Anthropologists call them social nodes — the places where a community’s social cement is stirred, where folks get to know each other during the spontaneous expression of life’s routine. Our churches, libraries and town halls serve this purpose, of course, but so do more informal locations like our parks, walkways, forest trails, beaches and general stores.

Editors’ Note: This marks the second year for the Gazette to sponsor Sophomores Speak Out, a special current events feature written by the sophomore students in Elaine Cawley Weintraub’s global studies class at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. Sophomores Speak Out will appear regularly on the Commentary Page throughout the school year.

Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

Oct. 12 66 56 Trace

Oct. 13 68 37 Trace

Oct. 14 62 41 .00

Oct. 15 62 39 .00

Oct. 16 62 42 .00

Oct. 17 61 41 .00

Oct. 18 72 44 .00

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 65º F.

Friday, Oct. 12: Mist in the morning. Anglers gather at the end of the Big Bridge jetty on the last full day of the derby. Choppy seas off East Chop.

Saturday, Oct. 13: Cool morning. Thick dew on the pumpkins at Morning Glory Farm. Cool over the Lagoon Pond. Golf enthusiasts gather at Farm Neck Golf Course under autumn sun, a light breeze on the fairway. Derby headquarters in Main street Edgartown is bustling with fishermen carrying the catch of the day. Derby ends under damp clear night sky. Stars.

A key subcommittee of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission voted unanimously on Monday to recommend that the controversial three-story garage built by Joseph G. Moujabber in Oak Bluffs without a proper permit three years ago should be reviewed by the full commission as a development of regional impact (DRI).

The vote by the commission’s land use planning committee sets the stage for a comprehensive public review of the project which has been dubbed Garage Mahal by critics.

Dancing and Darjeeling

Belly dance is derived from folk dances and traditions of Middle Eastern and North African cultures. Like any dance form, it is great cardiovascular exercise. Find out more at the Tisbury Senior Center’s Tea and Talk on Oct. 24 at 2 p.m. The Vineyard’s own Belly Dance and Revue will dance and talk about the history of belly dance while you enjoy cookies and tea. Dancers are Pat Szucs, Betsy Smith, Jamie O’Gorman, Suzanna Nickerson, Shela Rayyan and more.

Kids Adorn Arboretum

Polly Hill Arboretum youth educators Betsy Dripps, Gretchen Snyder and volunteer school guides have teamed up with the West Tisbury fifth grade to decorate the arboretum for fall.

Using natural materials the students created creatures to adorn the grounds. Perched on walls, peering from branches, and propped on fences these creatures will delight visitors, young and old alike.

When Martha Smith and her then-boyfriend Charlie began dating 15 years ago, they spent a lot of time at the annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby headquarters at the foot of Main street in Edgartown.

She ran the derby headquarters, two hours in the morning and two hours at night, and coordinated the volunteers. He would watch, stepping in occasionally to help. “I hung out at the derby headquarters to be with her,” Mr. Smith said. “I think I was there just about every night.”

Theo Epstein is a walking American dream. Growing up nearly within earshot of Fenway Park, he played, studied and dreamed baseball before the Boston Red Sox hired him as their general manager in 2002. At 28, he was the youngest general manager in the history of Major League Baseball and the envy of little boys — and grown men — nationwide. Baseball may be the American tradition and Mr. Epstein’s job an American dream, but neither the tradition nor the dream would quite say America without an ice cold beer.

THE DAY THE EARTH CAVED IN: An American Mining Tragedy. By Joan Quigley. Random House. 2007. Hardcover. 223 pages.

Before he began sinking into the ground, 12-year-old Todd Domboski noticed a wisp of smoke floating from the ground “like a smoldering match buried under damp leaves.”

In Centralia, Pennsylvania, where an abandoned coal mine had been burning beneath the town for 19 years, the book explains, tiny fissures often punched through the topsoil, trailing bands of sulfurous steam.