The mythological Medusa was feared and reviled for her looks. The snakes that emerged from her head made her more than just odd and ugly. They, along with her visage, turned even the strongest warrior into a rock statue.

Greater shearwaters are a pelagic species of bird. They spend a very small percentage of their life on land. The short time they are on terra firma is to nest and they do not do so anywhere near Martha’s Vineyard. Greater shearwaters choose to rear their young in colonies on islands in the South Atlantic many miles offshore and well south of the Vineyard.

Friday, July 16: Sunny. More than a dozen large sailboats race to the west side of East Chop in midmorning. Mostly blue skies. A couple seated on beach towels at Owen Park pass the sunscreen. Muggy in town. Breezy afternoon on the water. A sailor’s festival under a tent takes over Owen Park in late afternoon. Steel drum music coincides with a colorful sunset.

Celebrate the Sea, Its Keepers and Songs

On Thursday night, Mark Alan Lovewell, a singer, storyteller and Vineyard Gazette reporter and photographer, will give a program called Celebration of the Sea, at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown. The event is a fundraiser for the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust and the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.

Memories of Walter Cronkite — as both a sailor on the Vineyard waterfront and as the nation’s favorite television journalist — were shared Sunday night at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown. Titled A Celebration of the Life of Walter Cronkite, it was an evening of stories, pictures, tributes of Mr. Cronkite and a look toward the leaders of tomorrow.

Clifton Athearn helped liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Curtis Jones spent 26 months as a prisoner of war. Nelson Smith was a member of the Navy’s construction battalion, building pontoon barges. These are just a few of the stories and people honored for their roles in World War II last Thursday evening at the 12th annual Evening of Discovery to benefit the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.

Bodhi Path Buddhist Center founder Shamar Rinpoche, the 14th Sharmapa, will be on Martha’s Vineyard for a weekend teaching series July 24 and 25, teaching from his latest book, The Path To Awakening. Teachings will be 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 to 4 p.m. both days. There will be a welcoming reception and book signing on Friday, July 23, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Nell Irvin Painter’s The History of White People examines the concept of white as a racial category: what is considered a white race, what is not, what such distinctions mean and how notions of whiteness have changed in response to shifting demographics, aesthetic tastes and politics.

She will discuss these ideas on Thursday, July 22, at 8 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Center.

Kids’ Drama Workshop

Phyllis Vecchia Creative Drama will be holding a summer workshop for children four-and-a-half to nine years old at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School summer camp program. It will begin Monday, July 26, through Friday, July 30, daily from 9 to 11 a.m.

Each class will consist of theatre warmups, acting out a folktale or story tale, reading of the story, dressing up in costumes, putting on a performance, puppet play and theatre games. In the last class there will be a short performance for the parents.

Come aboard for a golden hours sail in Vineyard Haven harbor and workshop with Island photographer and artist Louisa Gould, shooting from about 5 p.m. through sunset on Wednesday, July 21.