As recent lengthy obituaries in national newspapers attest, Anthony Lewis was a remarkable journalist. What always struck me most about his writing was the clarity of his thinking, the forcefulness of his prose and the directness of his voice. A legal journalist and columnist for The New York Times, he made the complicated decisions of the United States Supreme Court understandable to lawyers and non-lawyers alike.

I’m a lifelong Chilmarker. Growing up, Nashaquitsa Pond and its surroundings were my world. I consider myself both fortunate and extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to play amongst those hills as a child. This is where I was raised. This is where my father grew up, where my grandfather and great grandfather grew up . . . all the way back to the home of the first Benjamin Mayhew, whose father, John, was Chilmark’s first English settler.

When my mother and father met they were working at the same department store in our town; she on the fourth floor in girdles and bras and he in the mezzanine in sports equipment. She bought a baseball glove for her brother from him and was shocked when on the same bus going home that night there was the tall handsome salesman.

As we build And repair the harbor I see your hand It comes up Dripping From deep within The sandy bottom

The valley of the Mill Brook is only as wide as the shadow of a cloud.

But many memories have settled here. From Waskosim’s Rock I see

the leaves along the frost bottom have changed. Reflecting in the string

of ponds along North Road, they blow through another sky, below

other clouds — leaves and the likeness of past leaves. One February,

I walked along the brook listening to it murmuring under the ice.

It is still snowing in my mind. That day that winter, the flakes falling

The Schifter house move presents a sobering contradiction. The goal is to save a property from the effects of climate change, but the means to this end is leaving a horrendous carbon footprint.

A big summer home used to be 5,000 square feet. Now a big summer home is 20,000 square feet. Where are we headed?

Regarding All Clear (a Gazette Chronicle), what a fascinating piece of Island (and social) history!

I have been a full-time washashore for a year now, and an active member of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club since August.

Regarding the Gazette story of March 22 headlined: “Have Host Will Travel, Ticks And Deer Thrive On Vineyard.”

The Vineyard is famous for many things, one being ticks.

A remarkable picture of Beach Road (circa 1900) placed on Facebook by Martha’s Vineyard Antique Photos sparked a discussion among Shelley Christiansen, Tom Dunlop, Sam Low and others about erosion at End of the Wall beach in Oak Bluffs. The loss is even more deceptive given the absence of surf on Nantucket Sound and startling because even average northeasters close the road at the culvert we used to call first bridge, once a crabbing spot.