“Listen Local” might be the theme of the evening on Monday, July 18. That’s when Jemima James hosts her third annual Variety Show at Featherstone Center for the Arts, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The show is part of Featherstone’s Musical Mondays concert series.

The Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury is more than just a pleasant experience with nature, although it is definitely that. It is a place to learn and become more in tune, not just with what nature has to offer, but the drastic changes taking place in our ecosystem on a daily basis.

For the Jim Thomas Spirituals Choir, the history is as much a part of the experience as the music. Tracing the evolution of American music through the Underground Railroad and the Middle Passage, Jim Thomas and his chorus sing a story of our cultural past.

He’s lived most of his life as the guy you couldn’t help but notice. Marc Elliot estimates that he has “tic-ed” 21 million times in his life. Two weeks ago he stopped.

Mr. Elliot, who was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome at the age of nine, tours the country speaking to audiences about tolerance and understanding. But Tourette’s isn’t his only hardship. Mr. Elliot was also diagnosed with Hirschsprung’s disease, which left him with only four feet of small intestine (the usual is 19 feet) and no large intestine.

I could never live in Florida or Arizona. I’d rather it snow than be 90 degrees and humid. The Weather Channel reported 117 degrees in Phoenix.

By LYNNE IRONS

I could never live in Florida or Arizona. I’d rather it snow than be 90 degrees and humid. The Weather Channel reported 117 degrees in Phoenix. Have mercy! I hate it when people say it’s dry heat. I only hear heat. I will say the warm, humid days are finally forcing some real growth to peppers, tomatoes and squashes.

July and August are exciting times for birders on the Vineyard. We check the tide tables daily to find which beaches have low tides at a time there aren’t a zillion beachgoers scattered across the sand and wading along the flats. The location found, we grab our spotting scopes and head for the flats produced by the perfect tide. Low tides changing to high tides appear to attract the best selection of shorebirds. These sandpipers and long legged waders have the food source produced in and on the mud and sand flats, plus the birds are concentrated closer to shore by the incoming tide.

Come out of your shell.

That is easier said than done if you are a bivalve. Bivalves are two-shelled animals that live in marine and fresh water environments. The word bivalve connotes “two leaves of a door,” which refers to its two-sided, or double-shelled, form.

It was good news and bad news for two Island libraries Thursday morning — the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners awarded a grant to the West Tisbury library for building a new facility, but Edgartown did not make the cut and will receive no funding.

Eight out of 27 towns that applied for grant money received awards, announced yesterday morning. West Tisbury placed eighth on the list, while Edgartown was number 11. The town of Athol was number one on the list.

A large number of beaches have been closed to swimming in Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury due to high levels of enterococcus bacteria found during routine water testing. Health agents in those two towns have put out notices about the closures.

In West Tisbury the following beaches are closed to swimming: Lambert’s Cove, Seth’s Pond, Salt Works at Seven Gates Farm, Long Cove Pond, Long Point at the ocean and the Tisbury Great Pond at the Trustees of Reservations.

Edgartown attorney Edward W. (Peter) Vincent Jr. was suspended from practicing law on Thursday, following complaints of misuse and loss of client funds.

The suspension was issued in Supreme Judicial Court in Suffolk County on July 7.

The temporary suspension will stay in effect until disciplinary procedures are heard before the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers. The next step would be the filing of charges with the board, which has the power to disbar attorneys.