West Tisbury voters voiced their resounding approval for the sale of beer and wine, a new library and the repaving of most major town roads at Thursday's election.

Voters agreed to the sale of beer and wine at restaurants in the long-dry town by a margin of 499 to 202. 

"We're thrilled, and thank you, West Tisbury," said Mary Kenworth, co-owner of State Road Restaurant and a leader of the effort to bring beer and wine sales to the town. The popular restaurant was filled with celebratory diners just after the polls closed Thursday evening.

The Island Food Pantry’s last distribution day for the season will be Friday, April 13. Those in need of emergency food assistance after this date may call the pantry at 508-693-4764 to schedule a food pick-up. The Island Food Pantry will distribute gift cards again in the fall.

In a vote of confidence for the town government, Oak Bluffs voters today re-elected Gregory A. Coogan and Kathleen A. Burton to the board of selectmen.

Ms. Burton was the top vote getter with 611 votes, while Mr. Coogan received 580 votes. Challenger Roger Wey, a former seven-term selectman, received 371 votes.

Longtime friends Kenny Lockwood, Paul Thurlow and Nancy Jephcote joined with Washington state-based Daniel Macke on Friday at the Pit Stop to play a medley of their original compositions for a large and appreciative audience. Nancy and Paul met Daniel in Port Townsend last year on a trip to the west coast, played music with him and invited him to the Island.

“This is the first time I’ve been on the Vineyard,” Mr. Macke said. “It’s beautiful and it’s full of talented people, a lot like Port Townsend where I live.”

The Ides of March are coming a month late to the Vineyard.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, and Vineyarders are invited to Shakespeare for the Masses’ staging of Julius Caesar at the Pit Stop this weekend.

Fowler’s Modern English Usage takes a hard line.

Just try to pluralize the word octopus; I dare you. Say “octopodes” and Fowlers calls you “pedantic;” using the term “octopi” is simply misconceived. Fowler’s asserts that there is only one acceptable option and that is “octopuses.”

p>The bird sightings have been fast and furious. Spring is definitely on its way.

My perennial beds are in serious disrepair. I did manage to get them cut back of last season’s debris. However they haven’t seen a cultivator or any fertilizer in a few years, forget about any weeding taking place. The mugwort has run rampant. For those of you unfamiliar with this weedy artemisia, it is in one form the herb moxa used in acupuncture. It has healing properties when burned on a patient. I had it work one time when the practitioner burned a cyst from the top of my hand. It was quite remarkable, actually.

Blood Drive

Floral arranger Mary Louise Perry and assistant arranger Simmy Denhart will represent the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club during the annual Art in Bloom show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this month. Ms. Perry and Ms. Denhart will create a flower design that interprets a work of art, one of 50 designs submitted by New England Garden clubs. The three-day festival takes place Saturday, April 28 to Monday, April 30.