The same week the 68th annual Vineyard derby came to a close, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced results of its 58th annual young of the year survey of striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay.

The fuel assistance program is accepting applications. Applicants under 60 years of age can schedule an appointment at the Oak Bluffs Council on Aging by calling 508-693-4509. Seniors may apply at the local councils on aging: Edgartown, 508-627-4368; Oak Bluffs, 508-693-4509; Tisbury, 508-696-4205; Up-Island, 508-693-2896, and Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, 508-645-9265. Applications will be taken through April 30, 2014.

After I wrote about the nasty accumulation of boxes in my basement, several readers stopped me on the street, not to chastise me for having so many but to inquire why I had so few. “You only have two dozen boxes? Is your house big enough to absorb everything you moved there?” one said.

From the Nov. 2, 1945 Gazette:

About 50 children and nearly as many adults attended the Hallowe’en party held Wednesday evening in Agricultural Hall by the West Tisbury Grange, and if noise was any indication of a good time the party was certainly a howling success.

Is the Island school’s strings program inessential to educating our children, as Tisbury All-Island School Committee representative Colleen McAndrews claims? (Public School Budget Soars, Oct. 25.)

Only if critical skills such as persistence, collaboration, creativity, discipline, confidence, communication, a sense of beauty and the ability to listen are inessential.

There is a sign at First Bridge on the Beach Road that says no jumping or diving. The sign, of course, is a joke. You can’t drive past the bridge in the summer without seeing 20 or 30 kids standing on the bridge railing preparing to jump.

Here we go again. Will the Vineyard Haven DPW not rest until this connector road system is passed? Please, I appreciate Fred LaPiana’s work, but it is time to put this piece of his retirement plan to rest. Since when does a town commence such a large project on the verge of the director’s departure to Florida?

As someone who voted in favor of the marijuana dispensary ballot initiative, I have been surprised to learn how flawed the regulations are, what few safeguards are in place to assure a commonsense approach to allow the drug to be available.

The Gazette’s front page piece on cyber-bullying last week dramatically illustrated the terrible impact cyber-bullying can have on our teens if allowed to proceed uncensored in a toxic environment under the cloak of anonymity.

We have been coming to the Vineyard in October for the last 28 years, due to the generosity of my husband’s cousin and the use of her small home. For the past two years, we have rented a house. This was our first vacation since my husband retired and we were staying for the glorious month of October in our favorite place in the world. We bring a kayak and bike and a truckload of supplies and we always go home with more than we bought as we spend Saturdays at garage/estate sales.