First published on the Gazette Web site Friday morning.

The wheels on his bike stopped abruptly on Centre street behind Cafe Moxie when the pantry chef saw flames breaking through the roof of the restaurant around 9:40 a.m. on the Fourth of July. “I guess I don’t have work today,” he said sadly, and rode off.

THANK YOU, COMMUNITY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

What follows is an edited selection of reader comments from the Gazette Web site responding to the stories on the Independence Day fire.

My heart goes out to the owners of Bunch of Grapes and Cafe Moxie. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I’ve spent countless hours in Bunch of Grapes over the course of many years and it was always one of my first stops on my trips back to the Vineyard.

I remember when Cafe Moxie was a barber shop.

Joan Boyken

Denville N.J.

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No one would call the new book Island Lives a rip-roaring read. Certainly not its authors, Allan R. Keith and Stephen A. Spongberg.

“It’s dry as toast,” said Mr Spongberg the other day, talking about it, sitting beneath the trees at Polly Hill Arboretum. “Dry as toast,” he repeated. “The bibliography is the most important part.”

ISLAND LIFE: A CATALOG OF THE BIODIVERSITY ON AND AROUND MARTHA’S VINEYARD. By Allan R. Keith and Stephen A. Spongberg. Published in cooperation with the Marine Biological Laboratories, Woods Hole, Mass. 2008.

Truth comes from the mouths of babes — or rather kids, or young adults, or the future of humanity. Whatever you label them, these pint-sized pulse-takers of youth culture are back this summer with their own reviews of movies for young viewers screening every Wednesday at the Chilmark Community Center.

The organizers of the Summer Film Series at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival teamed up with the Gazette to bring you reviews by Island kids, here for the summer or year-round, each Tuesday, before each Wednesday film presentation.

One of the most accomplished paleoanthropologists of our time, Donald C. Johanson, will give a talk called What’s New in the Last Few Million Years tomorrow, July 9, at 7:30 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center on Centre street in Vineyard Haven.

Dr. Johanson has produced some of the field’s groundbreaking discoveries, including the most widely known and thoroughly studied fossil find of the 20th century — the Lucy skeleton.

His program is appropriate for children as young as fifth or sixth grade, and the cost is $15.

Arts a la Carte, a new children’s arts discussion series at the Featherstone Center for the Arts, will kick off this Thursday with a bang: a Molly Bang, that is.

Tashmoo Benefit

The second annual Tastes of Tashmoo fundraiser to benefit the restoration of the historic 1887 pumping station at the head of Lake Tashmoo will be held on July 17 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the waterfront home of Denys and Marilyn Wortman. The event will include a silent auction as well as music by Christine Box, Ray Frazio and Tristan Israel. More information and tickets are available by calling 508-696-4202 or e-mailing JJL@gis.net.

Environmental artist Terry Bastian will be on Island July 8 to install the Blue Wave Project, his temporary public art installation about global climate change. Mr. Bastian’s artwork is a Cristo-like piece of blue fabric arranged to look like a wave, marking where the sea may be in these communities 100 years from now if nothing is done about global warming today. He is marking cultural treasures in each community that may be lost, challenging the people to imagine how to save them.