Ken Lay believes that simple is best.

The 20-year Edgartown resident holds 10 patents for inventions revolving around levers and fulcrums, two basic operations of the human body.

His latest and perhaps most ingenuously simple is The Bike Belt, a device that Mr. Lay estimated adds 30 per cent to the pedal power of the most casual bicyclist.

Woods Hole-New Bedford Service Resumes

New England Fast Ferry service linking New Bedford and Woods Hole resumed yesterday after being interrupted for about one week due to a mechanical error with one of the ferries.

The New Bedford to Woods Hole ferry service is a pilot program running through Nov. 10 that will test the market for commuters and tourists.

New England Fast Ferry also operates year-round service between the Vineyard and New Bedford under license from the Steamship Authority.

A Weapon to Defend Island Waters

The days slip by, one after another. First a hundred, then a thousand, then thousands more. The cesspool keeps leaking. The septic system isn’t repaired. The one-bedroom, one-toilet cottage is transformed into a three-bedroom, two-toilet home. And the quality of the water in Sengekontacket Pond continues to decline.

Disappearing Ancient Ways

On Thursday night the Martha’s Vineyard Commission will hold a public hearing on a proposal to include five ancient ways in the town of Edgartown in a special ways district of critical planning concern.

Public attendance is encouraged at this important gathering, which may well decide the future of Watcha Path, Tar Kiln Road, Middle Line Path, Pennywise Path and Ben Tom’s Road — old byways which are so much a part of Island history and are now threatened by encroaching development and misuse.

A DIFFERENT RESIDENT

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I would like it to be known that the “Susan Shea” mentioned in the article in the Vineyard Gazette on Sept. 14 by Mike Seccombe titled, Sengekontacket Fine Is Planned, dealing with board of health violations, is not me. I have a home in Ocean Heights but it is not on the Boulevard.

I personally feel that this article brings to light some of the problems that should be dealt with and checked by both Edgartown and Oak Bluffs.

By Polly Woollcott Murphy. From the Vineyard Gazette editions of November 1976:

By BRAD WOODGER

We’re all busy. More important, however, is that everybody else knows that we’re busy. Few street meetings or catch-up phone calls conclude without at least one reminder (lest we forget) that “I’m-we’re sooo crazy-wildly-insanely busy.” There seems to exist a fear within our community that we may be perceived as being idle. God forbid.

There is something evil and ugly lurking in the rules of the United States Croquet Association, and that is the rule that tournament matches should be played regardless of the weather — and this means rain.

It rained on the first day of the Edgartown Croquet Club’s tournament, with four matches being played in the morning and six played in the afternoon. A traditional courtside luncheon was served from Soigne, all according to the rules in the rain.

Renaissance House, a retreat for artists, celebrates its fifth year of survival with a benefit spoken word show on Friday, Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, and the public is invited to read.

To many, the idea of doing a tour of duty in Iraq is no laughing matter. Yet for Jim McCue, along with fellow Boston comedian and friend Joey Carroll, that’s exactly what it is, as they perform stand-up comedy to bring smiles and laughter to the troops’ otherwise very serious lives.

Now the Boston comedian and author of book Embedded Comedian, Jim McCue, performs with The Sopranos’ Frank Santorelli and the Island’s Marty Nadler, on Saturday, Sept. 22, at Outerland at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport.