During the pandemic, the Island Food Pantry has been overwhelmed with requests for food.

Sand
Clean white sand
warm in summer
rolling wet
hot bodies
fresh from swimming
in the Sound
Frozen white
salted  crunch
underfoot in winter
wind blasting
eye stinging
unforgiving bits of it
Sand obsessed Arthur
the wave caressed
pitch of dune
shaped by fetch
and depth
Rooted in beachgrass tendrils
entrapped in the
timber groins we built
along this stretch of beach
formed the fine and
delicate line
that kept

Dennis daRosa, my longest-time friend in life, died last week.

Fifty years ago this summer I saw a musical milestone. No one knew this was a farewell concert.

Early Sunday morning, I like to walk Middle Road from West Tisbury.

I live on Martha’s Vineyard, 3,000 miles away from my homeland. Why?

In my fantasy world of self-reliance, I would become an expert preserver.

Oak Bluffs, from very early days, was a woodworking village.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $515,348.84 for the business week ending on Friday, August 21, 2020.

Don’t help your opponents. That’s simple enough in concept but more complex in action.

• Don’t take a finesse for your opponents. Here you have the lead early in a 4♠ contract:

Dummy: ♠ A J 10 5

You: ♠ 9 8 7

Whatever you do, don’t play spades, hoping partner has the king. Here are the other hands: 

Partner: ♠ Q 2

Declarer: ♠ K 6 4 3

Do you see what happens? If you’d let well enough alone, declarer probably would take the spade finesse through dummy, losing to the queen. By leading spades yourself, you give declarer an extra trick.