How did Tina Chang become the Poet Laureate of Brooklyn? By writing the following words:

“I walk the streets of Brooklyn looking at this storefront and that, buy a pair of shoes I can’t afford, pumps from London, pointed at the tip and heartbreakingly high, hear my new heels clicking, crushing the legs of my shadow.”

Well, actually that is a mere sampling of her work taken from her poem Duality. There is so much more to choose from.

In the 1966 documentary, The Endless Summer, director Bruce Brown chronicled the journey of two friends from California chasing waves across the globe. It was a seminal movie that helped fuel the rise of the burgeoning sport. Yes, surfing once was referred to as burgeoning; just a minor blip on the marketers’ radar and considered an activity for outsiders on a par with getting a tattoo. How times have changed.

Spy Talk

The CIA is speaking. Well, at least Vicki Divol, former CIA lawyer, is talking and she’s doing it right here at the Chilmark Public Library.

Ms. Divol’s lecture is entitled Can the President Keep Counterterrorist Operations Secret from Congress? It will take place on Wednesday, August 3, at 5:30 p.m.

Rafaela Arrives

Fernanda Murta and Vaiceir Rangel of West Tisbury announce the birth of a daughter, Rafaela Murta Rangel, born on July 30, 2011, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Rafaela weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces at birth.

Welcome Lauren

Sarah and Jason Look of West Tisbury announce the birth of a daughter, Lauren Jane Look, born on July 22, 2011, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Lauren weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces at birth.

The poem begins with the routine event of chopping parsley, a serious and yet absurd musing on a nursery rhyme known to all — three blind mice — and quickly spins into a quiet meditation on the sneaking cynicism that prevents us from feeling, and then, in shame, makes us feel all the more.

By CAMRON ADIBI

Chappaquiddick is an island again. This has created a noticeable and understandable reaction from people on Chappy and beyond. Personally, this dramatic movement of sand has stirred something deep inside me. The Norton Point breach has become the Grand Canyon of the East. The sheer force and power makes me feel like a small speck in the continuum of time, just as I felt when staring at Lava Falls Rapid in the Grand Canyon.

In 1958, on the 10th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt rhetorically asked the question:

So there I was, hurtling along the West-Tisbury-Edgartown Road in my 1948 red Willys Jeepster convertible, the wind blowing in my hair, sun shining on my face and 200 pounds of patty-pan squash riding comfortably along with me in my open-air vehicle. Was this a dream, had I robbed a farm stand or was I planning to feed famished friends? No, no, and well, maybe, sort of. Let me put on the brakes and explain. (Don’t worry, the squash are securely boxed. I installed seat belts. And the Jeepster is not that fast.)

From Gazette editions of August, 1960:

Piles of lumber, joists, furring boards of various lengths and thickness, all rapidly diminishing, and some scattered stones and lumps of mortar are all that remains of the Eastville Inn. Soon the ground will be cleared, raked over, no doubt seeded with grass, and another Island landmark will sink into oblivion.