From the Vineyard Gazette edition of January, 1970:

In the decade just past, Gay Head has become a National Landmark, Cedar Tree Neck has been preserved as a nature sanctuary, Felix Neck a guarded precinct for wildlife, Wasque Point has been saved, Dodger Hole Swamp was a gift to the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and the Alexander S. Reed Bird Refuge was established.

The Polly Hill Arboretum’s herbarium collection began in 2001, with a gift of algae specimens from Island resident and seaweed expert, the late Rose Treat. A herbarium is a scientific resource consisting primarily of a collection of dried, pressed plant specimens. Herbarium specimens record the past and provide users with the historic and current locations of plants over time.

The Screenwriter’s Daughter, the current Vineyard Playhouse production written and directed by Larry Mollin, is more than a performance — it’s a resurrection of history.

Judith Hannan spent the first couple of decades of her working life floating from one job to another — a clerk, an office temp, a secretary, a fundraiser.

“I’m like a jellyfish. I just drift. I have drifted into everything I’ve ever done,” she said. “But once I became a mother, for the first time I felt so unbelievably engaged.”

Traeger di Pietro first started painting for love. He was 15; she was artsy and he was a jock, a baseball player. He knew her ex-boyfriend had painted her things and he wanted to impress her too. His first paintings were small still lifes of flowers and roses.

“I never stopped, I just kept going and going,” he said. Now he’s a full-fledged member of the Island arts scene, and has received acclaim from art collectors and artists alike.

Each week the folks at Cinema Circus show a series of short films on Wednesday evenings at the Chilmark Community Center. The films begin at 6 p.m. but at 5 p.m. the circus — complete with jugglers, face painters, stilt walkers, food and music — gets under way.

An advanced screening of the films was arranged with two young Island cineastes. In a world with few certainties, the kid critic is the critic to trust. This week’s reviewers are twins Olive Mae and Violet Jeanne MacPhail.

Names: Olive Mae and Violet Jeanne MacPhail

Ages: 6

School: On our way to first grade at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School

Pets: Bruin, Buster or Rooibos the dog, Yellow Peep the rooster.

Something new you are learning: Olive: Even and odd numbers. Violet: taking away numbers.

New places you would like to explore: Olive: The Caribbean. Violet: China.

No more waiting for Lyme disease test results; the test can now be done at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in about 40 minutes compared with a two-day wait.

About two weeks ago the hospital began testing people for Lyme disease using a piece of equipment recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the Biomerieux MiniVIDAS analyzer.

Dr. Lena Prisco, lab director at the hospital, said the instrument detects Lyme antibodies in patient blood samples.

Corrections

A photograph that accompanied a story in the Friday Gazette about the lost art of harpooning swordfish from the Vineyard incorrectly identified a person in the picture. It was Todd Mayhew, not Jeremy Mayhew, who was pictured with his father Greg Mayhew.

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A commentary on the Vineyard African American community carried an incorrect last name for Zita Cousens, owner of Cousen Rose in Oak Bluffs.

The Gazette regrets the errors.

2 Upper Douglas Lane in Oak Bluffs sold for $360,000 on June 19.