The Lobster in Winter

The Lobster Rollers of Grace Episcopal Church (at the corner of Woodlawn avenue and William street in Vineyard Haven) will be offering once-a-month off-season lobster roll service on the first Sunday of the month, starting Jan. 3. The award-winning rolls come after the usual church service — that is, food for the soul at 11 a.m., and food for the body from 12:30 to 2 p.m.

ITW Annual Meeting

Island Theatre Workshop will host its annual meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. at its new location in West Tisbury on Music street (in the old West Tisbury library building). The meeting is open to the public; a meeting of the newly elected board of directors will follow.

Ring In New Year In Ring of Fire

The three words sound scary: ring of fire. In the Pacific Ocean, it’s where a lot of earthquakes and volcanoes go off. To Johnny Cash it was where you fell in love. But to disc golfers, it’s where you triumph over all those who lack your finesse with a frisbee — on three, two, one — as everyone throws simultaneously into the chain-link cage called a hole in disc golf.

The Chilmark Community Center provided the perfect backdrop for a thorough community experience this past Saturday, an event called Family Film Feast put on by the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival.

Sometime in the early 1950s, Chilmark resident Allan Keith remembers spotting a funny looking bird while out for a walk. Intrigued, he looked the bird up in a book as soon as he got home. A short time later, he spotted a different bird and again pulled out a book to try to identify it. Six decades later, Mr. Keith is recognized as one of the leading birders and naturalists on the Vineyard.

It was the worst weather year in memory. Summer didn’t arrive until August and there was rainfall, record-breaking rainfall. The Vineyard received, as of Wednesday morning, 53.68 inches of rain in 2009, which is almost eight inches more than its annual average.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has a suc cessful history of protecting the Island from development that would enrich the few while hurting the public as a whole. Its temporary moratorium on large wind turbines deserves great praise as a courageous step given the risk of being branded antigreen energy. A pause to stop and understand fully the benefits and risks of siting industrial facilities (that’s what they are) on the Island is precisely what is needed because the debate over wind energy projects has become completely unbalanced.

The following is an edited version of a letter sent to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission:

On Thursday, Jan. 21 you will consider tes timony to rescind the designation of an important overlay zoning district in the town of Oak Bluffs.

I am writing to you because I am opposed to the proposal to rescind the designation of the Copeland Plan district of critical planning concern.

Personal Touches

From Gazette editions of January, 1935:

STOP THE DEVELOPMENT

Editors, Vineyard Gazette: