p> The SSA has sunk low in displaying large gaudy advertising “art” in the new ferry. As usual, business interests, largely indifferent to values other than profit, have pulled strings and worked their will: to scribble their graffiti over every blessed empty public space.

A flinty sun was dropping brilliantly, taking the temperature with it as the countdown to show time began Friday evening in the outdoor horse ring at the agricultural fair ground —­ but it was the gleaming white Lippizan stallions that shone.

Red Cross Slates Workplace Safety Seminar

The American Red Cross, Cape Cod and Islands chapter will has scheduled a workplace safety informational seminar for Sept. 26 in Hyannis.

The seminar will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at the Four Points by Sheraton Hyannis Resort at the West End Rotary.

A proposal by the Chilmark planning board to require solar thermal heating for swimming pools is an example of a small but meaningful step to make the Vineyard more energy self-sufficient.

The idea also reflects a quiet yet crucial change in pursuing that worthy goal: shifting the self-sufficiency initiative from broad goals outlined by the Vineyard Energy Project to the nitty-gritty of adoption and enforcement of particular measures by individual Island towns.

Over the weekend a young girl, about middle school-aged, wandered into the community room at co-housing in West Tisbury just before a yoga class was set to begin. She knew the yoga instructor. “What’s new?” he asked her. “Back to school,” the affable child replied with a smile.

A story about the Menemsha Pond sailboat races in the Friday Gazette misspelled the name of Nicholas Karnovsky. The Gazette regrets the error.

Four Generations Art Gallery opened its second annual Hudson River this weekend, yet in the coming weeks the gallery will continually add new works featuring the river, its cliffs its now-vanished fishermen and its now transformed views of new York city.

The Ortlip family maintained a studio for over 50 years atop the New Jersey Palisades, overlooking the river and the glittering lights of New York city. Paul Ortlip, father of gallery director Michele Ortlip, created a huge series of paintings and drawings depicting the Hudson River.

Thursday, Sept. 13

Opening Night Party on the rooftop at the Mansion House Inn from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. with music from Phil DaRosa, dors d’oeuvres and Champagne and wines.

Opening Night Film at the Capawock Theatre on Main street in Vineyard Haven.

8 p.m. The Owl and the Sparrow, a love story set in Saigon (97 minutes) with post-screening discussion with director Stephane Gauger.

Friday, Sept. 14 At the Capawock:

Driven by 23 foreclosures in Vineyard Haven during the first half of 2007, Island home foreclosure activity rose from 17 in 2006 to 40 for the same period in 2007, an increase of 235 per cent.

Some evidence suggests the increase has ties to subprime lending, where lenders do business with borrowers who can’t obtain conventional mortgage financing and charge them higher costs.

The breeze in the air on Friday, the last day of August, brought with it a hint of fall. The afternoon was clear and warm, but the wind felt cool. So it was a comfort to walk into the kitchen of the Magnuson home in West Tisbury, just shy of the Chilmark border, where the sweet autumn smells of cinnamon and cooking apples filled the air. Behind their house, Debbie and Eric Magnuson run one of the Island’s only commercial orchards, growing apples and pears that they sell from their home and at Morning Glory Farm.