I often tease my students that in writing for an English class, the writer can use language playfully — metaphor to create nuance and alliteration to draw images. History writing, I tell them, is intended to be as a dry as a bone: a recitation of the facts. Though now we know that history is an intertwined story of multiple perspectives where the voices of many should be heard, the debate continues over the form that voice should take.

From a 1967 Gazette column of reminiscences by Joseph Chase Allen:

The anecdotes of the early 1900s would constitute a volume second to none. Times and customs being far different from those of the present day, some of these are unique indeed.

REASONS TO VOTE NO

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

Two of the qualities of life in our community in Vineyard Haven will be affirmed by voting no on Article I to permit the sale of alcohol in the town of Tisbury on April 27: our grandchildren and “getting away from it all.”

Roses for the Chief

She stepped into the job sixteen years ago, quietly making history as the first woman police chief on the Vineyard. And this week, just as quietly, Beth Toomey retired from the job.

Political Notebook

Super Tuesday kicked off the Island political season this week, and the four annual town meetings in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury were notable for their themes of economy and tight purse strings in these financially straitened times.