Chicks With Poker Chips

The Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network hosts a poker afternoon on Sunday, Jan. 27, at The Wharf in Edgartown. From 1 to 4 p.m. Linda Gandel, director of owner relations at the Harbor View Hotel, will share her Texas Hold ’em poker skills. Admission is $15, and no registration is necessary.

The network is a professional businesswomen’s group on Martha’s Vineyard, providing continuing education and networking opportunities.

Join a Jamaican Feast

An Indian feast earlier this month and, now, a five-course dinner from Jamaica: enjoy dinner on Saturday at the Dr. Daniel Fisher House while supporting the International Travel Fund at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School.

Island Grown Gourmets

The Island Grown Initiative brings together the culinary arts students from Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and chef Dan Sauer from the Outermost Inn to prepare a winter meal using local ingredients. The event is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. at the high school.

Tickets are $25 and go to support the culinary arts program. They are available at down-Island Cronig’s Market and SBS. For more information, get in touch with Noli Hoye of Island Grown Initiative at noli@islandgrown.org.

The Big Chili Contest

If you’ve been bragging about your secret family recipe, and know you have the chili the world has been waiting for, now’s your chance to prove it.

Join some of the best chili chefs around on Saturday, Jan. 26 from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Portuguese-American Club in Oak Bluffs for the 22nd Annual mvyradio Big Chili Contest.

The Bodhi Path of Martha’s Vineyard will host a weekend teaching series with the Venerable 5th Dilyag Sabchu Rinpoche called Calm Abiding Meditation: A Mind Transformed on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 26 and 27 from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 to 4 p.m. both days. The suggested donation is $15 to $20 per session.

The Martha’s Vineyard Bodhi Path is located at 21 Laurand Drive, off Waldron’s Bottom Road in West Tisbury. For details, call 508-696-5929.

Eat For Life is a new Saturday evening series of free talks by holistic nutritional consultant Lisa Vunk, hosted by Natural Food Barn.

Everyone is welcome to get information and techniques to take control of your health. Weekly lectures will include such topics as the importance of eating organic (Saturday, Jan. 26), what you should know about genetically modified foods, and healthy alternatives to white sugar.

Fewer Island houses sold in 2007 for slightly more money than in 2006.

Despite a fourth-quarter rally, Island real estate transactions in 2007 declined 8.6 per cent, although median home sale prices increased 3.5 per cent from 2006.

Overall, fourth-quarter sales activity was the year’s strongest. But a three per cent increase in sales also included a seven per cent decline in median sales price.

Moves are afoot to use the economic stimulus package being planned by President Bush and Congress to deal with the national economic crisis, to also resolve an immigration problem which threatens to leave Island businesses without their usual supply of foreign seasonal workers.

Cong. William Delahunt is pushing the proposal to restore immigration provisions of the H2B visa scheme, which have expired as a result of the Congressional gridlock over immigration law.

Although it sounds more like a brand of malt liquor or a famous title from F. Scott Fitzgerald, a new government accounting standard called GASB 45 could force Island towns to open their books and set aside tens of millions of dollars in the coming years for post-retirement benefits for employees.

Peter Wells stands in the sun between Chappaquiddick and Edgartown on the On Time III, the Chappaquiddick ferry, which come Monday he will own, after a third of a century spent behind its wheel as captain.