A rising tide lifts all boats, they say. But the old aphorism about the economy apparently does not hold true for Vineyard real estate, as the most recent property valuations show.

HIGH ON THE HOG: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America. By Jessica B. Harris. Bloomsbury, January 2011. 304 pages, photographs. $26, hardcover.

It amazes new students of ar chaeology that the most essential insights into a bygone community may be found in the humble section of rubble called the kitchen midden. It’s here that broken plate ware is examined, along with iron pots and pans and broken ceramic jars containing trace elements of oil from which experts reassemble the daily fabric of a past society’s life.

I drove into Owen Park and parked on the hill to hunt for my gloves. Driving while feeling under car seats is not good. I could have left them in a couple of places, or they might be in one of the pockets of the four layers I had on. Actually I hadn’t seen them since yesterday. So they may have been blown into some corner of the market parking lot last night.

Every profession seems to produce a savant who can write about it with a sensibility that few equate with workers in that field. For chefs that writer is Anthony Bourdain, and in the same field, going farther back was George Orwell as a hapless busboy in Down and Out in Paris and London, letting us in on the full horror below-stairs at swank European hotels.

D eliberately or circumstantially, we are somewhat locked away, and an Island winter is a great equalizer, so one’s nature determines how it plays out. For those who relish inspiration from society and prefer external direction provided by entertainments and infusions of energy, the Island in winter is somewhat a bore, or worse . . . an easy path to the land of poor choices.

But for others, self-starters with hearty spirits, winter is a sensual treasure. We have the time to enjoy neighborly visits, social gatherings, and learning opportunities and projects.

TOWERS OF HOPE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

It is time for us all to embrace wind power. What a joy it is to see these beacons of hope sprouting up here in New England. How can anyone who uses electricity not think the same? Isn’t it great driving from Woods Hole to Falmouth? To see the white blades soaring into the sky saying, “We are on the grounds of an institution of higher learning — we are here to promote the greater good for all!”

Silent Stigma

We do not talk much about mental illness. Considering how widespread such disorders are — whether depression or dementia, bipolar or anxiety disorders, schizophrenia or some of the two hundred other possible diagnoses assigned to tens of millions of Americans each year — it is remarkable how singularly ill-prepared we are to cope with finding out someone we love is suffering from a mental illness. Family, where we take everything to heart, becomes a place of seemingly inexpressible heartbreak.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?

Those iconic words have rattled around in the back of my head for more than four decades. It never crossed my mind I would someday reach that milestone. Sixty-four! Why that borders on the upper end of middle age, for goodness sake. But here I am, ready to face the music, so to speak.

Up-Island School Values

The cost of operating the Chilmark School is on the table for discussion again — this time in West Tisbury, which will carry the heaviest burden this year for the up-Island Regional School District budget.

The added cost burden can be tracked to increased enrollment of West Tisbury students in the Chilmark School. The two schools serve the three up-Island towns of Aquinnah, Chilmark and West Tisbury, which are all members of the regional school district.

Welcome Banjamin

Amanda Dickson and Matthew Parker of Oak Bluffs announce the birth of a son, Benjamin Arthur Parker, born on Jan. 31, 2011, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Benjamin weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces at birth.