A crowd of about 120 year-round and seasonal residents sat before a
large screen at the new agricultural hall in West Tisbury on Wednesday
to witness an eye-opening computer simulation which chronicled the
history of development on the Vineyard over the past 400 years.

Judy Blume loves to read. She has stacks of books piled around her
house. They fill bookshelves, clutter the kitchen counter and sit
precariously on coffee tables, leaving no room for coffee cups. "I
wrote to Dave Eggers this winter," she said, gesturing to his
book, The What of the What, which sat at the top of one pile. "He
e-mailed back!"

She confessed that she still gets nervous around other writers,
particularly if she has not yet met them.

Island Escapes Mortgage Crisis

Vineyard Bankers Say Mortgages Stay at Home for Most Part; But
Telephones Are Ringing From National Meltdown

By JACK SHEA

Your mortgage is safe if you borrowed locally, and credit-worthy
customers can obtain a local mortgage as easily as last year, Vineyard
bankers said this week.

Whistle Stop Weekend Begins

Two Presidential Hopefuls Stage Fundraisers This Weekend; Hillary
Clinton Will Take Tabernacle Center Stage

By MIKE SECCOMBE

In the three-way contest for the hearts, minds and wallets of
Democratic Party supporters on the Vineyard, Hillary Clinton, it is now
clear, is way out in front.

Over the next six days, the three front runners for the
party's Presidential nomination will hold events on the Island:
John Edwards this evening, Mrs. Clinton on Saturday and Barack Obama
next Wednesday.

It is a familiar site in the Vineyard in the summer going back
hundreds of years: shellfishermen at low tide in the mornings raking the
sandy bottom of Sengekontacket Pond and filling wire bushel baskets with
quahaugs.

An account of the first Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society
Fair, which at the time was called simply the fair and cattle show, from
the Oct. 14, 1859 edition of the Vineyard Gazette recounts that the show
was "well attended by people from all parts of the County."

First, start somewhere familiar. Chopping parsley in the kitchen.
Listening to headphones on 44th street. Observing three-year-olds throw
insults like Big Sewerface at a birthday party.

Then, follow a trail of crumbs into the woods. Better yet, find a
rabbit hole and jump down it. Or pull the candle stick on the mantle in
the haunted house and slip through the bookcase when it swivels around.
Enter the less familiar, somewhat weird, darkly funny, sometimes
frightening.

Howard Dean Tells Democrats a New Day Is Coming in 2008

By MIKE SECCOMBE

It's scary what political parties know about you. Even Howard
Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee concedes that,
although he relishes it too.

"We can tell you what magazines you read, what DVDs you watch,
which restaurants you go to and what credit cards you use, et cetera, et
cetera," he told a crowd gathered for a fundraiser at the East
Chop home of Connie Borde last Thursday.

Island Plan Series Heads to Final Round With Wednesday Forum on
Development

By MIKE SECCOMBE

After 18 months of research and meetings, benign intentions and
utopian visions for future of the Vineyard, tomorrow will mark the
point, predicted Jim Athearn, where the rubber really hits the road.

Wednesday evening is the final in the series of the Island Plan
public forums - the big one, where motherhood intentions meet
vested interests: development and growth. The forum begins at 7:30 p.m.
in the new agricultural hall in West Tisbury.

Andrew Woodruff, the owner of Whippoorwill Farm who is best known
for bringing community supported agriculture to the Vineyard, is
scrambling to put together a group to buy Thimble Farm to block a sale
of the farm to a private buyer.

The deadline is August 28 and the outcome is at best uncertain.