The artwork of Renée George O’Sullivan is timeless. Her watercolors depict the Vineyard as it is today, even though the paintings were done years ago. Her cartoons that have appeared in publications for generations still tickle the ribs, despite the fact that humor has changed so much over the years.

Ms. O’Sullivan is having an exhibition this week at the Old Sculpin Gallery on Dock street in Edgartown. Her opening was last Sunday and the work will come down in two days.

Friday Conversation

Friday Conversations at the Oak Bluffs Senior Center continue from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

On Friday Sept. 12, the speaker will be Nancy Francis of Life-Line Screening. She will talk about stroke prevention. She will be accompanied by Nicole Barlett, Vineyard Nursing Association public health nurse for five Island towns.

Library Closes Briefly

The West Tisbury Library will be closed from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday for a staff development meeting. The library will be open from noon to 6 p.m.

Welcome, Penelope

Greer Thornton and Christian Thornton of Edgartown announce the birth of a daughter, Penelope Grace Thornton, born on August 25 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Penelope weighed 7.5 pounds at birth.

In their workaday world they help other people create memories, but along the way they have created enough memories of their own to fill a book. And the children! V. Jaime Hamlin has four boys, three of them triplets; Patrie Grace has three girls and two boys. Jaime is a caterer whose reputation as a cook is beyond the pale. Patrie is the stalwart wedding planner and events coordinator. Their businesses are separate but intertwined. Exactly like their lives.

Interviews by Julia Rappaport

Were it not for the smell, you might mistake the light, fibrous, grayish stuff in Bob Woodruff’s shed for the material they make egg cartons from.

But the low-tide aroma is the giveaway. What we have here is dried slime. Or, more correctly, dried algae of the species Enteromorpha clathrata, which this summer grew in unprecedented profusion over much of the Edgartown Great Pond.

Michael Chester, the newly-appointed commissioner of education for
Massachusetts, laid out his vision for schools at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Performing Arts Center this morning for an audience which included the new principal of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, Stephen Nixon.

Meanwhile, approximately 2,280 Vineyard students will have their first day at school this week; a sign, argues superintendent of schools Dr. James H. Weiss, that the sharp decline in high school enrollment will stabilize over the next decade.

What does a principal do if parents do not come in to meet him and talk to the teachers?

Last year Laury Binney, principal of the Oak Bluffs elementary school, decided to go to the parents. And in his case that meant taking an unpaid sabbatical year and traveling to Brazil, including an extended visit to the two towns where most of the Island Brazilians hail from.

His trip provided a small window into the Brazilian community on the Island, which is well established but little known or understood.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a plan to allow the developers of the members-only Field Club in Katama to pay the town of Edgartown $1.8 million instead of designating three lots on their property for affordable housing.

The commission’s decision last month to hold a public hearing on the cash-for-lots plan ruffled some feathers among Edgartown officials, including members of the town affordable housing committee who negotiated the deal with the Field Club over the past 18 months.

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of September 1983:

Of all our inheritances from the late Adam, the pleasantest must be the obligation that we sweat for a living. Everybody reverences hard work and can sit for hours watching other people do it. Let’s get down to cases.