NOT SO NOSTALGIC

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

A Dog Named Jake

By Thomas Hart Benton

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of August, 1946:

I read somewhere (maybe In Style Magazine) that the meek shall inherit the earth. I don’t recall if this statement was intended as a proclamation or as a suggestion, but I do know that the meek may want to consider the tax implications of such an inheritance before they blindly accept this gift. At the very least, they’d need to sell off most of Europe and Asia to pay the federal government (I’m pretty sure the land bank would want a piece of the action, so maybe Canada should be liquidated too).

Eyesore From All Angles

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The following is an edited version of a letter sent to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, which will review the Joseph G. Moujabber garage addition next month, beginning with a land use planning committee meeting on March 3:

This is an open letter principally to my fellow members on the Dukes County charter study commission, but also to the selectmen of the towns within Dukes County, the newspapers, and anyone else seeking better local government. These are frank observations which may be difficult to swallow and somewhat indigestible.

In the words of its chairman, the Dukes County Charter Study Commission is on a path toward making decisions.

At their regular meeting on Feb. 14, the group, which is charged with reviewing the structure of county government and making recommendations for its future, voted to retain staggered four-year terms for members of the Dukes County Commission.

Pastry chef Kate Rickard will conduct a free bread making workshop at the Chilmark Public Library on Wednesday, Feb. 27, at 5:30 p.m. Participants will learn how to mix, knead, rise and shape a variety of different bread types, as well as taste samples of Mrs. Rickard’s products.

New York city’s Upper West Side really should get the top billing in Saturday’s Martha’s Vineyard Film Society presentation, but the main character in this film, Starting Out in the Evening, is an ageing writer superbly played by character actor Frank Langella.

Author Leonard Schiller is a man who feels as obsolete as the typewriter he uses. Though he has four novels to his credit, he has been working on his fifth for a decade.

The Tashmoo Spring Building Preservation Committee invites community members and interested groups to a public outreach meeting to brainstorm together about the possible future use of the Tashmoo Spring Building, built in 1887 as a pumping station at the head of Lake Tashmoo, Vineyard Haven.

Exterior renovations and interior structural restoration are scheduled to be completed by June, 2009. During the next phase, it is planned that the building will be designed in a manner that protects its environmentally fragile location.

Since last week’s assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, a leading figure in Islamist fundamentalist organization Hezbollah, Liz Dembrowsky, director of New York theatre company White Trash Intellectuals, does her day job with a police officer in the room, for security.

A speechwriter for United Jewish Communities, a non-governmental organization that raises funds for Israel’s poor, she also spent her 30th birthday last week writing a press release on a suicide bombing that occurred in Dimona, Israel. For Ms. Dembrowsky, it’s all good training.