Eat Dinner, Watch Dessert
Before you head to the sweet shop, how about a trip to France.
This Friday, Feb. 18, before the evening performance of Willy Wonka, Les Troubadours are putting together a French meal to be held at the high school cafeteria.
The meal will be served from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and consists of chicken marsala or vegetarian ratatouille with salad, rice pilaf and green beans.
The cost is $12 for adults and $8 for children with proceeds benefiting the Les Troubadours French club spring trip to France.
The Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival has been going on for 14 years. It is based in Titusville, Fla., which is next door to Cape Kennedy/Canaveral, but more to the point is near several great birding areas including the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Flip Harrington and I have attended almost every one of the 14 festivals. It is a great chance to get together with other bird-watchers, participate in field trips to great birding areas in Florida and learn from workshops and classroom presentations. Flip also uses the festivals to check out all the new optics that the exhibitors are displaying. We enjoy dinners with other birders and the various field trips. This year’s keynote talks were by Chuck Hagner of Birder’s World and Lillian and Donald Stokes, authors of the Stokes Field Guides.
Every now and then I get on some rampage and call my friend Sharlee to inquire if I am crazy.
Don’t hedge your bets on either of these two. í
Apart from the landscape designers who are talented enough to make terrific topiaries, I can’t imagine why boxwood shrubs and yew trees have become so popular. í
The cause of the fire that destroyed the Coast Guard boathouse and surrounding pier in Menemsha last July is unknown, a Coast Guard investigative team concluded in a report released early Wednesday afternoon. The cause may have been a lit cigarette left on the pier, or it may have been faulty wiring either in the boathouse or in the pier, the report found. “After completing all reasonable and logical leads . . . the cause of the fire is undetermined at this time,” the report concludes.
A few days ago, after we had an argument, my daughter Pickle, age three, announced she had another father. His name, she told me, is Bob Cheeks.
Evidently, this Mr. Bob Cheeks fellow never tells her it is time for bed. He can also read for hours without tiring and loves to be splashed repeatedly when giving her a bath.
After a year of negotiating with the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), the husband and wife team of Daniel Sauer and Wenonah Madison-Sauer signed a lease on Monday to take over Back Alley’s in West Tisbury.
The Sauers plan to operate a counter-service establishment with a focus on homemade, Island-grown food.
Don’t Stop the Music
Musicians from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School last weekend participated in the All Cape and Islands Music Festival held at Bourne High School.
The students were chosen by audition in November; it was the third consecutive year that all the regional high school students who auditioned were accepted.
With a special town meeting to cut a quarter million dollars from the current fiscal year budget in Oak Bluffs already scheduled for Feb. 22, on Tuesday selectmen turned their attention to the 2012 budget where the situation is even worse, with a $1.1 million projected deficit.
At the outset selectmen voted to approve a hiring freeze for the coming year, a move that will save the town $300,000.
But whether town leaders will need to ask voters for a Proposition 2 1/2 override remains an unsettled question.
