Etiquette Class, Please

Certified etiquette teacher Elaine C. Carroll is offering children’s etiquette classes. Her East Coast School of Etiquette program opens at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs on June 30, teaching children from 3:15 to 4:40 p.m., three days a week for two weeks.

A graduate of the American School of Protocol in Atlanta, Ga., and the Protocol School of Washington, D.C., Mrs. Carroll has visited many Vineyard classrooms over recent years to help children learn their manners in a program called Tea and Etiquette.

All are welcome to celebrate Juneteenth — an African American celebration of when all slaves were freed — on Saturday, June 14, at the Oak Bluffs School from 2 to 4 p.m.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the slaves in Texas were not notified of their freedom for another two years. This event is celebrated in many communities, though not yet a national holiday.

They are few but passionate, and Jhenn Watts is one of them: artists who create fine art photographic images, ironically, using good old Polaroid film.

Because of its simplicity and ease of use, the basic Polaroid process was an instant success in the mid 20th century, recording America’s birthdays, graduations and cookouts. Point, click and 60 seconds later, the graduate or birthday girl emerged on a slick four-inch by five-inch image, to be admired, then stored in a shoebox.

Nantucket’s rich history of bay scallop fisheries includes both commercial and family scalloping seasons. On Wednesday, guest speaker Dr. Robert Kennedy will detail the latest research into this fishery, in a free talk at Chilmark Public Library.

He will summarize of the history of the bay scallop and scalloping on Nantucket, outline past and present scallop research, discuss current management practices, status of eelgrass beds and water circulation in Nantucket Harbor, and review possible reasons for lower commercial landings in 2005 and 2006.

Between heats at Nancy’s Snack Bar in Oak Bluffs on Saturday Jon Holden, last year’s winner of the Martha’s Vineyard annual oyster shucking contest, inspected his knife doubtfully.

“I hate this knife,” he said, peering through his aviator shades at the black-handled Oxo brand shucker, “I wish I never bought it.”

The word library comes to us from the Latin librarius , meaning of, or relating to, books. But anyone visiting the Oak Bluffs Public Library on a Thursday afternoon might find such a definition sorely outdated.

Friday, June 6: Rain in the morning. Clearing skies. Warm. Fog settles over the Vineyard at night. The low dark sound of the Nobska Light foghorn can be heard from Oak Bluffs to Vineyard Haven late at night.

Saturday, June 7: Sunny. Soil is turned over by tractor at Morning Glory Farm. The soil smells fresh and looks dark. Southwest wind shifts to a strong westerly wind. Fly-fishermen line the North Shore in the late afternoon. Pretty sunset.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

Larry’s Tackle Shop has a new owner. He is the same guy who has been behind the counter and stocking the walls with fishing gear for years.

Steve V. Purcell has stepped from managing the store to owner and he did it with little fanfare back in March.

For him, this is the realization of a dream. Though he has managed the store for years, he has run it as though he owned it.

“I don’t know what I would have done without thinking about the store,” he said.

The back of the T-shirt read: “Burn Crew 2007. Burning landscapes near you.” Under those words was the equivalent of a band’s performance schedule, a dozen locales across six states.

And even though the wearer of the shirt and eight other members of her group were sitting around in a circle in a weedy clearing in the woods in firefighting gear on Wednesday, it was very like the atmosphere at the sound check before a music gig.

Vineyard saltwater recreational anglers are expressing mixed feelings about an unprecedented requirement that they’ll need a license next year when they fish.

“I hate it. I wish it didn’t happen,” said Janet Messineo, an avid recreational fisherman who also is president of the Martha’s Vineyard Surfcasters Association, said about the new rule.