STOP THE DEVELOPMENT

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

A Decade Ends

Pool of Glory

Island Pools & Spas won a bronze award at this year’s Association of Pool & Spa Professionals’ International Awards of Excellence ceremony in Las Vegas last month.

The Edgartown-based company received the award in the category, Vanishing Edge 601 Square Foot or More, for its installation in Edgartown. The pool also has been featured in editorial selections nationwide due to its design and craftsmanship.

More than 400 pool, spa and hot tub projects were entered in the competition.

The Adult and Community Education Program (ACE MV) in-person registration will be held Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 5 and 6 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the lobby of the regional high school. ACE offers a variety of classes for enrichment, training and for graduate and undergraduate credit from Northeastern University college of professional studies and school of education. Another credit course is pending through Cape Cod Community College.

Tuesday Night Talks

The Vineyard Haven Evening Lecture Series begins this week, on Tuesday Jan. 5, when Dr. Jim Norton introduces the books of Greg Mortenson: the recently released bestseller Stones into Schools and Three cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time.

Oak Bluffs resident Todd Alexander will attend this first session. Through a separate project much like Mr. Mortenson’s, Mr. Alexander has been helping to build schools in rural Cambodia. One of the Cambodian students will accompany him.

If you haven’t found Mars yet, tomorrow night, Jan. 2, offers a great opportunity. The moon and Mars appear side by side. The moon is one day past full moon, and the two rise together about an hour after sunset. They are in the zodiacal constellation Cancer, near the Sickle in the constellation Leo, the lion.

Fondly known on the Vineyard as “the wire guy,” or “man of steel,” West Tisbury artist Steve Lohman has experienced national and international recognition for his gift of twisting metal into art. But when he received an e-mail in October from someone at Louis Vuitton inviting him to Asia on a commission, he thought it was a joke.

It almost seems like one word; inthese difficulteconomictimes. But there’s an upside to this winter of financial discontent, this season of eating cheaply: Island restaurants have created such good deals that after a night of rice and beans, already leftover, you can splurge without a guilty conscience or a fat wallet. Make it social, split the check, and get an even better deal plus the psychic bonus of a good gossip.

There are very few people in the world who would take a vacation to the Southern Ocean. Flip and I and 60 others are part of these few. The flights alone might discourage the weak at heart. They started on the Vineyard, thence to Boston, Newark, N.J., San Francisco, over the international dateline to land, 20-plus hours and a day later, in Auckland, New Zealand.

I claim full responsibility for the typographical errors in my last week’s column. My handwriting could use some improvement. When I first began writing for the paper almost three years ago I used a typewriter. It finally gave out and I was unable to purchase new ribbon. Now, I know I should use a computer but honestly, I just plain refuse. About a year ago, I began handwriting, and Lauren from the Gazette staff is kind to collect it from my kitchen counter weekly. I recently have switched from ballpoint pen to an American made Ticonderoga number two pencil.