 42 .06
March 12 51 36 .46
March 13 48 37 .00
March 14 53 38 .00
March 15 42 26 .01
March 16 45 33 .00
March 17 48 37 .43
…
Chappy
MARGARET KNIGHT
508-627-8894
(margaret02539@yahoo.com)
The port-a-potty at the Point was dragged out from behind the sand piles and set upright again, then the machines and men started arriving, and the lines of plastic pipe reappeared next to the main road and in the ferry line pullout area. Bay State…
Please Adopt Us
Please Adopt Us
The Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard has a few animals who need good homes.
West Tisbury
JOHN S. ALLEY
508-693-2950
(alleys@vineyard.net)
A Justice of the Peace named John
Author of this here column
He is Master of the Grange
And is comfortable roaming the range
He sorts the mail and has a lot of fun
…
Aquinnah
JUNE D. MANNING
508-645-2574
(lthslnks@gis.net)
Thank you to Kerry Alley for his wonderful presentation at the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living cultural luncheon on March 12. Kerry gave a very impressive overview of the Portuguese community on Martha’s Vineyard — why they came here, how they survived, their language…
Edgartown
Kathie Case
508-627-5349
(kathleencase@comcast.net)
Mother Nature showed us who was boss on Monday as she sent snow showers our way. I don’t think there was one person who did not say, “Snow, are you kidding me?” Now the temperatures are going to be in the 60’s this weekend. Can’t…
Chilmark
JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
(slaterjn@comcast.net)
Chilmark joins the rest of the world in grieving for the many lost and injured in the terrible events in Japan this week. It is hard to truly comprehend the damage. It seems far away and yet, with the amazing pictures, it seems to…
Oak Bluffs
HOLLY NADLER
508-274-2329
(hollynadler@gmail.com)
Ever longed for free therapy, especially in the middle of the night? You can always leg it into town and stop before the closed-but-not-shuttered windows of Sanctuary on Circuit avenue, owned by Frank and Rita Imbimbo. As most of you already know, the window is…
Dean’s List
Dean’s List
Rachel Reagan of Oak Bluffs has been named to the dean’s list at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
President’s List
President’s List
Peter Persson, of Edgartown, a freshman and business major, was named to the President’s List at Bentley University for the fall 2010 semester. He is the son of Donald Persson of Edgartown and Margit Hautala of Quincey.
Guiliana Arrives
Guiliana Arrives
Anastasia and Jonas Cavallo of Edgartown announce the birth of a daughter, Guiliana Lee Cavallo, born on Feb. 24, 2011, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Guiliana weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces at birth.
Full Moon
Tomorrow night’s full moon has the name Mud Moon. The Old Farmer’s Almanac calls it the Worm Moon, but on the Vineyard, we don’t see worms for weeks to come. We’ve got mud.
Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking
Six Vineyard faith communities are supporting an effort to stop human slavery in our lifetime with a special focus on the issue beginning tonight, March 18, when Pastor Jeff Winter of Faith Community Church will be a special guest at the 5:30 p.m. Shabbat service led by Caryn Broitman at the…
Ms. Segal Graduates
Ms. Segal Graduates
Lesley Segal graduated from A.T. Still University’s Arizona School of Health Sciences in Mesa, Ariz., on March 5. Dr. Segal received her audiology (AuD) degree.
Dr. Segal, of Vineyard Haven, attended SUNY Geneseo before enrolling at ASHS.
Young Musicians Jamming on the Mainland
It was a road trip for 33 young musicians and their grown-up entourage, led by maestro Nancy Jephcote, as they joined the All-Cape & Island String Jamboree on Monday at Barnstable Intermediate School, an intensive orchestra event.
Special for the Girls
Special for the Girls
The Alexandra M. Gagnon Do It For Yourself day for seventh grade girls is Sunday, March 27 from 1 to 3 p.m. at The Vineyard Tennis Center, Workout and Spa.
This is a free event aimed at helping girls find relaxing and healthy ways to be happy.…
Slow Medicine
Slow Medicine
Slow Medicine is a movement that encourages less aggressive — and less costly — care at the end of life. This movement has come in direct response from the many elderly patients who find themselves faced with the health care system’s offer of a myriad of tests and procedures that may…
Young Poet Awards
Young Poet Awards
The 2011 Promising Young Poets contest has named four winners and two runners-up in its second annual contest for high school poets.
This years winners are Jess Dupon from the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School, and Jordan Wallace, Claudia Taylor and Lizzie Kelleher from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional…
Free from the Heart
Free from the Heart
Nancy Slonim Aronie teaches a writing workshop called Straight from the Heart designed to help students find their own voice and write without worry. Beginning next week she will take a page from her own playbook by offering straight from her heart a free writing workshop.
Would You Like a History of Herreshoffs With That?
The last of this winter’s Sail Martha’s Vineyard dinner/lecture series at the Black Dog Tavern will take place Wednesday, March 23 at 6 p.m. The evening will feature Dyer Jones, chief executive officer of the Herreshoff Museum/America’s Cup Hall of Fame.
Mr. Jones is also a former commodore of the New York Yacht…
Helping Island Kids Find Their Ferns and Feathers
Felix Neck is offering Fern and Feather Natural History Day Camp scholarships and discounts to year-round Vineyard residents again this year. Its camp offers children an opportunity to experience the outdoors on a 350-acre wildlife sanctuary while exploring forest, field, salt marsh, fresh water and saltwater communities. Each weekly theme incorporates outdoor investigation, games, hands-on…
Bye Bye Birdie
Bye Bye Birdie
Although most of the Island is concerned with saying hello to the birdies as spring begins to unfold, the Tisbury School seventh and eighth graders are riding against the grain by saying goodbye to the birdies.
Well, actually no real birds are involved at all. Nor pinkletinks, crocuses…
Boys 2 Da Core
Boys 2 Da Core
Turn off the electronics and get moving. That’s the message, or gift, rather, the Vineyard Tennis Center, Workout and Spa is offering to high school boys.
On March 20 from 1 to 3 p.m. the center is hosting a free workout with Kye 2 Da Core. The…
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
The third in a series of new Shabbat services led by Rabbi Caryn Broitman and designed to meet the needs of those raised in a Classical Reform Jewish tradition is being held Friday, March 25 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Hebrew Center at 130 Centre street in Vineyard Haven.…
Love, Set, Match for Cambodia
Love, Set, Match for Cambodia
In 2004, while traveling through Cambodia, Todd Alexander and his wife, Kara Gelinas, were taken with a charming 14 year-old girl selling postcards to tourists. The girl did not attend school, although she wished she could. Her family couldn’t afford it.
What began as a chance…
The Art of Oral History, Revealed by Linsey Lee
Vineyard Voices is a book of oral histories compiled by Linsey Lee. Each story is, at first glance, a snapshot of a person’s life, just a page long. However, the effect one takes away from reading each entry is so much fuller, as if an entire life has been captured and immortalized.
…
How Wampanoag Woman Found The Right Words: We Still Live Here
For more than a century on Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod, the words of the Wampanoag were not their own.
“It was prophesied that language would go away from here for a time,” Jessie Little Doe Baird intones at the opening of filmmaker Anne Makepeace’s documentary We Still Live Here. “When the appointed…
When a Town Went Against the Wind
You could summarize the plot of Laura Israel’s movie Windfall to make it sound like a David-beats-Goliath, feel-good enviroflick.
A nasty power company intent on a big, new development has the leaders of a picturesque small town in its thrall. Local activists organize the good citizens and pull off an electoral coup, voting…
Fudging It
Fudging It
Murdick’s Fudge is again sponsoring the Run the Chop Challenge, a five-mile road race benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Martha’s Vineyard. The race is on July 4, starting at the Tisbury School on Spring street in Vineyard Haven at 8:30 a.m.
Intimate Insight Into Islanders’ Boat-Building Launches Festival
The story of the building of the schooner Charlotte is a true Vineyard tale. Tonight at 7 p.m. the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival will open the weekend’s festivities with a documentary about the building of this wooden boat.
The film is called Charlotte. But the title feels too narrow for it is far…
Makos Swim Club Posts Solid Results in Six Team Tournament
With three first place champions — Patrick Best, Tucker Cosgrove and Zach Lamie — and a host of other impressive placings, the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard Makos Swim Club made its mark with five other teams in the SEMSL Championship swim meet last weekend, competing against Marshfield, Nantucket, Sandwich, Eastham and Plymouth.
Sounds of Spring
March 14 was the magical day when several signs of spring flew in, even though they were accompanied by a tad of snow in the afternoon. Fortunately, the snow did not stick around, but the signs of spring will.
Spring Chickens
I accept most of the responsibility for the typographical errors in this column. My editors are willing to pick up my hand written ramblings at my house weekly
Bacteria!
The science of bacteria provides one instance of how quickly our knowledge can change. Our understanding about the importance of bacteria has changed dramatically since 1975. A standard college-level biology textbook written in 1975 says that there are about 3,000 species of bacteria, and presents material about bacteria on 25 of its 1,000 pages.
