A few weeks ago, in mid-December I was chatting with a woman I had just met in Vineyard Haven in the way strangers talk when waiting for their holiday gifts to be rung up at the cash register. Suddenly she stopped the banter and said, “You should come to a party someone told me about.”

Mr. Keating Goes to Washington

William Keating on Wednesday swore an oath to represent the people of the 10th Congressional District, including us here on the Vineyard, in our federal government. Say what you will about this moment in time — the worst recession, the most vicious partisanship, the biggest government, the least effective government — it all has been said before, in fact, it’s been said since the beginning.

Tale of Two Libraries

The West Tisbury and Edgartown library building projects are textbook examples of the right and wrong way to do things.

Hostel Award

The Martha’s Vineyard Hostel was named Most Efficient in Hostelling International New England’s Best Hostel Awards for 2010. Awards were based on more than 77,000 customer ratings and reports of 1,800 hostels worldwide.

The Vineyard hostel, located on the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road, was noted for the helpfulness of the staff and their need to make sure that everyone got the most out of their stay.

The Martha’s Vineyard Horse Council recognized riders at its annual awards banquet, held Sunday, Dec. 5 at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown.

In the hunter division, the Walk/Trot champion was Isabelle Littlefield, and reserve champion Isabella Thorpe.

The Walk/Trot/Canter champion was Ciara Seccombe.

The hunter champion in Short Stirrup Equitation was Mia Arenburg, and the reserve champion was Maddy Alley.

Dean’s List

Justin Kane, of Edgartown, has been named to the dean’s list at Suffolk University in Boston. He is the son of Kimberly and Richard Kane.

The 12-foot-long storefront sign for Edgartown Hardware came down on Tuesday afternoon. A small group assembled in front of the store to witness the retirement of the sign on a quiet midwinter day when few people were out and about on Main street. Work crews moving boxes from the old store into a waiting truck stopped and looked up as the sign came down.

Please Adopt Us

The holidays have come and gone and our most fervent wish for 2011 is for empty cages! It’s not because we don’t love all the animals, but we do want them to find homes. So we ask everyone who loves animals to come by the shelter and see what a wonderful, sweet group of cats we have just waiting to be adopted.

As political fault lines continue to undermine the struggling Edgartown library rebuilding project, the town selectmen have called a special meeting for Monday afternoon to address the problems.

The meeting will be held at 3:30 p.m. prior to the weekly selectmen’s meeting.

“This committee has been making bad decisions for six years,” declared Edgartown selectman Michael Donaroma, also a member of the library building committee, following a tense meeting with elected library trustees on Tuesday night.

By virtue of his job, Tisbury ambulance coordinator Jeff Pratt is something of an expert on the hazards of winter.

The worst, he says, is when snow falls and is not cleared before the temperature falls, turning it to ice.

“Once or twice every single winter I can ever remember, we get a period where soft, wet snow turns to ice and the temperature doesn’t warm for many days,” he said. “Then there are so many falls.”