Spoon in the Moon

Spoon in the Moon Coffeehouse at the Vineyard Playhouse begins its second season on Saturday, Dec. 18.

The Playhouse, in association with Hummingbird Productions and Kate Taylor, presents Tish Hinojosa in a concert titled, From Texas for a Christmas Night.

Tish’s chart topping hits include Something in the Rain and By the Rio Grande. She will perform at 8 p.m.

Admission is $20 and advance tickets are on sale now through the Playhouse Web site, vineyardplayhouse.org.

At about 10:30 on Tuesday morning, on a fire trail deep in the state forest in West Tisbury, a small group of people gathered to talk about one of the innumerable achievements of the federal government’s $800 billion stimulus package.

And coincidentally, to draw attention to its big failing.

First, the success. The group, including Jeffrey Simon, director of the Massachusetts Recovery and Reinvestment office, was there to look at 310 acres which had been cleared of mostly-dead scrub oak, which presented a serious wildfire hazard.

West Tisbury selectmen were surprised to learn this week that their town’s assessment for the up-Island school district may spike by some $300,000 next year due to changing enrollment patterns in the district which serves the three up-Island towns.

The push for renewable energy has local officials pursuing solar power in Edgartown, wind in Aquinnah, even tidal power in the Muskeget Channel. Why not hydropower from Canada as well?

That’s the question Cong. William Delahunt has asked over the past few months as he has worked on behalf of the Cape and Islands to secure a partnership with the Canadian government to bring hydroelectricity from the far north to the 10th district.

In August Mr. Delahunt met with Quebec Premier Jean Charest to discuss the prospect of such a partnership.

The Martha’s Vineyard Museum has taken an option on the former Marine Hospital in Vineyard Haven, giving the museum’s board until the end of January to decide whether the historic property perched on a hilltop above the harbor could serve as the new home for the Island’s historical collections.

The marine hospital went on the market in April with an asking price of $3.19 million.

Every Christmas morning on the Island hundreds of children for whom the day would otherwise serve only as a reminder of want, tear through a heap of lovingly wrapped gifts. This owes, of course, to the prodigious efforts of Père Noel, but also to the dozens of merry-making volunteers at the Red Stocking Fund.

While other Island fund-raising efforts have floundered of late, with a new wing for this or that building going unfinished, it seems that Vineyarders’ compassion for their fellow man is constant.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission is facing a concerted push from at least two of the big down-Island towns to amend its processes for considering developments of regional impact (DRIs), out of concern they are inhibiting business activity.

Selectmen in both Tisbury and Oak Bluffs have signaled worries about the cost, delay and uncertainty which attaches to the commission’s review of proposed new developments, and are expected to argue for more local autonomy when the DRI process comes up for review next month.

Please Adopt Us

Last week was one of the most successful weeks we have ever had at the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard — four cats and two dogs were adopted by loving families.

Idyll Chatter

From Gazette editions of December, 1935:

NANCY GARDELLA

508-693-3308

(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)