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.

Island Grown Initiative is pleased to announce the winners of the first annual Island Grown special award at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Science Fair. The award goes to students whose projects focus on agricultural systems and techniques that support biodiversity and human health or address local agricultural systems on the Vineyard.

Vineyard Youth Tennis

Establishes Scholarships

The Vineyard Youth Tennis Center has established a scholarship fund to send deserving and talented children to tennis academies in Florida.

Scott Smith, executive director of Vineyard Youth, came up with the idea.

There is a whale of a tale in Edgartown.

Marine mammal madness is what I call it. Earlier this week, I received a call about a few animals that have been swimming around Edgartown harbor. The caller thought that they were either dolphins or pilot whales. Either one would be a good sighting and would make for a nice article.

“Guyana — isn’t that where all those people drank Kool-Aid at Jonestown? Why would you want to go there?”

“New birds, new habitat, new country, that’s why!”

Guyana is a very small country located on the northern bump or eastern shoulder of South America. Very close to the equator, this small country that used to be called British Guiana is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the north, Venezuela on the west, Brazil on the south and Suriname (Old Dutch Guiana) on the east.