A January Miscellaney from earlier Gazette editions:

January is the perfect month to pull old books from shelves too high to reach at other times of the year. We came across a passage while reading the other night that set us to thinking about this first month of the new year. Most writers, we decided, find January something of a struggle, a month difficult to write about, especially when searching for a little light in the darkest part of the winter.

My spirit was bent over double in the spring of 2004 when I walked into Edgartown Books on Main street, which last week announced it is closing. At the time I yearned for a nourishing distraction and some pocket change besides. I figured art gallery or bookstore. The people at Edgartown Books took me in and, with nary a reference check, gave this perfect stranger the key to the door and the code to the cash register. Wow. After forty-some years of seasonal visits, I thought I knew a place. I was wrong.

deep sorrow

Editors, Vineyard Gazette

Next Chapter

In the 1990 sci-fi movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger and other residents of a futuristic Earth take their vacations virtually — by having computerized pleasure-trip experiences inserted in their brains while their bodies veg out at home. This method was presumably cheaper — and safer — than physically going on holiday.

As the Governator discovers, computer-assisted travel can be more dangerous than the real thing (not to mention the cost of even a virtual flight to Mars).