Commentary
On the surface it seems like a simple and straightforward equation: more seals equals more great white sharks. The connection, however, is likely far more complicated.
A few weeks ago, the Gazette’s front page story on the aging of the Vineyard population hit home. From the story we learned that the number of Vineyard residents 60 and older is growing at a faster rate than the rest of the state, and that some estimates show that the number of Islanders between the ages of 60 and 70 will triple by 2020.
For almost a third of my life I was a world traveler. I kept a journal from every trip I took and made an album of all the places I went. I visited over 25 countries, and I tried to bring home a souvenir from each — everything from a Japanese yukata to a stone found on the Great Wall of China. I have a bow and arrows I bought from a Sanjo boy in Tanzania, sand from the Sahara and an Alpaca blanket from Peru. A small rug from Morocco is on my bedroom floor and I drink my morning coffee from a small mug I bought in Wales.
The warm sunshine last Saturday didn’t deter bread buyers at the annual bake sale organized by the Vineyard Committee on Hunger — better to buy a loaf of homemade bread than heat up the house with a hot oven. There was oatmeal bread, all-grain bread, cranberry bread and even gluten-free cornbread for sale as the group put up tables outside the Bunch of Grapes bookstore in Vineyard Haven, hoping their collection jars and handouts on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) budget cuts might raise awareness of those who go to bed hungry at night, even on Martha’s Vineyard.
Each family has its own Vineyard specialty, a beloved summer-after-summer tradition that everyone cherishes and remembers during those e
All the years of my marriage when
things have gotten tough, my husband has always said at least no one is chasing us with machetes. Really? has always been my inward eye-rolling response.
When I was first dating him I asked him all those beginning-of-a-relationship questions, like what’s the meanest thing your father ever said and what food did your mom make you eat and were you rich or were you poor? He said his father never said a mean thing and his mother never made him eat anything he didn’t want. And without hesitation he answered yes to rich.