In the midst of dire news about declining fish stocks, the developing oyster farming industry on the Vineyard offers a rare opportunity for optimism.

It was never part of the official Roberts Rules of Order, but anyone who attended an annual or special town meeting in Aquinnah in the past three and a half decades knew about the Delaney Rule.

What seems like eons ago when I was a tyke, my maternal grandmother schlepped (Yiddish to drag or pull) me from our home in Brooklyn to the Catskills.

I swear I was born swimming laps. I have always craved the water.

Gay Head Light

In Memoriam: Todd Follansbee

Nothing gay this gray morning.
The salt-sprayed trees
and bushes bend over
like scared students,
tested by a towering teacher —
all brick, iron and glaring
glass — missing nothing.

Alternately menacing and amorous, Thoth and Lila’Angelique of Tribal Baroque sang, fiddled, percussed, and danced.

Every once in awhile when I was a child summering at East Chop, a four or five-masted schooner would come into sight, white sails filled with wind.

The obituary for Dr. Laura L. Reid wonderfully captured her unique personality, vivaciousness, and joy in life and love of people.

As always we had a wonderful time on Martha’s Vineyard from August 16 to 23, a time we choose because of the Agricultural Fair.

Seven Island churches are casting out into the community with a new youth group program they’re calling The Net, aimed at middle and high school aged students.