Robynn Murray served in the armed forces in Iraq and was featured on the cover of Army Magazine as an inspiration to women in the army. She now wants nothing to do with selling the military to other women. While in Iraq she was shot at, pointed her gun at families, and witnessed death and destruction. Upon returning home from the war she had to deal with the slow, messy process of trying to cope with her experiences in the army.

To launch the publication of The Complete Plays of Sophocles, translator Robert Bagg will speak at the West Tisbury library on Wednesday, July 27 from 5 to 6 p.m.

Oak Bluffs Book Sale

What better way to spend vacation than curled up with a good book? Oops, forgot to bring one, or already tore through your stash and are making do by reading signs and T-shirts? Well, never fear, time to cozy up to your reading chair because a bounty of stories await you.

Seal Meets Dog

Sarah French, author of the new children’s book Summer Friends, will be appearing in the garden at Dragonfly Gallery on Friday, July 29, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Summer Friends is an exploration, through collage art, of the imagined friendship between a seal and Ms. French’s black Lab Minnie. Dragonfly Gallery is located in the Oak Bluffs’ Arts District. For more details, call 508-693-8877.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was born in Columbus, Mississippi, with all the proper psychological accoutrements to become a great writer. His family was abysmally dysfunctional, his mother a narcissist with a streak of snobbery, denial and grandiosity (much like the mother in The Glass Menagerie), and his father an often-absent, smalltime businessman with a temper, active fists and an aversion to his delicate son, who, as we all know, was destined to grow up to be a homosexual, a tough row to hoe in the deep South.

The dips in the hills and the swirls in the clay may change with the passing of time, but the view from the top of the Gay Head Light always will be a staggering one. From the balcony, nature is laid out before you: The ocean winks as the waves roll in, hopeful fishermen scour the deep, and the cliffs proudly stand as witnesses to all that has taken place here.

I have two methods of last resort for weeding. I take a shovel to the huge clumps of grass and flop them over.

What am I looking at? It appears to be a punk-rock bird star. What I see first is a stiff gray crest, gray belly and a black bill. Then as the bird turns I see the remainder of the back feathers is gray as well. It is only when I spot a slight reddishness in the outer tail feathers that I realized the bird in question is an immature northern cardinal. What a difference from the all-red adult which has a red bill surrounded by black feathers.

Steve Bender, also known as the Grumpy Gardener, doesn’t mince words.

He is honest and forthright and speaks his mind. In his blog, posted June 29, 2009, he provides this advice to gardeners: “When anyone asks me what’s the best time to prune a mimosa, my instinctive response is, ‘Any time you can find a chainsaw.’”

Those are strong words for a strong plant that has become successfully entrenched in many lands.

Chilmark town officials have posted a closure for Squibnocket Beach due to an unacceptably high average bacterial count.

The closure sign, which says bathers may choose to swim at their own risk, was required by the state Department of Public Health regulations.

The sign explains to swimmers:

“These regulations state that the average of the last five bacterial water samples must be below a certain level. Our average is still slightly above the required limit.