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
August 26, 2011
Camp Jabberwocky Founder Helen Lamb Is Dead at 96
Helen Lamb, the indomitable Englishwoman who dreamed up a summertime Brigadoon for the mentally and physically disabled when she created Camp Jabberwocky 58 years ago, died Friday just a day shy of her 97th birthday. In the summer of 1953, Mrs. Lamb, a speech therapist from England, brought six children from the old Fall River…
News Update: Monday, August 29 – Steamship Resumes Service, Cleanup Begins as Sun Shines in Wake of Tropical Storm Irene
The Steamship Authority resumed regular service this morning, general manager Wayne Lamson confirmed, following a flyover by the U.S. Coast Guard to check that nearby waters were navigable after Tropical Storm Irene passed the Island on Sunday. The Chappy ferry also has resumed service, as the new day dawned crisp and clear on the Vineyard.…
News Update: Sunday, August 28 – Power Outages, Erosion, Little Damage
Martha’s Vineyard continued to experience scattered power outages, particularly up-Island late Sunday, as what became Tropical Storm Irene passed to the north of the Island.
At 5 p.m. part of state road near John’s Fish Market remained closed after power lines came down. Further up State Road, near the lower end of Lambert’s…
Approach of Hurricane Irene
The Vineyard Gazette will be posting updates all weekend as Hurricane Irene approaches. Check our calendar for the events that have been cancelled or postponed.
Presidential Address from Blue Heron Farm
President Obama is scheduled to address the approaching hurricane this morning at 11:30 from Blue Heron Farm, the White House said. Hurricane Irene continues its march up the East Coast and is forecast to hit land in the Outer Banks of North Carolina before moving toward Long Island and New England. Although its path remains…
Vineyard Casual
Vineyard Casual
Liz Stiving-Nichols, owner of Martha’s Vineyard Interior Design, was featured in the August 18 edition of the Boston Globe Style section. The article titled Vineyard Casual focused on coastal décor as well as the many custom furniture pieces designed by Stiving-Nichols and manufactured through her company, Martha’s Vineyard Furniture Company.
…
Firefighters With Big Hearts in Tiny Town of Aquinnah
If there were never another fire in Aquinnah, deputy fire chief Jim Vercruysse would be happy. The prospect of firefighting is not what draws him to the department. He’s a volunteer, like everyone else on the squad, and that means dedication to something greater than himself — his town.
Register Weighs History of Barn Where Poets, Painters Played
The historic 17th century Barn House in Chilmark, famously home to an avant-garde communal colony of Vineyard artists, writers and intellectuals, is being considered by the Massachusetts Historical Commission for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
Seafood Shipper Uses Ice to Break Into Bigger, Fresher Local Fish Market
Fresh fish is landed daily at Menemsha and much of it is being shipped to the mainland by Alec Gale. With his operation set up in what was once a lobster shack, the 34-year-old is shipping more this summer than he has shipped before.
A key ingredient to his success is ice. He…
Islanders Brace for storm surge, winds as Hurricane Irene churns up the coast
Hurricane Irene is expected to pass west of Martha’s Vineyard this weekend, but Islanders still should be prepared for a very strong storm with sustained winds of 80 to 90 miles an hour with higher gusts, heavy rain, a storm surge of as much as eight feet, and seas off the south shore of 25…
Use of Reverse 911 by Oak Bluffs To Send Fireworks Alert comes under fire from other towns
Selectmen from three towns say they will push for changes to the Vineyard’s reverse 911 phone system, following complaints about its use by Oak Bluffs last week to publicize arrangements for the town’s Friday fireworks display.
Almost 14,000 people were contacted in four rounds of phone calls on Thursday, as part of an…
Vineyard’s Handling of Air Traffic During Obama Visit to Serve as National Model
A temporary flight restriction plan devised by Vineyard airport officials for President Obama’s summer vacation is being hailed as a model for airports across the country to use during future visits by the President and his traveling entourage.
Quakes in Nations, Earth Shake President’s Vacation
Faraway, tectonic plates clenched uneasily, brutal regimes held on tenuously and a hurricane gathered confidence, but on Martha’s Vineyard it was still vacation for President Obama and his family.
Temperatures
Temperature: Precip.
Day Max. Min. Inches.
Fº Fº
August 19 82 69 Trace
August 20 83 68 .00
August 21 82 68 .00
August 22 83 70 .13
August 23 79 60 .00
August 24 77 60 .00
August 25 79 67 Trace
…
A Day at the Fair
Special date: After 64 years of marriage, John Mayhew called his bride and asked her to be his date for the 150th Annual Agricultural Fair.
Mr. Mayhew, a resident of Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, was on one of the nine outings from Windemere to the fair at which his bride, Shirley, was…
Starry Nights
The Milky Way is especially pretty this time of year. It appears overhead at about 10 p.m., splashed across the sky.
Ecosystem to Experience Harsh Notes
The Vineyard will be a very different place in 100 years, notes Island naturalist Gus Ben David. The changes in his lifetime have been “phenomenal,” he says, especially the explosion in population and degradation of natural habitat.
Flashing a Red Light at Roundabout
Back in the middle of the last decade, a round about was proposed for the Island’s key blinker intersection, where Barnes Road crosses the Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road. The discussion faded away. I thought the proposal had done likewise.
This past April the roundabout came roaring out of hibernation when the state Department of…
Gazette Internship Requirement: Ability to Toss a Mean Skillet
The crowd looked frighteningly large. I had butterflies in my stomach and my palms were sticky as I searched for my mother in the stands. My previous experience with a skillet had been stationary and involved eggs, not throwing, but I had impulsively announced in an editorial meeting at the Gazette (where I am working…
Letters to the Editor
NO PREFERENCE
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
I have to question the math and management of the Steamship Authority’s Islander Preferred reservations system. I write this Sunday morning after telephonically punching my way through to the phone reservation center and being told that all of tomorrow (Monday) is sold out — six minutes…
Joy of Cruising Through Life Two Perfect Wheels at a Time
A few weeks ago I went on a bike trip to Woods Hole with a group from The Anchors in Edgartown. We rode the bike path to North Falmouth and back, a pretty ride past a stretch of beach and a varied landscape of woods, fields and cranberry bog. As I pedaled along, shifting my…
Hurricane Watch
Hurricane Watch
Will Irene, lumbering up the coast earlier this week, lose her gumption and shrink from landfall as Earl did last Labor day weekend? Or will she gain momentum and pack a wallop the way Bob did two decades ago? As we go to press, the first hurricane to threaten New England…
Asiya Arrives
Asiya Arrives
Gia Rae Winsryg-Ulmer and Rachid Bachabella of West Tisbury announce the birth of a daughter, Asiya Rae Bachabella, born on August 8, 2011, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Asiya weighed 5 pounds, 7.8 ounces at birth.
Aquinnah
JUNE D. MANNING
508-645-2574
(lthslnks@gis.net)
The Legend of Moshup will be held at 20 Black Brook Road on Saturday evening at dusk. Learn about the creation story of the Aquinnah Wampanoag through the legends passed down from generations through oral history. Tickets are $8 for adults, $3 for elders…
Engineering a Better Future for Kids
By SAM LOW
Dick Everett is a polymath. He’s a sailor, an inventor, a restorer of antique houses and steam engines. He can build a boat, blacksmith almost anything, and he fashions parts for model airplanes to tolerances that would split a human hair many times. He’s a longtime member of the Society…
Holmes Hole Sailors Ride the Winds
The Holmes Hole Sailing Association continued its summer season of handicap sailboat racing from Vineyard Haven harbor with a night race on August 18 and two harbor races on August 21.
Thursday night was a nice summer evening with a 12 to 15 knot southwest wind. Fifteen boats posted for the 6 p.m.…
Hello Désirée
Hello Désirée
Cristina and Ivan Bourguignon of Oak Bluffs announce the birth of a daughter, Désirée Marie Bourguignon, born on August 21, 2011, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Désirée weighed 7 pounds, 11.5 ounces at birth.
Edgartown
KATHIE CASE
508-627-5349
(kathleencase@comcast.net)
Here we go, it is hurricane season and it seems at the writing of this column that Irene is posing a clear threat to New England. So we will keep our fingers crossed that she finds another path and keeps us all safe.
…
Chappy
BRAD WOODGER
508-627-4216
(ibwsgolf@aol.com)
Irene is due to arrive Sunday or Monday. Don’t think I’ll make the beds for her — hopefully she’ll just blow in and out.
Bob Enos, our trusty, trusted (not yet rusted) boat man is, I am certain, fielding plenty of calls. Historically,…
Arctic Shorebirds Begin First Leg in Long Journey
The newly-hatched young of Arctic-nesting shorebirds are able to fend for themselves completely, just a few days after emerging from the egg. The parents shelter them some in those first few days and they sound an alarm for predators. They do not feed the youngsters, who learn to find food right away, capitalizing on the…
No Rod, No Reel, No Problem
An Aquinnah resident caught two bluefish by hand at the end of the day last Saturday. Wilde Whitcomb, 31, was out walking with his sister, Gabrielle Whitcombe, in front of Zacks Cliffs at about 6 p.m., when they noticed a bluefish swimming in the surf.
Mr. Whitcomb stepped into the water and grabbed…
Harlem Rennaisance Cabin Woodcarving Heads to Auction
By NINA TARNAWSKY
A rare collaboration between Harlem Renaissance artists Norman Lewis and Augusta Savage, called The Hubert Log Cabin, is coming up for auction from the Swann Gallery in New York on Oct. 6.
Panama Canal as Nature’s Microcosm
In the Panama Canal the grand challenges facing the world are played out in miniature. Here freshwater management, deforestation, biodiversity and global warming have converged to pose economic challenges that the rest of the world may not face for decades. From his perch in the middle of the rainforest, Biff Birmingham, director of the Smithsonian…
Panel Discusses Palestinian Statehood
Next month an overwhelming majority of members of the United Nations is expected to vote in favor of recognizing Palestine, including areas now occupied by Israel, as a sovereign state.
In Chilmark this week, a much smaller group of people searched for signs of hope in this latest development in the long Middle…
If I Could Write Time in a Bottle
On the afternoon of June 27, Doug Kass and his eight-year-old daughter Amelia, of Raleigh, N.C., were out for a walk on the south shore in Edgartown, making their way toward the beach in thick fog. The father and daughter stumbled on a family of skunks, forcing them to turn tail and find a new…
All Quiet on the Chappy Front, Save Those Messages From Afar
As Paul Schultz drives up and down East Beach on Chappaquiddick, past picnicking families and fishermen lining the shore casting far into the riptides there, he finds a lot of stuff washed up on the beach. Most of it is trash — empty dish detergent bottles, balloons, an enormous amount of fish line tangled in…
Please Adopt Us
Please Adopt Us
Our featured animal this week at the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard is a dog named Rocky. He is a two-year-old Beagle/lab cross, medium sized and gets along well with everyone.
A Little Bit Buggy
I finally got my first mosquito bite. I was becoming somewhat smug. I do think as one ages one is not as tasty.
Unusual Sightings
Unusual birds, rare birds or birds which are very similar to more commonly seen birds can be difficult to identify. There were two such sightings this week.
Stiltgrass Be Walking All Over the Place
Japanese stiltgrass has recently been discovered in the Longview neighborhood of West Tisbury, and the Nature Conservancy needs Islanders’ help in keeping this invasive species under control.
The harmful grass, which was introduced to the U.S. from Asia as a natural packaging material at the beginning of the 19th century, can crowd out…
Rose Without a Thorn
“What’s in a name?”
The answer, dear Juliet, is not as simple as it seems.
“That which we call a rose”
Unless, of course, it was not a rose, which is the case for Rose of Sharon, the large-blossomed flowering ornamental shrub bringing bulbous blooms to yards and gardens everywhere.…
Magazine by Artists for Artists Helps Get Creative Word Out
“It’s not enough to be a songbird, this world will work you to the bone,” sings musician Dan Waters on Sergeant Sparrow magazine’s new compilation CD. The latest edition of the magazine, just out with the disc included, has taken up the plight of artists working in today’s business-minded creative milieu.
Sergeant Sparrow…
Academy Award-Winning Writer Turns Attention to Ghostly Novel
It’s surprising there aren’t more spooky thrillers that include mysteries, and more mysteries with spooks. When equal mixtures are applied — in other words, scary stuff happening for which a reason must be found — fans of both genres put the books on the top 10 list and a classic is born: The Exorcist, Peter…
Union Chapel Welcomes Reverend Cliffe Knechtle
Cliffe Knechtle, pastor for Grace Community Church in New Canaan, Conn., will be preaching at the Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs this Sunday, August 28. Reverend Knechtle has spoken on university campuses around the country since 1980. He is the author of two books, Heaven Can’t Wait and Give Me an Answer. In 1990 he…
Kite-Flying Festival Gets a Second Wind
The wind is free and there will likely be plenty of it for tomorrow’s first Martha’s Vineyard Wind Festival in Oak Bluffs. The kite-flying festival at Ocean and Waban Parks is a merger of many new and old ideas. It’s a celebration for the end of the summer, an opportunity to gather for fun and…
Dinghy Dogs Double Dares You, Hot Dogs Never Tasted So Good
This is a conversion story. My road to Damascus led past the bustle of the Oak Bluffs harborfront, ending at Dinghy Dogs, the daytime home of Brian Langhammer, the self-proclaimed Hot Dog King of Martha’s Vineyard. I was a hot dog agnostic, chastened by a lifetime of experiences of the sausages as an ignoble mystery…
A Hard Look at Some High Costs
Rep. Barney Frank, the 16-term Congressman from Massachusetts, had been scheduled to appear earlier this summer at the Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven but was called back to Washington to deal with the debt ceiling talks. Thankfully, Congressman Frank has rescheduled his talk and will be coming to the Vineyard on Monday, August 29, barring…
Tastes of Tashmoo
Tastes of Tashmoo
The fifth annual Tastes of Tashmoo, a benefit to support the ongoing restoration of the 1887 Tashmoo Spring building, will be held on Friday, Sept. 2 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at a waterfront home on Hines Point. The event features live music and a silent auction, as well as…
The Yard Looks to the Future
At the Yard, Island resident Laura D. Roosevelt has been elected president of the board of trustees, and consulting artistic director David R. White will stay through 2014 as artistic and executive director
Ms. Roosevelt will succeed Sarah Jane Hughes on Oct. 1, when the Yard begins a new fiscal year. Ms. Hughes…
Swimming to Martha’s Vineyard
Swimming to Martha’s Vineyard
Spalding Gray was a brilliant monologist. He walked onstage, sat down at an empty desk, except for a glass of water, and proceeded to mesmerize the audience. He did not need props, a backdrop, nor bells and whistles of any kind. His subject was his own life, weaving autobiography…
Playhouse Gets Its Mojo Working
This week the play 5 Mojo Secrets began its run at the Vineyard Playhouse. The play tells the story of a successful African American couple as they try to sort out what happened to their once happy marriage. It is a subject every married couple, even the happiest, can relate to. After all, how do…
Health Fair
Health Fair
The YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard is sponsoring a health fair this Saturday, August 27, from 12 to 3 p.m.
On hand will be a guest pharmacist and pharmacy interns to answer questions regarding drug therapy and provide information on medication safety and proper medication disposal techniques. Bring unwanted medications…
Dipping the Paddle for Paradise
Dipping the Paddle for Paradise
Time to put your paddle where your mouth is. Huh? How about, getting your big back up for clams and quahaugs.
One Image Captured From Many Angles
The featured artist this week, August 25 through 31, at Dragonfly Gallery in Oak Bluffs is Karen Tusinski.
Ms. Tusinski’s work focuses on the many ways one can look at a single item. For example, the depiction of an ordinary table or flower arrangement, examined from several angles, then comes together as a…
Scholar and Author to Give Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lecture
Eric Metaxas is the New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Prophet, Martyr, Spy and Amazing Grace and William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. He is also a writer for Veggie Tales, a children’s book and TV series that is both funny and grounded in themes of faith.
What can…
Strolling for Art and More in Vineyard Haven
Vineyard Haven is hosting an art stroll tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. Galleries and businesses along and around Main street are keeping the lights on later, plus providing refreshments.
Rick Bausman and his Steel Breeze group, think relaxing beats from a host of steel drums, and Ballyhoo are providing the musical backdrop…
Quartet of Greek Love
Quartet of Greek Love
The Tempus Continuum Ensemble presents The Four Loves at the Chappy Community Center on Saturday, August 27, at 7 p.m.
The event features four performers from the Manhattan School of Music presenting a repertory of pieces chosen to reflect the four different loves of Greek ideology, love…
Woodcut Paintings and Acrylic on Canvas
Next week’s spotlight shows at the Shaw Cramer Gallery include woodcut paintings by Ruth Kirchmeier and multi-layered acrylic on canvas paintings of barns and stone walls by Wendy Weldon.
On Tuesday, August 30, at 6 p.m. Ms. Kirchmeier will discuss the intricacies of woodcut carving, painting and printing. On Thursday, September 30, Ms.…
Art of Human Experience Takes Many Forms
Artists communicate in different forms. But whether the message is through visual or performing art, it always comes back to the essence of the human experience.
Two groups have been in residence for the past two weeks at the Vineyard Arts Project, working to highlight both the dark and exhilarating sides of the…
