A Vineyard Haven man is scheduled to face trial in Dukes County Superior Court later this month for allegedly raping a New Hampshire woman in the summer of 2004. Richard J. Skrypczyk, 60 was indicted by a grand jury last April on a charge of rape following an incident that occurred after a wedding three years ago.

Mr. Skrypczyk’s trial is set to begin Oct. 15.

There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles.

You therefore can count on a square meal (of the chocolate box sort) when the fourth annual Chocolate Festival opens tonight, October 5, with a preview party at Featherstone Center for the Arts on Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs.

The film Alice Neel, Portrait Painter, a documentary about one of the great portrait painters of the 20th century, will screen on Saturday, Oct. 6, at 7:30 p.m. at Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven.

M.J. Bindu Delekta’s sacred Circle of Yoga studio in Vineyard Haven begins its fall season with free classes.

Chair yoga, which uses the support of a chair and stretches the entire body, is appropriate for seniors and anyone with physical limitations. This class will meet on Monday, Oct. 8 at 9 a.m.

Yoga on the Ball combines the wisdom of yoga with the support and core-building of the exercise ball. This class meets on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 5:30 p.m.

For details, call 508-696-4513 or see online sacredcircleofyoga.com.

On Saturday, Oct. 6, everyone is invited to join the fourth annual Justin Coleman Memorial Hike-a-thon. The 10-mile hike begins at the Coleman’s house on 150 South Road in Chilmark. This year, the hike also will be in memory of Alex Cohen, a friend of Justin’s who died in an automobile accident driving from Martha’s Vineyard to Duke University at the age of 19.

GOOD LITTLE WIVES. By Abby Drake. HarperCollins. August 2007. 304 pages. $13.95 softcover.

Good Little Wives is a good little chick-lit read. I read it in a day. Granted, there were no distractions because it was one of those rare I-don’t-feel-very-good-I-think-I’ll-stay-in-bed-all-day days. And Good Little Wives, by Abby Drake, was just what I needed.

Alison Shaw Gallery is opening up again for a Columbus Day weekend sale. On Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. posters are 15 per cent off, cards are one-third off, selected prints are 25 per cent or more off regular prices.

After this weekend, the gallery will be available only by appointment, so visit this weekend at 88 Dukes County avenue in the Oak Bluffs Arts District. For details, call 508-696-SHAW or see Alisonshaw.com.

Buddhism is on the rise in Brazil, and West Tisbury journalist Perry Garfinkel has some ideas on why.

He’s the author of the 2006 national bestseller Buddha or Bust: In Search of Truth, Meaning, Happiness, and the Man Who Found Them All. When the Portuguese edition of the book was released in June, Mr. Garfinkel traveled to Brazil, where the national census shows the percentage of Roman Catholics there has dropped from about 90 to 70 per cent since 1980.

Even on Martha’s Vineyard, where art gallery openings are reliably free of suits and swanky dresses, it is still uncommon for an opening to draw a sizeable crowd clad in bathing suits — sunbathers literally on the way home from the beach. And rarer still for a bank to open its lawn on a Friday evening, after business hours, to play host. Yet bare-footed art openings at the Chilmark branch of the Bank of Martha’s Vineyard have been a regular occurrence for at least 30 years.

Never have a manicure before beginning a major carpentry project.

That’s the first of many lessons Chris Rasmussen learned last week while installing the foundation deck on her new home in Vineyard Haven made possible by Habitat for Humanity. Ms. Rasmussen’s enterprise is the fifth Habitat home to be built.