Harvest Papermaking

Fall is a great time to harvest and process plant fibers for papermaking. Seastone Papers, a teaching studio for hand papermaking, surface designing, and book arts on Christiantown Road, West Tisbury, will offer a workshop on Saturday, Nov. 24 from 1 to 4 p.m. using local plant fibers which will be prepared, cooked, and beaten for sheet forming.

Ethan Arrives

Lila DiBiaso and Owen DiBiaso of West Tisbury announce the birth of a son, Ethan Rider DiBiaso, born on Nov. 10 at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital. Ethan weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces at birth.

Announcing Braylin

Jade Hattingh and Neylor Flavio Couto of Vineyard Haven announce the birth of a daughter, Braylin Kayl Hattingh, born Oct. 24 at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital. Braylin weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces at birth.

A basic computer skills class will be offered at Oak Bluffs Public Library on Thursday, Nov. 29, from 10:45 a.m. to noon. Learn the different parts of a computer, general tips for using Windows operating systems, how to use the keyboard and mouse, and strategies to help you learn more. There will also be time to ask specific computer questions that you may have.

No prior computer experience is necessary, this course is for absolute beginners.

There is limited seating available for this program, so please call the library to sign up, at 508-693-9433.

Shifting Sands

Scientific study is yielding valuable insights into coastal erosion. Researchers have discovered that permanent structures built in attempts to contain and control erosion — jetties, groins and seawalls — vary in effect between futility and making things worse.

Government and private individuals build these structures in good faith: sometimes to protect roads and houses, sometimes as a strategy to catch and retain sand drifting in the water down the shoreline.

Saturday at McCarthy Field: The Big Game

Whoever said it was only a game had it wrong. Like so many of the great football rivalries across the decades — Harvard and Yale, Army and Navy, Ohio State and Michigan — the rivalry between the Vineyard and Nantucket is buried deep in the psyche of the people who live on the two Islands. The slumbering beast awakens once a year with an infectious burst of energy and rah-rah. In this case that means the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and this year the Big Game will be played at home.

ROARING SUCCESS

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Once in a while, something happens on the Vineyard that makes you take stock of the wonderful place where you live.

That happened to us Saturday, Nov. 10, when we launched our latest children’s book, Thirty Dirty Sailors and the Little Girl Who Went a-Whaling.

Unless you are the world’s biggest fan of déjà vu, you probably do not enjoy the nonstop reruns of late-night talk shows, and it will only get worse as the Writers Guild of America strike marches on.

Scripted shows are now either getting pulled all together or destined to grind to a halt in the middle of the season at the most painful cliffhanger imaginable, leaving you and your family to resort to unspeakable alternative entertainment such as bingo or — gulp — conversation.

It was as cold as charity at 8:30 a.m. on the West Tisbury School soccer fields last Saturday. The wind cut right through you, and it was periodically spitting rain.

The Vineyard’s fall youth soccer season was ending, not with a bang, but with a shiver.

It might have seemed a sad end to the season — particularly considering that the previous week’s play had been abandoned to the remnants of Hurricane Noel — except that the kids didn’t seem to mind at all.

This is our second stint as editors for Sophomores Speak Out. This week we have a different set of opinions on everything from Halloween to school, child abuse and even greyhounds. Enjoy the read.

— Breanne Russell and Troy (85) Small

Why Help Darfur?

By Eric Fletcher >