A rare algal bloom has shut down shellfishing in Lake Tashmoo during a week where other Vineyard swimming spots were closed because of bacteria.

Seth’s Pond, the popular swimming hole in West Tisbury, has been closed to swimmers for more than a week because of high levels of enterococcus bacteria. The same bacteria led to a brief closure of Pay Beach in Oak Bluffs.

Starting Wednesday, Lake Tashmoo was closed to shellfishing because of a toxic algae bloom that some said is rare to Vineyard ponds.

Lyme disease, the tick-borne illness that has been documented at epidemic levels on the Vineyard, is now the focus of a growing public health initiative that involves Island doctors, boards of health and university researchers.

The initiative, which aims to zero in on prevention, education, and improved data collection, is seen by at least one leading expert as a possible model for the rest of the state.

Kristen Kusama-Hinte arrived on-Island in early June. A couple of weeks later, her son had a fever. She tended to him, sleeping on the floor by his side. She checked her own and discovered a 100-degree temperature and didn’t pay much attention. She got a stiff neck and again didn’t pay much heed. When a terrible headache hit, she knew something was wrong.

The Highlands, as they are familiarly known, are located on East Chop, the general boundary being laid out like the Methodist Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs, with a central circle ringed by house lots along curving avenues.

The Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard has some beautiful cats available for adoption. They are: Butter and Chloe, two beautiful tortoiseshells; Deacon and Mango, two handsome ginger tiger cats; Panchie, a gray and white whose owner died recently; Thor, a big, older gentleman who really needs to have a home of his own. The shelter also has two adorable tiger kittens, Julia and Meredith, who are only six or seven weeks old and may be adopted by the time this appears in print. Anyone who wants a kitten may sign up on the shelter wish list and will be called as soon as one becomes available for adoption.

If you live on the Vineyard and haven’t had Lyme disease, it’s a good bet you know someone who has. The risk of contracting the disease while hiking, gardening or just headed to the beach is at its peak right now, when the nymphal deer tick that carries it is most active.

Oh what fresh hell is this?

Those were Dorothy Parker’s words, and who knows to what original hell she referred? Her wry brand of anguish has entered the lexicon of familiar quotations; we can invoke it for any horror, from a splash of red wine on a white shirt to a six-car pileup on the San Bernardino Freeway.

From the Vineyard Gazette edition of July, 1945:

The Lambert’s Cove Methodist Church, atop its rise of high ground in one of the beautiful parts of the Island, is one hundred years old this year.

At first glance it would seem that allowing folks in seaplanes to zoom into any of our great ponds is a bad idea. And maybe it is. But, according to a knowledgeable bush pilot friend, the pilot who landed recently on Edgartown Great Pond, Thomas Miozzi of Rhode Island, was within his rights. Most water bodies are open to seaplanes unless there is a local ordinance against them. The seaplane pilots association lists Tisbury Great Pond, Edgartown Great Pond and Chilmark Pond as “Open, no known restrictions,” in their water landing directory.

Six months ago marked the 216th anniversary of the publication of Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine, a book that reshaped American thought at that time and helped provide the foundation for the United States.