JOHN S. ALLEY

508-693-2950

(alleys@vineyard.net)

The scent of mothballs had no chance to cling to Chris Abbot. Last year he retired from his teaching job, which included directing the annual school play at the Tisbury School. But only a few weeks ago, school principal Richie Smith inveigled him to return to the boards for Mr. Abbot’s third pass, rolled out this past weekend, of the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

Rachel Carson may have been wrong. I took my walk early Monday morning, the first day of spring, and it was anything but silent.

Central America is a fascinating area to visit. It is a relatively short plane ride and boasts an excellent variety of habitats. Recently we visited both El Salvador and Nicaragua. I could write a book about the 18-day journey, but will spare you. The Nicaragua leg of the trip was marvelous although not as birdy as I had hoped.

The sky didn’t fall, the floods didn’t come, nor did other catastrophes befall the world last Saturday night. 

Pessimists, naysayers and end-of-the-world prophets can go home and recalculate their doomsday predictions for another date (2012 springs to mind). The so-called supermoon that we had on Saturday night, while spectacular, caused no calamities. It did cause many ohhs and ahhs for those of us that observed it. 

Lauren Thomas of Edgartown won a free green heat contest from Harman Stoves and WoodPellets.com.

The prize, valued at $5,500, includes a Harman Accentra pellet stove and a year’s worth of wood pellets. Nearly 7,000 people entered the online contest.

After woodpellets.com delivered the three tons of pellets to the Thomas’s home in January, Harman shipped the stove to Pyewackets in Vineyard Haven, who worked with Nelson Mechanical to have the stove installed.

In a classic example of saving the best for last, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School freshmen Tony Canha and Jason Gruner were declared the winners of the school’s 14th annual Linguini Bridge Contest on Monday after 1,500 pounds of crushing metal proved no match for the duo’s lightweight entry into the competition. Their bridge was the final weigh-in of the yearly event, which pits the unassuming combination of Prince linguini, Elmer’s glue and solid engineering strategy against the dual powers of pressure and gravity.

M elissa Breese has long known how to match a piece of art with a collector; she sold her first painting at age 15, working at her parents’ gallery, which they ran for 30 years. “I received quite an education from just learning about what I was always surrounded by,” she recalled, dressed every bit the New Yorker in black leggings, black boots and a grey sweater.

The Nature Conservancy is conducting a controlled burn at the Katama airfield between 1 and 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 20.

Two Vineyard residents were treated for minor injuries after their plane crash-landed between the bridges on Joseph Sylvia State Beach on Saturday night.

Jean Dupon, 67, and Susan King, 45, both of Edgartown, were treated and released from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, state police trooper David Parent confirmed.

The single-engine Piper aircraft was pointed out to sea, propeller blades slightly bent, no undercarriage evident, with obvious damage under the fuselage but otherwise remarkably intact on state beach on Sunday.