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
August 5, 2011
Subscribe today to the Vineyard Gazette and get a Copy of Photographing the Vineyard
Double your reading pleasure by subscribing to the Vineyard Gazette today. For a limited time, your two-year paid subscription or subscription renewal comes with a free copy of Photographing the Vineyard by Alison Shaw. This book from one of the foremost chroniclers of Island life and nature describes in detail where to find the perfect…
Book Festival Is Sunday
W e keep reading. When the writing is bad, it’s a fleeting disappointment but when it’s good, there’s nothing better. When it’s good, it matters in the moment and in our memory; nothing matters more.
Few words are new, but lately they come at us in torrents. Words, words, words career toward us,…
News Update: Sunday, August 7 – Coast Guard Rescues Three Boaters
Three men were rescued from the water south of the Vineyard Saturday after their 20-foot pleasure craft began taking on water and sank, the Coast Guard said.
Sportswriter Turns Eye to Joe DiMaggio
The number 56, representing baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in 1941, is the most resonant numeral in sports. Nothing approaches it — not in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, darts or kick the can. To deliver hits every day, amid constant inspection and increasing pressure, leaves athletes in all sports slack-jawed.
Composting a Back-to-the-Land Past
In the early 1970s, when the tide of summer residents would go out in September, there were always young people who didn’t want to leave the Vineyard — and they didn’t have to, because there was no particular place they planned to go. Land was still relatively affordable, or their families had land, and they…
Like Father, Like Daughter: Alexandra Styron Flexes Her Muscle in Memoir
“I really did spend my entire childhood watching television,” says Alexandra Styron, a claim that stands in stark contrast to her endlessly expansive vocabulary and carefully crafted storytelling.
Boxing Shadows of a Violent Youth
We often want to know more about our favorite authors. After investing hundreds of pages of time in their created worlds, we feel entitled to know more about what they’re like in our shared world. It’s the root of our fascination with Hemingway’s boxing and Faulkner’s drinking, with Greene’s Catholicism and Salinger’s reclusiveness. We want…
Scaffolding of Island History on Which Native Story Rests
Earlier this year, the Gazette interviewed Geraldine Brooks as her latest novel, Caleb’s Crossing, was about to be released:
Shakespeare Seen in San Francisco
Chris Adrian is a fellow in pediatric hematology-oncology. He is also a recent graduate of the Harvard Divinity School. So he’s well-versed in tragic loss and grief, as well as the more abstract issues of immortality and the meaning of life. In his newest novel, The Great Night, he mixes all of these ingredients together…
Steering the Auto Industry Turnaround
Like most of us, Steven Rattner knew little about the automobile industry when in early 2009 he accepted the unenviable task of helping craft a government rescue plan for Detroit’s automakers.
But unlike most of us, Mr. Rattner knew more than a little about finance and profitable companies. And as President Obama’s former…
Meeting Our Most Inventive Adversary
The Emperor of All Maladies is a billed as a biography of cancer and author Siddhartha Mukherjee treats his subject with all the reverence of a living subject.
“Cancer cells grow faster, adapt better,” he writes. “They are better versions of ourselves.”
International Intrigue? Here’s Your Woman
The breeze danced across the sails of many boats tied in the Menemsha Sound but it seemed barely to sway the majestic 70-foot frame of the Relemar. Entering the yacht’s living room to shake hands with a tall, poised and enthusiastic brunette, it’s hard to shake the feeling that you have taken a step into…
Sharks Meet Their Enemy and It Is Us
Every jittery Vineyard beachgoer is familiar with the iconic image of the restless great white patrolling the shallows, mouth agape, in search of a fleshy excuse to close it. Stacks of shark books celebrating the more lurid aspects of their behavior, particularly their extremely rare propensity to attack humans, already fill library shelves, but in…
French Seasoning for the Kitchen Shelf
Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search For Jewish Cooking In France by Joan Nathan of Washington, D.C., and Chilmark, is a delectable-looking cookbook with hundreds of delicious recipes. And, best of all, since many of them come from the hot climates of southern France and North Africa, you’re sure to be able to find in…
Amor Towles: Literary Ascent Begins in West Chop
Edward Dillon doesn’t exist. Longtime readers of the Vineyard Gazette may recall reading about Mr. Dillon’s antics in the West Chop column during the summer of 1977. The column, written by then 12-year-old Amor Towles, reported the comings and goings within the close-knit community. Yet unbeknownst to most readers, the man by the name of…
Deadline is Monday for Poetry Contest
Young poets have until Monday at 5 p.m. to enter their poems in the Elisa Brickner Poetry Contest, sponsored by The Elisa Brickner Fund of the Chilmark Free Public Library.
The contest was created to foster the love of poetry, and provides cash prizes of $200 and $100. To be eligible, poets must be entering…
News Update: Friday, August 5 – MVC to Take a Spin on Roundabout
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission decided on Thursday night to review the proposed roundabout at the intersection of Barnes and Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Roads as a development of regional impact (DRI). The roundabout has been the subject of a decade of planning and a bid set is to go out this fall. But commission members said on…
Subscribe Today and Get a Free Copy of Photographing the Vineyard by Alison Shaw
Double your reading pleasure by subscribing to the Vineyard Gazette today. For a limited time, your two-year paid subscription or subscription renewal comes with a free copy of Photographing the Vineyard by Alison Shaw. This book from one of the foremost chroniclers of Island life and nature describes in detail where to find the perfect…
No-Goat Zone: Town Opts for Horse, Buggy
West Tisbury selectmen agreed this week to move a World War II memorial from an inaccessible and rarely visited site at the intersection of West Tisbury and State Roads to a location closer to town hall. The exact site near town hall has been up for debate as selectmen originally proposed placing it near a…
Arboretum Talk Takes Long-Term View of the World
This year the Polly Hill Arboretum’s annual David H. Smith Memorial lecture features Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens plant curator Bill Cullina, who will discuss the environment via a long-term geological view. His talk is called The Web of Life: Taking the Long View.
Farm Plan Aims to Protect Land for Food
The owner of the former Thimble Farm in Oak Bluffs — now the subject of a novel initiative by a group of Island nonprofits to buy the property — said this week he is committed to keeping the land in food production.
Can I Keep Him? Host Families Bitten
Sitting in her customary spot, next to her husband, Jay, on the top bench of the bleachers behind home plate, Doris Clark is a sort of mother hen to the Sharks, the Vineyard’s new baseball team, who brought the Futures Collegiate Baseball League to the Island for the first season this summer. The season is…
Pancake Breakfast
Pancake Breakfast
The Martha’s Vineyard Rotary Club is celebrating their 20th anniversary with a pancake breakfast on Sunday, August 7, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Okay, a pancake breakfast and lunch.
The eating takes place at The Anchors, across from the Memorial Wharf in Edgartown. The cost is $8 for…
Run for the Library
Run for the Library
Registration is open now for the 14th annual Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library 5K Run/Walk, which will be held on Sunday, Sept. 11. There will also be a half-mile fun run for kids.
Registration forms are available at the library, and online at vhlibrary.org. Registered runners…
Fanning Flames of Goodwill At Chilmark Firemen’s Barbecue
There were plenty of firefighters, but the only thing burning on Wednesday night was the grill, as the volunteers of the Chilmark Fire Department got together to throw a Backyard Bash at the Chilmark Community Center.
It was a family affair. Kids ran around while their parents and grandparents devoured burgers and hot…
Plan to Part Airport From County Nixed
A Dukes County steering committee voted this week not to look into the separation of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional Airport from the county, effectively killing any further discussion of the issue, at least for now.
The decision on Wednesday came in the wake of a September state Department of Revenue report that harshly…
Tisbury Police Appeal for Help After Assault Report
Tisbury police are seeking any information about a man alleged to have sexually assaulted a juvenile female acquaintance last Sunday.
Known to the victim as Tiago Souza, the man is described as a 25-year-old Brazilian male, 5’10,” weighing about 180 pounds with a thin, muscular build. He is known to have brown hair…
On the Chappy Wire
On the Chappy Wire
NStar has reached a preliminary agreement with Comcast to bring cable and Internet service to Chappaquiddick, Edgartown town administrator Pamela Dolby said this week.
At the selectmen’s weekly meeting on Monday Mrs. Dolby said negotiations were ongoing to finalize a new contract with Comcast but Chappaquiddick was…
Lattanzi’s Employees Douse Chimney Fire
A chimney fire at Lattanzi’s Restaurant in Edgartown caused the pizzeria section of the restaurant to fill with smoke Thursday afternoon. Fire chief Peter Shemeth said the screen at the top of the chimney ignited but restaurant employees had extinguished it before the fire department arrived. Firefighters pulled the cap off to make sure the…
Fire Chief Dispute Smoulders, As Administrator Field Narrows
A year after his court-ordered reinstatement as fire investigator in Oak Bluffs, Peter Martell says the town is not honoring his position. Last June a Dukes County superior court judge found that Oak Bluffs fire chief Peter Forend had no legal or justifiable reason for dismissing Mr. Martell. In May a Dukes County superior court…
Freshwater Aquifers at Risk as Oceans Rise
Less than three per cent of the earth’s water is fresh, the water that sustains us. As the oceans rise due to global warming salt water is creeping into coastal aquifers, underground reservoirs where drinking water is stored. This is called saltwater intrusion.
In 1998 the Environmental Protection Agency designated the entire Vineyard…
Young Man and the Sea, Papa First Catches Sea Bug on Vineyard
Woods Hole, 1910: idling steam trains exhale vapor at regular intervals, buoys clang out in the channel. An 11-year-old boy from Oak Park, Ill., wanders about the dockside. It is the first time he has seen the ocean. A sidewheel steamer is docked perpendicular to the rail terminus — its superstructure casts shadows across the…
Letters to the Editor
MONSTER SPECTACLE
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
Public spectacles like the annual monster shark tournament have much in common with the gladiator games conducted in the Coliseum during ancient Roman festivals. Large, adoring crowds immersed in a circuslike atmosphere amid unbridled commercial activity, awaiting the extravaganza of torture, execution and the eventual display…
Save Our Farmland
Save Our Farmland
An acre a minute. That’s how much farmland is currently being lost to development and other causes in America, according to a report written by the American Farmland Trust titled Farming on the Edge.
Saying Goodbye to a Long Term Caregiver
Vinnie sits at the table in the lounge. He wears, as always, a cap. A big pin in his shirt says I’m The Boss. He’s singing Roll Out The Barrel in a thin tenor. He’s also making me keep to the regular four-four time on the piano. Sometimes I miss the right chord but Vinnie…
Edgartown House Tour
Edgartown House Tour
The Edgartown House Tour, sponsored by the Federated Church, is on Tuesday, August 9. Lunch will be served on the lawn at 75 South Water street from noon until 1:30 p.m. Then historian Mary Jane Carpenter will speak about the homes which are included on the tour, at 1:30 p.m.…
Pan-Martha Bike Ride
Pan-Martha Bike Ride
The Pan-Martha Challenge, 50-mile bike-a-thon around Martha’s Vineyard on August 27, will benefit life-saving cancer research charities.
Beginning in Oak Bluffs, pedaling through Edgartown, out to Chilmark and Aquinnah, and back through Vineyard Haven, the Pan-Martha Challenge is not only a beautiful was to experience Martha’s Vineyard, 100…
Learning Every Trick in the Book To Open Festival
On the face of it, Suellen Lazarus might seem an odd person to have started a book festival. She was a banker, not a professional bibliophile or bookstore owner or writer.
But in a way, it was her other busy life which led her to start such an event on the Vineyard six…
If Only They Ate Skunks: Credible Coyote Sighting Worries Expert
Island farmers were alarmed this week to learn of the possible presence of a visitor from the mainland: a coyote.
Discovering What’s Down and Going Out in Pond
Out in the middle of Meshacket Cove on the Edgartown Great Pond on Wednesday morning, David Schlezinger was going down for the third time, in nine feet of water.
He wasn’t drowning, though. It was quite the reverse. Dr. Schlezinger’s problem was his buoyancy. It’s hard to insert a long stake into the…
Striped Bass Rules Delayed
Despite worrying declines in striped bass and lobster stocks, regulators this week deferred any significant action to curb the fisheries. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission did take a step toward restoring menhaden, a bait fish consumed by lobsters, striped bass and nearly all other swimming fish.
Denniston House Sold at Discount
The historic Denniston House on Masonic avenue in Oak Bluffs was sold at a public foreclosure auction yesterday for $500,000 to a well-known Oak Bluffs architect, marking a final chapter in the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Fund’s troubled ownership of the property.
A Movable Mass, Island Priest Crosses Channel to Cuttyhunk
Father Thomas C. Lopes had never been to Cuttyhunk until last Sunday morning.
Traveling on a 26-foot patrol boat owned by the Dukes County Sheriff’s department, Father Lopes crossed the water to the small chain of Elizabeth Islands to offer a Mass in the Union Methodist Church on Cuttyhunk.
A Vineyard…
Return to Sender, Address Erased
For 134 years the modest cedar-shingled post office of Cuttyhunk has served as a lifeline to the mainland for this isolated community. Now with the U.S. Postal Service facing declining revenues and cutbacks, the Cuttyhunk branch faces the prospect of closure, along with 43 other post offices in Massachusetts identified in a nationwide review.
Twenty-One Spaniel Salute Begs Question, Who Scoops?
BY EDITH BLAKE
There is a strange annual event which occurs on the corner of Franklin and Morse streets in Edgartown. It’s totally weird. In a lovely old Greek Revival house (that is air-conditioned) there is a sudden collection of cavalier King Charles spaniels. This year there were 21. They come in all…
West Tisbury
JOHN S. ALLEY
508-693-2950
(alleys@vineyard.net)
The weekend weather was just delightful. The beaches were pleasantly full and many cookouts were held as it was lovely to sit outside. The school playing field was busy as a beehive on Sunday. July was really warm and beautiful and we hope it…
Gazette Web Site
Gazette Web Site
Good morning to all our readers. The entire Vineyard Gazette Web site, including our extensive story archive, will be open to all Web visitors until Tuesday, August 9. Please visit our site at mvgazette.com and explore at length. And tell us what you think.
Chappy
BRAD WOODGER
508-627-4216
(ibwsgolf@aol.com)
I heard from Eck Wolff, who is celebrating his 39th birthday in Chappy this week, 44 years late. Why does Eck get a birthday mention and not you? Because Eck and I share a common affinity, and we Lady-lovers need to stick together and support…
Oak Bluffs
BETTYE FOSTER BAKER
508-696-9983
(bdrbaker@comcast.net)
“Look not from the mind, but from the soul. For the Life that is coming is already before us, waiting to open up the world. Just look more closely. Find the eyes to see.” This passage from the First Insight of The Celestine Prophecy, a…
Cracking the Code of the Quahaug Wampum Belt Is Timeless Treasure
For Kate Taylor and Joan LeLacheur, wampum is a living thing. It’s not just an inanimate discarded clamshell, but rather something that has the ability to tell a story of the past, present and future.
For nearly 30 years the two wampum artists have been working on a wampum belt. Finally finished, with…
East Chop
Rick Herrick
508-693-8065
(herricklr@verizon.net)
Ken Blacklow and I go back a long way. We have been neighbors for close to 40 years, which has enabled me to watch him grow up. We have played tennis together since he was a teenager. He also worked for me as comanager of…
Temperatures
Temperature: Precip.
Day Max. Min. Inches.
Fº Fº
July 29 81 62 Trace
July 30 79 69 .00
July 31 88 63 .00
August 1 85 69 .00
August 2 85 66 .00
August 3 87 64 .11
August 4 77 63 Trace
…
Please Adopts Us
Please Adopts Us
Gazette Chronicle: Raking it In
Raking it In
From Gazette editions of August, 1936:
The honor of landing the biggest striped bass of the season is held by Carl Norton of Edgartown, who yesterday caught a forty-three pound monster at the Oyster Pond. Mr. Norton was at the pond clamming when a big splash behind him…
Chilmark
JANE N. SLATER
508-645-3378
slaterjn@comcast.net
Chilmark dove into August with the confidence of a diver who knew how deep the pool was. There is so much going on that I am not so sure we all know what we are doing. There is so much to see, hear and…
Edgartown
KATHIE CASE
508-627-5349
(kathleencase@comcast.net)
I think we can say there have been no complaints of the weather. It has been hot but the humidity has been kind. There is, however, among some of us a small wish for a little more rain. Particularly if it could happen at night.…
Moon Trumps Meteor Showers
Tonight’s first quarter moon appears in the zodiacal constellation Libra. The moon is low in the southwestern sky after sunset. Tomorrow night, the moon is even farther south and closer to the horizon. The moon will be in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius.
Cinematic Take on Club Of Joni, James, Jackson
Last Monday night a dream of sitting down with James Taylor was auctioned off at the Possible Dreams fundraiser. It cost a pretty penny. For those of us whose available cash runs more to loose change, how about a trip back in time to see James Taylor when he was just starting out and wearing…
Genre-Bending Troubadour Citizen Cope Grows Roots
With a voice that embodies a dusty road at the moment when day surrenders to evening, Citizen Cope found the intersection of sensual and earthly. The Memphis-born, D.C.-raised post modern troubadour blends reggae, jazz, folk and various strains of roots music as if there are no lines dividing music — and it shows on his…
Klays for Kids
Klays for Kids
Bill Damora from Oak Bluffs and Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. has won the 2011 14th annual Klays for Kids Charity Skeet Shoot at the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club on Sunday, July 17. This fun event, contested under ideal weather conditions, benefits the club’s three projects for Island kids.…
Jazz Musicians Share Key Language
A group of Island musicians was in the key of comfort Friday night at Nancy’s in Oak Bluffs, mixing old school tunes with a little new school funk. The Martha’s Vineyard Jazz Quintet was performing together for the first time. The group is a mix of jazz cats young and old — the three members…
All About Details, Ashley Medowski Recycles History in Island Landscapes
Old boat motors line the walkway, driftwood creakingly composes the banisters, pieces of sea glass stud the stone walls, a decaying water ski serves as a shelf. But this is not an underwater farmhouse — it is Saltwater Gallery, Ashley Medowski’s giant work of art that houses the smaller creations she makes inside its walls.
Tapestries and Furniture
Tapestries and Furniture
Julia Mitchell and Bill Nash are the featured artists this week, August 5 through 14, at the Shaw Cramer Gallery located at 56 Main street in Vineyard Haven.
Ms. Mitchell works with handwoven tapestries using color blended wools on line. She is known for her representations of wind,…
Hiroshima Sunrise Service
Hiroshima Sunrise Service
She Writes, He Paints, But Who Does The Dishes? Artistic Couple Makes Beauty
At the age of thirteen Helen Phillips made a New Year’s resolution to write and read a poem a day. She stuck with this pledge until the age of 21. Ms. Phillips is now 29 years-old, an award winning writer, and on tour with her first novel, And Yet They Were Happy. She will appear…
Fasten Seatbelts, Prepare for Lift Off
Fasten Seatbelts, Prepare for Lift Off
Motivation comes in many forms. But rarely do you hear the words, like a cow before slaughter, as a singular muse. But then again, David Parker is not your ordinary choreographer.
Cartoonist is Talk of the Island
Cartoonist Is Talk of the Island
Paul Karasik is many things and an exhibit focusing on the whole man would include, but not be limited to, the following: Cartoonist extraordinaire (published in The New Yorker), development director for the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School, professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, author,…
Finance to Photographer
Finance to Photographer
On Sunday, August 7, from 5 to 7 p.m. the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association is hosting an opening reception for an exhibit of photography by Louisa Gould and watercolors by Paul Beebe. The exhibit takes place at the Old Sculpin Gallery, located on Dock street Edgartown, next to the Chappy…
Brandeis President Lunch
Brandeis President Lunch
A lunch honoring the new Brandeis University president Frederick Lawrence and his wife, Dr. Kathy Lawrence, will be held from noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 14 at the private residence of an alumnus in Chilmark.
RSVP to rsvp300@brandeis.edu or call 877-736-4098.
For those traveling…
Rwandan Statesman Travels Long Journey to Forgiveness
Joseph Sebarenzi, author of God Sleeps in Rwanda, is speaking at Howes House in West Tisbury on Saturday, August 6, at 5 p.m.
Mr. Sebarenzi’s book is a memoir of his life in Rwanda, including his service as President of the Rwandan Parliament, before and during the period of genocide experienced in Rwanda.…
Diving Deep to Explore World Full of Beauty and Concern
On Saturday, August 6, at 8 p.m. leave the world of land and sky and go deep under the sea. Be prepared to watch with awe and a fair bit of concern. Our oceans are places of mystery and grandeur but they are also like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, visual bellwethers for…
Documentary Looks to Air Both Sides of Cape Wind
Let’s face it, there are few pursuits more quixotic than that of journalistic objectivity. The preview screening of the documentary movie Cape Spin: An American Power Struggle in Oak Bluffs on Tuesday night provided a perfect illustration of the point.
For 84 minutes, the film explored the issues involved in the controversial Cape…
Mind Wearing a Parachute? Just in Case
Can elation come from elevation? In an age of TSA pat-downs that go further than most first dates, it’s refreshing to simply climb onto a plane in the sunny outdoors on a midsummer day. Even if the flight requires a parachute.
At the Katama Airfield, Classic Aviators offers flights ranging from 15 minutes…
Community of Sellers Thrives at Chilmark Flea
A market where you can buy or barter for secondhand goods is called a swap meet in some places, trash and treasure market in others, and flea market on Martha’s Vineyard. The Chilmark Flea Market holds unlimited potential; anyone can rent a stall to set out anything — well, nearly anything — they want to…
Self-help
Alcoholics Anonymous
Information: 508-627-7084.
All meetings are nonsmoking.
Sunday, 6:45 a.m., open discussion meeting, First Baptist Church, William street, Vineyard Haven.
Sunday, 10 a.m., open discussion, State Beach, first bridge, Oak Bluffs, (weather permitting).
Sunday, 11 a.m., open discussion meeting at the Council on Aging…
Broken Wings
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act was enacted in 1918. This statute makes it unlawful to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill or sell birds listed therein (“migratory birds”). The statute does not discriminate between live or dead birds and also grants full protection to any bird parts including feathers, eggs and nests. There are a few…
Mother Nature Stirs Mixed Feelings
I’ve just about had it with fighting Mother Nature. Between the bugs and bunnies in the vegetable garden, fleas in the house, a huge deer in the perennial beds nightly,
Green Giants
Will the real green giant please stand up?
Polly Hill Arboretum staff report that a sizeable green monster has taken up residence in their parking lot. A cecropia moth caterpillar has been wowing arboretum visitors all week with its grand green proportions.
It may not be too hard to differentiate the…
