Andrew Woodruff, the owner of Whippoorwill Farm who is best known
for bringing community supported agriculture to the Vineyard, is
scrambling to put together a group to buy Thimble Farm to block a sale
of the farm to a private buyer.

The deadline is August 28 and the outcome is at best uncertain.

Andrea and Jamie Rogers, artists and craftsmen, mother and daughter, are sharing the full menu of life, its joy of strong family and sorrow at the sudden loss two years ago of a husband and dad. They also share artistic achievement. Andrea and her husband Jim moved to the Vineyard in 1986 with their three children. Joseph, who is 22, works for Brookstone Construction and Alisha, who is 24, is in New York city with Lancome beauty products.

The gates opened half an hour early this year for the 146th annual
Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair
because of the number of people milling in the parking lot. And at 10:45
a.m. yesterday the line in front of the West Tisbury firemen's
hamburger booth was the shortest it will be all weekend. At peak hours,
the wait for a grilled-to-perfection burger can take up to 15 minutes,
but on this morning, only two people were waiting, their elbows up on
the counter.

Former Ambassador Says Iraq Pullout Is Inevitable

By MIKE SECCOMBE

You don't fix a watch with a hammer. And the force of blunt
instruments is seldom any more effective in international relations.

That was the essence of Ambassador Dennis Ross's address at
the Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute Wednesday night, as he
drove home his message that America's diminished standing in the
world would not be restored until it abandons its heavy-handed and
faith-based approach to international problems and relearns the subtle
art of statecraft.

As a widening home mortgage crisis ripples through national financial markets, positive trends in the second quarter indicate that the Vineyard real estate market has stabilized and is even showing growth.Patience and supply and demand, the ultimate self-correcting economic process, was at work in the Vineyard market during the three-month period which ended June 30.

Addressing his Third Army troops before the Battle of France in
World War II, General George S. Patton spoke these now-famous blunt
words: "Boys, we all want to go home. We want to get this over
with. But the quickest way to get it over with is to go get those
bastards. The quicker they're whipped, the quicker we go
home."

Lighted old-fashioned oriental lanterns strung high in gingerbread
house porches weren't the only memorable part of Illumination
Night on the Camp Ground on Wednesday night.

An early morning fire Tuesday caused extensive damage to the Galley
Restaurant on the Menemsha harbor, forcing the popular ice cream and
sandwich shop to close for the remainder of the season.

Barbara Fenner, who owns the shop with her brother Frank Fenner and
his wife Merrily, said yesterday the restaurant will reopen as usual
next spring. But that offers little comfort for the hordes of young
children and other regulars who flock to the restaurant for a burger or
a cone.

Reports of its addictiveness have come all the way from the other
side of the globe - people who used up the stash they got from
their friends or relatives on the Island as a gift, and who need a
refill, fast.

Rural West Tisbury May Favor Hens and Roosters - Legally

By JACK SHEA

West Tisbury is zoned as a rural agricultural town and there is
ample case law, some of it dating to the early 20th century, that
supports the rights of rural property owners to keep a flock of chickens
in the backyard.

This is the opinion of town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport, who told
the town building and zoning inspector in a letter this week that it is
his call to make in a dispute between two Longview neighbors over noisy
roosters.