JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

(slaterjn@comcast.net)

All of Chilmark was saddened to learn of the death last Saturday of longtime Menemsha fisherman Lenny Jason. He came to Menemsha many years ago as a fisherman from New Bedford. He liked Chilmark and soon moved his young family to property here where he built his home and many sincere and lifelong friendships.

RICK HERRICK

508-693-8065

herricklr@verizon.net

In my professional life, I worked as a political scientist. One aspect of public opinion political scientists like to study is issue recognition. I began to wonder if there was anything about living in East Chop that might affect issue recognition.

With that in mind, I polled my neighbors on several important questions. Who is Britney Spears? Can you describe her recent legal problems? How many children does she have? Who is Kevin Federline? You get the drift.

Anglers and Their Fish

By Red Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist for the New York Times and a Chilmark seasonal visitor for nearly three decades. From the October, 1982 files of the Vineyard Gazette, originally appearing in the September 23, 1974 edition of the New York Times.

Beginning Wednesday, Oct. 10, the main parking lot currently in use in front of the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and Windemere will be closed and relocated to the parking area closer to the Beach Road entrance.

Parking for people with handicaps will be available off the doctors’ wing main entrance, and parking for cardiopulmonary and dialysis patients will continue to be conveniently located near the entrance to those departments.

The hospital administration and staff wish to thank everyone for their patience while they build the new hospital.

A Middlesex superior court judge ruled late last month that the town of Newton may not renovate two large recreational parks using funds from the Community Preservation Act (CPA) because the parklands were not acquired with CPA funds.

Steamship Authority governors will consider a reworked budget for next year, possibly including some fare increases to offset high fuel costs, when they meet on the Vineyard next week.

A draft budget at last month’s meeting was sent back to the drawing board after doubts were expressed about fuel cost estimates. The document assumed oil prices of $70 per barrel in 2008, about $10 lower than world prices at the time.

A Maine naturalist named Norm Famous, whom I mentioned in this past week’s column, recently sent me another e-mail about birds. This one contained a report from a researcher named Ron Pittaway up in Ontario, who issues an annual prediction for what various species of North American finches and some other non-finch species will be doing this coming winter.

Following are some much-edited excerpts from this forecast concerning northern species for the winter of 2007-2008:

JOHN S. ALLEY

508-693-2950

(alleys@vineyard.net)

NANCY GARDELLA

508-693-3308

(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)

HOLLY NADLER

508-693-3880

(sunporch@vineyard.net)

Once again the Nobel Prize Committee has ignored the Oak Bluffs community. And what’s up with awarding the physics jackpot to those two microchip guys? We’ve got to start asking ourselves a key question, just as we do when we’re shopping in a frivolous manner: Do we really need this? Well, do we? Do we really need another microchip that helps us access information even quicker?