Charter School

Monday, Sept. 17: Spaghetti with tomato sauce, meatballs, green beans, garlic bread, pears and milk.

Tuesday, Sept. 18: Chili with beef or vegetarian, grated cheese, corn bread, fruit smoothie and milk.

Wednesday, Sept. 19: Bagels with cream cheese, tuna salad or melted cheese and tomato, Greek salad, pineapple and milk.

Thursday, Sept. 20: Pizza (plain cheese, pepperoni or broccoli and mushroom), tossed salad, fresh fruit and milk.

Tonight after sunset, the thin crescent moon hangs low in the southwestern sky. The moon is moving from the zodiacal constellation Virgo to Libra.

The solution to the problems facing our great ponds is so simple that I can hear the slapping of foreheads as I write this — the Martha’s Vineyard Clam Club. Why not? If we’ve got clubs for folks to chase tiny balls and produce nothing better than figures on a scorecard, can’t you imagine a club where folks scour our ponds to produce a tasty meal? The problem is that clamming doesn’t have panache. Well it does, among a select few, but not the right select few. We need a CCC — a Celebrity Clamming Corps.

Return to Tivoli Day

The town of Oak Bluffs, planning a new celebration at the end of summer in 1978, turned to its own history and took the name of Tivoli from the community arcade building that was the pride of the town and the center of its nightlife at the lively turn of the century. Since 1978, Tivoli Day has taken root as a favorite celebration in the afterglow of the Labor Day holiday, a festive landmark placed squarely at the intersection of Island summer and fall.

Opening day at the 2007 Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby was a smash, including the recording of a first day grand slam by Capt. Tom Langman of Menemsha, likely a first day record. Derby president Ed Jerome said of the slam: “We don’t keep records for that but I don’t ever remember it happening on the first day. Certainly we’ve had one-day grand slams before but they are rare.”

Aquinnah has opened its heart and its parking spots to derby fishermen.

The Aquinnah selectmen on Friday voted at a hastily called special meeting to open resident-only parking lots to derby fisherman for the duration of the derby after learning that contestants have been avoiding Aquinnah fishing spots for several years because they feared tickets or tows.

Heidi Feldman dreams of dirt. “If you have dirt, you can do more farming,” she said this weekend. Ms. Feldman is picky about her dirt. She does not like what she has now — three inches of solid clay and sand beneath a layer of tilth. She yens for the good stuff. Had she been asked 16 years ago to list her life goals, dirt would not have made the cut. Then again, 16 years ago, Ms. Feldman was a computer programmer living in Jamaica Plain. She worked at a keyboard 40 hours a week and had never heard of Martha’s Vineyard.

Autumn foliage change has come early to the Vineyard and much of southeastern New England, not so much because it is September, but because it is dry.

Near-drought conditions have taken their toll. Maple and beetlebung trees, as water-sensitive trees, are stressed and already have turned color. Many of these and other trees are already dropping their leaves.

Island firefighters are at a high level of alert.

A 42-foot wooden schooner called Phra Luang won the 30th annual George Moffett Memorial Sailboat Race on Saturday.

The captain, Jeffrey A. Robinson of Vineyard Haven, was jubilant at the news. He built the schooner in Bangkok in 1984, and has sailed in Moffett Races since 1986.

Winds from the southwest were as high as 30 m.p.h. and there were a few sailors at the awards ceremony at the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club who thought it blew higher. Wind and waves and the course favored big boats with great reaching capability.

It wasn’t a score-fest like Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and New York Jets, but the regional high school football team’s 7-0 win over Old Rochester in the home opener Friday was equally impressive.

The Vineyarders’ defense shut down the potent Bulldogs attack, while the offense did not turn the ball over all game.