Vets Roundtable Talk

Vineyard veterans have been working for some time to restore health clinic services for veterans at the Island hospital. A contract between the Veterans Administration and the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital expired five years ago, although no one discovered the problem until about a year and a half ago when veterans began receiving bills for services. Since then Island veterans who receive their health care through the VA have had to travel to Providence, R.I., to receive care.

A home off the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road was completely destroyed by fire early Friday morning, Oct. 28. No one was injured, Tisbury fire chief John Schilling said.

Cape Wind, the controversial 130-turbine, 50-square-mile project slated for construction on Horseshoe Shoal, hit a major roadblock late last week when a federal appeals court rejected a key finding from the Federal Aviation Administration that the wind farm would pose no hazard to pilots.

Senior circuit Judge Stephen F. Williams reached an opposite conclusion.

Author Chip Bishop’s great-great-uncle, Joseph Bucklin Bishop, was a newspaper editor during the time of Theodore Roosevelt. One of the stories he covered was the construction of the Panama Canal, the transoceanic canal that today seems a foregone conclusion but at the time was considered by many to be a fool’s errand.

Afghanistan Talk

South Asian scholar Jim Norton leads a discussion series throughout November in response to a recent book, The Wars of Afghanistan, by Peter Tomsen. This program will explore Mr. Tomsen’s firsthand account of Afghanistan’s recent history, and examine his recommendations for constructive response in this part of the world.

The series begins on Tuesday, Nov. 8 and continues on Nov. 15 and 22 and takes place at the Vineyard Haven Public Library. All evenings begin at 7 p.m.

Free-for-All at Museum

Beginning Saturday, Nov. 5, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum will begin offering free admission or pay-what-you-can to Vineyard residents on every Saturday.

Exhibitions this fall and winter include Out of the Depths: Martha’s Vineyard Shipwrecks, Eisenstaedt and Us, and We Are Marching Along: Martha’s Vineyard and the Civil War.

This Monday, Nov. 7, and continuing for the next few months the West Tisbury Library will be going silent, on screen, that is. It’s a silent film series, so appropriate, really, for a place that still holds sacred the power of the shhhh.

Art in the Stacks

Jo Scotford Rice is the featured artist for the month of November for the Vineyard Haven Public Library’s Art in the Stacks program.

Greenhouse Goes Up

The Community Solar Greenhouse (COMSOG) is raising the roof on their greenhouse. The new greenhouse roof is going up on Saturday, Nov. 5, (rain date 11/12) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is not a mere check-it-out announcement, either.

Workers are needed and that means you, couch potato. So much better for the tuber in you, to be warmed by the sun outdoors than the eerie glow of the television. As an incentive, COMSOG offers great food for all who help.

COMSOG is located at 114 New York avenue in Oak Bluffs.

Healing Prayer

The Martha’s Vineyard Chapter of the Order of St. Luke the Physician will hold its monthly meeting on Saturday, Nov. 12, at 10 a.m. in the Anderson room of Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven. Speakers for this month’s program are Cary and Lillian Wong. The couple has been learning, experiencing and practicing healing prayer for several years in both local and crosscultural contexts.