Soraya Arrives

Jennifer and Richard Randolph of Oak Bluffs announce the birth of a daughter, Soraya Lynn Randolph, born on Dec. 4 at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital. Soraya, who weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces at birth, is also welcomed by big sister Jada Randolph.

Katherine Arrives

Katherine Jackson Greer, great-grandaughter of Ms. Ralston S. Jackson of Edgartown, was born Sept. 29 to Abigail and Ken Greer of Cohasset. She is the grandaughter of Marilyn Jackson Adams and Bill Adams of Quincy. She weighed 9 pounds, 11 ounces. Her sister Molly and brother Will are very excited about their new sister.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank has added another 400 feet to its growing stretch of Atlantic Ocean beach off Moshup Trail in Aquinnah.

The land bank announced this week that it has bought a 4.1-acre lot on the ocean side of Moshup Trail from Sandra and Tatnall Hillman. The purchase price was $400,000. The property abuts the land bank’s Moshup Beach, which now will include some 2,000 feet of shorefront. With the acquisition, the land bank beach will now end a few feet from Philbin Beach, a town resident beach.

The Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School has received the largest private donation ever made to a Vineyard school. Taking the form of a matching grant, the gift will double all money up to $100,000 raised by the school before February 2008. Charter school director of development Paul Karasik said the $200,000 is needed to pay for enlarged classrooms and a modest addition, which will include a new art room and a second bathroom facility at the public school.

The Dukes County commission is set to make a slew of appointments in early January, including the Vineyard representative to the Steamship Authority.

Marc Hanover, owner of Linda Jeans Restaurant in Oak Bluffs, has been the Vineyard boat line governor since 2005. The appointment is a three-year position.

Acting county manager Noreen Mavro Flanders said this week she expected Mr. Hanover to seek reappointment. Mr. Hanover was off-Island yesterday and could not be reached for comment.

Last Saturday was Holiday Party Day on the Vineyard — with art openings and dances scheduled from one end of the Island to the other.

And Maggie’s Salon on Beach Road in Vineyard Haven was a busy place.

The three stylists behind the chairs flitted and chatted their way between cuts, blow-dries and colorings. Each worked with two customers at once, except for Richard Cascarino, who groomed a family of three.

Candlelight Service

The Federated Church of Edgartown will continue its tradition of hosting a candlelight service at their historic meetinghouse on Monday, Dec. 24 starting at 10 p.m.

Built in 1828, the meetinghouse is on the corner of South Summer and Cooke streets.

Sixty-two years is a long time to wait for a thank you. More than half a decade after risking his life overseas as a fighter pilot in World War II, James McLaurin has gotten the recognition he deserved — a Congressional Gold Medal.

Just as the first snows arrived on the Island yesterday, other signs of winter were in evidence around the Island this past week.

In addition to Christmas sales and plastic lawn Santas, the young athletes of the Vineyard could be found practicing their jumpers and perfecting their slap shots, as the high school sports scene moved from the autumnal fields of soccer and football inside to the cozy confines of ice rinks and basketball courts.

The disclaimer found at the front of political novels is generally trivial boilerplate. It implies that the novelist, or his publisher at least, is a bit chicken. Coy allusions to real people and events may be made but vaguely and behind the blast wall of imagination.