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
May 13, 2011
News Update: Thursday, May 19 – Island Historian Art Railton Dies at 95
Arthur R. Railton, 95, of Edgartown died Thursday, May 19, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. His funeral service is pending for next week.
News Update: Monday, May 16 – Small Quakes Recorded Off Nashawena
Two small earthquakes were reported on Sunday night near Nashawena in the Elizabeth islands chain, east of Cuttyhunk. One of the quakes was felt in Fall River.
The first earthquake, a magnitude of 2.1, took place at 8:39 p.m. The second occurred seven minutes later and was recorded at a magnitude of 1.3.
Letters to the Editor
CAPT. JOE CRESSY
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
Chappy and Martha’s Vineyard have lost one of their most extraordinary citizens. Joe Cressy’s intellect, integrity, kindness and zest for life were matched by few. One of Joe’s great loves and pleasure came from being on the Edgartown fire department. And so my dear friend,…
Waldorf Teachers
Waldorf Teachers
The Island Waldorf Community has announced the teaching team for the coming academic year at Plum Hill School, a developing Waldorf school for children ages two years, nine months to five years old. Rachael Curtin will become lead teacher, expanding her role. Longtime assistant teacher Marie Meyer-Barton will continue her role.…
Birthday Challenge
Birthday Challenge
Island Alpaca farm store is offering a $100 gift certificate as part of its second alpaca birthday challenge. Guess which alpaca will be the first to have her baby this year, guess the day (date and time of day — hint: most alpacas give birth in the morning or early afternoon)…
Designs on Saving
Designs on Saving
Aaron Teves, a student at Tisbury School, was the national first place winner in the T-shirt design contest held in April, sponsored by Save For America and schoolsavings.com. Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank was the local sponsor.
Students who participated in the School Savings program contest were required to…
Our Island Club Funds Go To VNA Nurse Education
The Vineyard Nursing Association has received a $2,800 grant from Our Island Club for its professional education program. Currently, funds from that program are helping Samantha Cron, LPN, become a registered nurse.
Island Resident Offers New Mattress Cleaning Service
Island resident Brie Barstow has opened a new business, Sleep Tight Mattress and Sanitizing Systems, offering mattress cleaning and sanitizing.
Her company offers free in-home allergen and mattress contamination tests that take only a few minutes to perform, as well as an all-natural, chemical free, dry treatment using UV-C (germicidal) light safe for…
Predicting Weather Still a Human Task
On Saturday afternoon while many Islanders were outside enjoying the warm air on a bright spring day, nine people sat inside the West Tisbury fire station and talked about storm clouds and how they could help national forecasters better predict the weather and possibly help save lives and property. It was a training session for…
Island Shoppers Support Charities with Club Funds
Our Island Club, the consumer savings program that also raises money for local organizations, has distributed its annual donations, more than $43,000.
Included in the distribution are scholarships to the Vineyard Nursing Association, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School vocational programs and the Permanent Endowment Fund. It also donated $1,500 to support the SafeRides…
Who’s Over the Hill?
Who’s Over the Hill?
Little League
Little League
Richie Bartlett of the Orioles hit a grand slam during Saturday’s game against the Reds, but the Orioles were nonetheless outslugged 11-9.
Ben Peters threw three scoreless innings for the Marlins in his pitching debut, helping his team to a 14-3 victory over the Rays. The Rays came back…
Vineyarders Shine on the Courts, Fields
Expect the fields at the regional high school to be busy this week, with 10 home games being played between now and next Thursday.
AmeriCorps Volunteers Digging the Island
It’s a cold and rainy spring day on the Island as AmeriCorps National Community Civilian Corps (NCCC) team Raven One breaks for lunch around a table at the Farm Institute in Katama. Dressed in cargo pants, black work boots and gray sweatshirts bearing the AmeriCorps logo, these nine young corps members have been on…
It’s a Whole New Ballgame with Island Sharks
It’s hard to imagine warm summer nights on these cold spring days, but they’re coming.
And in less than a month, the new collegiate baseball team, the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks, will take to the field at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.
To warm up the Vineyard crowd, the Sharks will…
Rare Decoy Sells for Record Amount
Just what does a duck see when peering down from the sky at a decoy floating on the water? Sometimes it sees, to its detriment, a friend to nestle down with. Other times it perceives the shoddy workmanship; the chipping paint, overlarge eyes or lilt of tail far removed from the likes of its brethren.…
Harvard Degree
Harvard Degree
Harvard University will award a special posthumous degree to Joel Iacoomes, a member of the Wampanoag tribe who died in 1665, shortly after having completed four years of study in Harvard College but just before he was to participate in commencement.
The recognition will be part of the university’s…
Gazette Open House
Gazette Open House
Chilmark Energy Star
Chilmark Energy Star
The first of the Middle Line Road affordable housing units, owned by Chip and Michele Leonardi and built by Squash Meadow Construction, Inc., has received certification as an Energy Star Version 2 qualified home. This means that after undergoing rigorous testing, the house meets or exceeds strict energy efficiency guidelines…
Senator Wolf Here Today
Senator Wolf Here Today
Cape and Islands Sen. Dan Wolf will hold office hours on the Vineyard today from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the meeting room at the Oak Bluffs police station. To schedule an appointment call 617-722-1570. At 3:30 p.m. Mr. Wolf will meet with the all-Island selectmen, also at the…
Students Jump for Japan, Thousands Go to Red Cross
Fourth graders at the Tisbury School and their teacher Pam Herman last week presented the American Red Cross with $4,730 to support the Japan Relief Efforts after the earthquake and tsunami disaster. The children organized an event called Jump for Japan, in which they jumped rope and asked friends and family to donate an amount…
New Chief Is Selected For Tri-Town Ambulance
The Tri-Town Ambulance committee will recommend Timothy Morrissey for chief of the ambulance service, committee chairman and Aquinnah police chief Randhi Belain said this week.
Mr. Morrissey is not licensed as a paramedic in Massachusetts and is in the process of scheduling a test date to become licensed. Mr. Belain said he will…
Great White Shark Feeds off Aquinnah
Three Vineyard fishermen had a real-life Jaws moment last Friday morning when they encountered a great white shark circling a dead minke whale that had become tangled in lobster line in the area known as Devil’s Bridge off Aquinnah.
Food Pantry Chalks Up Records: Most Served, Spent and Donated
The Island Food Pantry had a record year. More people relied on the food pantry to augment or support their food needs this past winter than in any previous year. The organization goes back to 1981. Armen Hanjian, coordinator for the nonprofit organization committed to help those in need, said they had a record of…
Health Insurance Cost Overrun Prompts Oak Bluffs Special Vote
Oak Bluffs voters are not out of the woods yet when it comes to confronting deficits in their cash-strapped town.
A $180,000 cost overrun on the town health insurance plan will require a special town meeting to transfer money to pay the bill, town administrator Michael Dutton told selectmen at their meeting this…
Both Darkness and Light Visible In Alexandra Styron’s Memoir
READING MY FATHER : A Memoir. By Alexandra Styron. Scribner, New York, N.Y. April 2011. 285 pages, photographs. $25 hardcover.
Could Tolstoy have been wrong? Not about all unhappy families being unhappy in different ways — we’re basically in agreement about that — but where are the happy families to which he alluded?…
The Hard Facts About Sea Level Rise
Climate change is complicated; sea level rise is not. We live on an Island — a glorified sandbar — and the sea is closing in on us. It is rising much faster than anticipated. In the last century sea level rose by about a foot. In this century, due to human-induced global warming, it is…
Change Is Hard but War Is Harder
Beyond War
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
A question was recently sent to the Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council: “Are there going to be any more protests at Five Corners like there were when Bush was in office?” The writer had previously expressed his criticisms more directly, so I had an idea what he…
Alzheimer’s Caregivers Need Nurturing Too
Susan Desmarais recently retired as a Vineyard outreach worker. As a social worker, she is cognizant of privacy issues regarding confidentiality of her clients. What follows are her views on Alzheimer’s disease.
A Night to Remember
A Night to Remember
Word Play
Word Play
Fis-SIP-par-ous — adj. Tending to break up into parts, divisive.
It’s often depressing to read about the world outside our own lovely Island, but we do it anyway and occasionally we learn a new word or gain a new insight about some aspect of our own situation. Venerable foreign…
Town Tries to Free Mr. Tharpe From Tax Tangle of Its Making
If anyone opposed the principle of giving Geoffrey Craig (Spa) Tharpe $4,954.90 from the Aquinnah town coffers, they didn’t show up at town meeting on Tuesday night.
Instead, discussion focused on whether the town could find a creative but legal way to reimburse the popular Aquinnah resident for overpayment of his property taxes…
Aquinnah Cliffs Lease Costs Headed Higher
Rents will go up for leaseholders at the Cliffs in Aquinnah this summer.
At their meeting Tuesday, Aquinnah selectmen approved a four per cent rent hike for the cliff lease lots. This marks the first time in four years that the rents have been raised.
Elio Silva Looks Homeward for Seeds of Success
Entrepreneurship is in Elio Silva’s genes. Growing up in the landlocked, coffee-rich state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, he worked beside his father as he grew a small grocery into a major supermarket. In his 22 years on the Vineyard Mr. Silva has imported the lessons and work ethic ingrained in him during that time to…
Big Rare Right Whales Return To Feed on Smallest Sea Snacks
This spring endangered Northern Atlantic right whales have been seen and photographed swimming in Vineyard waters. Marine scientists who monitor right whales, considered the rarest among marine mammals, reported seeing 57 whales off Noman’s Land and nearly a dozen south of the Vineyard two weeks ago. More than 200 whales, about half the known population,…
Aquinnah Opts for Change in Beverly Wright
Aquinnah voters opted for a changing of the guard at the annual town election this year, electing former Wampanoag tribal council chairman Beverly Wright as their new selectman.
Ms. Wright defeated two-term selectman Camille Rose 124-95 in the Wednesday election.
A total of 225 voters turned out at the polls, 56…
Island Powers Up With Rapid Solar Revolution
On first glimpse, through the trees along Northern Pines Road in Vineyard Haven, the new building might be taken for an incongruously placed sports grandstand.
It’s a huge inclined rectangle, propped on poles, eight feet off the ground at the front, 28 feet at the back, looking out across a pretty green field.
Attorney General Investigates Oak Bluffs Bid Law Violations
The Massachusetts Attorney General is investigating the town of Oak Bluffs for possible violations to state bidding laws in connection with roof work done at the former town library, electrical work at the town harbor, and a project connecting the high school, YMCA and Martha’s Vineyard Community Services to the town sewer. The investigation was…
Aquinnah Voters Trim Tri-Town EMS Budget Amid Tabling Talk
Aquinnah voters agreed to condemn the federal government’s handling of the Cape Wind project, explore the use of solar panels at the landfill and trim the Tri-Town Ambulance budget at the annual town meeting Tuesday night. And an article to banish the practice of tabling controversial issues? That was tabled.
Nearly all of…
Two-Speed Economy: High End Is Spending, Bottom End Suffering
The good news for the Vineyard economy is that in the first three months of this year banks loaned some $240 million for new mortgages, well above the numbers for the previous two recession years.
Even better, said Chris Wells, president and chief executive officer of the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, most of…
Announcing Jheyson
Announcing Jheyson
Denise da Rocha and Josias da Rocha of Oak Bluffs announce the birth of a son, Jheyson Samuel Ferreira da Rocha, born on May 9, 2011, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Jheyson weighed 5 pounds, 13.6 ounces at birth.
Hello, Louis
Hello, Louis
Roberta Bradford Mendlovitz is pleased to announce the arrival of her grandson, Louis Michael Matt, to daughter Martha and son in law Andrew of Chester, Conn.
He joins his five-year-old brother, Samuel James Matt, who was born at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.
Mr. and Mrs. Matt were married…
Aquinnah
JUNE D. MANNING
508-645-2574
(lthslnks@gis.net)
Congratulations to Beverly Wright in winning the Aquinnah selectmen’s race at the annual election on Wednesday. Congratulations to Jean Lince, who was a first-time candidate for Aquinnah Public Library trustee. Jean has tirelessly volunteered many hours at the library so she will make a…
Chilmark
JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
slaterjn@comcast.net
Chilmark seems anchored, although we have been buffeted by strong winds for what seems like weeks but is really only days of this past week. The crane operators hard at work on the projects in Menemsha Basin continued through most of the blustery days,…
Edgartown
KATHIE CASE
508-627-5349
(kathleencase@comcast.net)
I hope someone lets Mother Nature know that it is now spring and the wind should not be blowing so hard and the weather should be warmer. I don’t know who has that authority, but the weather can’t do anything except get better.
Please Adopt Us
Please Adopt Us
Temperatures
Temperature: Precip.
Day Max. Min. Inches.
Fº Fº
May 6 60 42 .00
May 7 66 51 .00
May 8 65 46 .00
May 9 59 49 .00
May 10 62 47 .03
May 11 52 47 .01
May 12 58 48 Trace
…
Oak Bluffs
HOLLY NADLER
508-274-2329
(hollynadler@gmail.com)
Question: What can make a tent full of women happy without any men in sight? (Actually there were a few men here and there, including man-about-town Tom Dresser). Answer: Tea sandwiches, fashion and wild hats.
The second annual Featherstone Garden Tea Party and…
Planets
The ringed planet, Saturn, is easy to spot rising in the eastern sky after sunset tonight, near the gibbous moon. The planet resides in the zodiacal constellation Virgo. Saturn has resided in the constellation for almost two years. Saturn is not far from the bright blueish star Spica, the brightest star in Virgo.
Those Who Serve Speak
Those Who Serve Speak
As part of their new publication, Those Who Serve: Martha’s Vineyard and World War II, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum is hosting a book signing and reading on Saturday, May 14 at 3 p.m. Readers will include veterans Hector Asselin, Mev Good, Ted Morgan, Tom Hale and Nelson Smith whose…
High School Goes Global, One World Day Blossoms
The entire world is coming to Martha’s Vineyard. Yes, that is the way it feels each summer as the full ferries empty out onto Five Corners. But this is another event called One World Day taking place at the high school and celebrating the many diverse cultures of the world. It is a showcase of…
Three on Three Basketball Tourney Aims to Help Out
It’s time to get your two best buddies, or at least your two best b’ball playing buddies, and head out to the Martha’s Vineyard Boys’ and Girls’ Club for their annual three on three basketball tournament. The tournament takes place Saturday, May 21 from noon to 6 p.m. Last team standing gets big-time bragging rights.
No Back Rows, Falmouth Academy Offers Open House
Falmouth Academy will host an Admissions Open House on Saturday, May 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. for families interested in learning more about the school.
Falmouth Academy is an academically rigorous, independent day school for college-bound students in grades 7 through 12. Visitors to the open house will learn why Falmouth Academy…
Creative Writing Classes
Creative Writing Classes
The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing will once again be offering classes at its summer seminar taking place during the week of July 18. The institute has also added a one week summer camp this year for high school students. The writers’ camp will run July 11 through 15…
Yankee’s Best Picks
Yankee’s Best Picks
Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England has named 81 local establishments in Massachusetts as Best of New England — Editors’ Choice winners for 2011. Four of them are on the Vineyard: Mansion House in Vineyard Haven (best spa mud); Edgartown and West Tisbury (best striper fishing); Net Result in…
No Longer Afraid of Her Future
When Elizabeth Murray was 16 years old, she had already seen far too much of the unforgiving side of life, and she had begun to ask herself if what she knew was all there was. What she knew was that she’d recently buried her mother, who died of AIDS, in a donated pine box with…
Beatlemania at the Oak Bluffs School
Beatlemania at the Oak Bluffs School
It is billed as O.B.eatles, and when you get past the oddity of the name it is actually quite accurate. The kids at the Oak Bluffs school have been eating the Beatles.
Vineyard Playhouse Opener Features Broadway Players
The Vineyard Playhouse is getting set for their summer season. And as a spring teaser they are presenting a staged reading of Dick and Lola, a new comedy by Debra Monk at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 20 and Saturday, May 21.
Fundraiser to Fight Cancer
Fundraiser to Fight Cancer
Each year for the past 25 years the Martha’s Vineyard Cancer Support Group has hosted a benefit party. This year’s event is called An Evening under the Stars and takes place on Thursday, May 19 from 6 to 9 p.m.
The fundraiser takes place at the Granary…
Green Gathering
Green Gathering
When going green it’s not enough to just think green. You have to drink green, eat green, talk green and, perhaps most importantly, get like grapes by going green in bunches.
And how to do this exactly? By showing up at the gathering of the green on Friday, May…
Art of the Process
Art of the Process
Island-raised artist Susan Johnson’s exhibition of impressonist works, Martha’s Vineyard Landscapes: Paintings & Drawings, will be on display at the Chilmark Library through May 19 during normal hours. A reception for Ms. Johnson is slated for Saturday, May 14, from 3 to 5 p.m.
Caste Off: Touching India in Song and Stories
Compassion is not a quick fix to social injustice and prejudice in the world. It grows too slowly within people. But without compassion there is no hope of real change. And building lasting change is the true base line of Untouchable Voices, a play written by musician Tabea Mangelsdorf and actress Anna Procter.
Name That Bird
Name That Bird
Long before there was Twitter, there was Birdathon. On May 13, Mass Audubon kicks off its 24-hour Birdathon in which teams contend to spot the most species in the state. This fun annual event, for people of all abilities and ages, offers birders and nature enthusiasts the opportunity to participate…
On the Fly: Workshop Lures Anglers of All Levels
Brad Pitt made fly-fising look so easy in A River Runs Through It. Dappled sunlight on blond hair, the big smile and a slight flick of the wrist to set a fly lure right on the lip of a hungry trout. Oh, if that’s all it took.
Thankfully, for the rest of us…
Minnesingers Maximize Broad Appeal
Fresh from their triumphal concert tours of Paris and Prague, you might almost expect the Minnesingers back on Island to be busy calling their agents from moviestudio trailers. But no, they’re still the great, glowing, unprepossessing kids they’ve always been, and they put all their talent, all their joy into this past weekend’s performances on…
Early Kids Get the Trout, Derby Rewards Those Who Buck Sleep
Five-year-old Wyatt Nicholson was among the top winners of the 37th annual Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club trout tournament held Saturday morning at Duarte’s Pond in West Tisbury. The young fisherman caught the biggest trout, an 18 3/4-inch rainbow, which put him into first place. The Oak Bluffs youngster, accompanied by his father, Caleb,…
Spring Distractions
There is so much talk around energy consumption these days. It is hard to know whom to believe. We know we want to cut back our addiction to foreign oil.
Entangled
Life is full of contradictions. So are plants.
Vinca, that evergreen vining groundcover that is currently blooming with blue-purple flowers, is a case in point.
This plant has been described as “moderately” invasive, is recommended as a sexual stimulant and also is known to be a portent of death; it is…
Get Ready for Birdathon
One of the best ways to support conservation education on Martha’s Vineyard is about to happen just as you are reading this. The statewide Birdathon begins at 6 p.m. today and runs until the same hour tomorrow. A number of teams will fan out all over the state, but the one that matters to us…
