This Fourth of July parade was clearly the biggest. Last
night's fireworks were vivid and colorful. And those words can
also be used to describe a parade that was so large that it took nearly
two hours to run its course.

Edgartown fire chief Tony Bettencourt said: "It was absolutely
the largest. It was incredible."

A Quincy man vacationing on Chappaquiddick was killed yesterday
afternoon after being sucked into the propeller blades of a 47-foot
white cigarette boat piloted by his best friend, William
O'Connell. Mr. O'Connell, a prominent Quincy developer, now
faces charges of operating a motorboat while under the influence of
alcohol and fleeing the scene of a boating accident.

The Emperor of Ocean Park

Blockbuster First Novel Surprises Modest Author Stephen Carter

By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer

He is a law professor first and a novelist second, but he is also a
lot of other things, in no particular order: a loving husband and
father, a deeply religious African-American, a constitutional scholar, a
conservative among liberals, a writer, a writer, a writer.

It was one of the town's best-kept secrets, and hundreds of coconspirators kept it quiet for months.
Retiring fire chief Richard H. Clark Jr. was treated to a surprise party
on Saturday. The event that filled the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury
took months to plan and was kept a secret from the chief until the last
moment. This party will go down in the record books as Tisbury's
biggest caper.

Family, Friends, Island Gather to Honor Life of Marc Widdiss

By JOSHUA SABATINI

Friends and family of the late Marc E. Widdiss gathered in the
Aquinnah cemetery Saturday afternoon for a graveside ceremony underneath
a clear sky, meeting later at Aquinnah Circle for a celebration of his
life.

Mr. Widdiss, of Aquinnah, died June 17 at age 54 after a three-year
battle with leukemia. His wife, Beverly, was at his bedside at Brigham
and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Lyme disease may be carried to humans by the deer tick, but this time of year, it's not the deer who are playing host to this tiny insect. It's the Island's white-footed mice.

Revenues fell $1 million at the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank in
the fiscal year just ended, reflecting a distinct new cooling in the
overheated real estate sales market that has made an indelible mark on
both the economy and the culture of the Island in recent years.

The land bank fiscal year ends on June 30 (because the date fell
over the weekend this year, the land bank closed the books on Friday,
June 28).

Almost 10 months after Sept. 11, patriotism will bloom fully on the Vineyard this Thursday as Edgartown invites all Islanders and visitors to its annual Fourth of July parade and fireworks at nightfall.

Parade grand marshal and Edgartown selectman Fred B. Morgan Jr. said the September terrorist attacks have brought out this year "more interest, more participation and more patriotism."

At 7:15 a.m. Sunday at the Rod and Gun Club in Edgartown, more than
100 people had their eyes set on a 20-inch TV screen in the corner of
the room. Brazil was playing Germany in the final game of the World Cup
in Yokohama, Japan. In the room, yellow, green and blue flags and soccer
jerseys to match made it clear this was not the place to cheer for
Germany.

A second round of blood tests has confirmed that two Island men who
fell ill earlier this month with symptoms of pneumonia actually had the
pneumonic form of tularemia, the rare bacterial disease that killed a
Chilmark man almost two years ago.