By Polly Woollcott Murphy. From the Vineyard Gazette editions of November 1976:

By BRAD WOODGER

We’re all busy. More important, however, is that everybody else knows that we’re busy. Few street meetings or catch-up phone calls conclude without at least one reminder (lest we forget) that “I’m-we’re sooo crazy-wildly-insanely busy.” There seems to exist a fear within our community that we may be perceived as being idle. God forbid.

There is something evil and ugly lurking in the rules of the United States Croquet Association, and that is the rule that tournament matches should be played regardless of the weather — and this means rain.

It rained on the first day of the Edgartown Croquet Club’s tournament, with four matches being played in the morning and six played in the afternoon. A traditional courtside luncheon was served from Soigne, all according to the rules in the rain.

Renaissance House, a retreat for artists, celebrates its fifth year of survival with a benefit spoken word show on Friday, Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, and the public is invited to read.

To many, the idea of doing a tour of duty in Iraq is no laughing matter. Yet for Jim McCue, along with fellow Boston comedian and friend Joey Carroll, that’s exactly what it is, as they perform stand-up comedy to bring smiles and laughter to the troops’ otherwise very serious lives.

Now the Boston comedian and author of book Embedded Comedian, Jim McCue, performs with The Sopranos’ Frank Santorelli and the Island’s Marty Nadler, on Saturday, Sept. 22, at Outerland at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport.

World According to Alan

Documentary photographer Alan Brigish of West Tisbury will present a slide show entitled Eye Contact: Faces from Around the World on Wednesday, Sept. 26, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Free Public Library.

Mr. Brigish has traveled the globe, taking photographs of people wherever he goes. The event is free and sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Public Library.

Eat your heart out, Nicholas Sparks.

Derby angler Janet Messineo last week found her second message in a bottle from an Island student.

Mr. Sparks’s popular novel by the same name about true love found by a woman who finds a message in a bottle may not be the stuff from which award-winning striped bass are found, but the derby weigh-in station was abuzz Sunday morning when Ms. Messineo popped in with a carefully sealed Snapple bottle enclosing a note.

A MedFlight helicopter had a bumpy landing at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Friday evening when a piece of tarp covering contruction materials was sucked off the ground and got caught in the chopper’s propeller, forcing it to land partially off the heliport.

Hobbit in Edgartown

It’s Tolkien Week, and the Edgartown library is celebrating the stories of J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of the Hobbit books and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, through Sept. 23.

The library will screen an animated version of the Hobbit story at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 18, in the children’s room. This film is suitable for third-graders and up.

Vineyard Women’s Network

Hosts Meeting Next Week

The Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network will hold its first meeting of the season on Sept. 25 at the Grill on Main in Edgartown on Tuesday, Sept. 25 from 7:30 to 9 a.m.

Jean DiGiovanna, founder of ThinkPeople, will explore the importance of goal setting as an approach to business planning. Ms. DiGiovanna will advise attendees on keeping their business “on the right track” with measurable and proven goal-setting tactics.