Trophy houses, as a group, are bad for the Vineyard. They are huge blots on our rural Island landscape. Summer people are overwhelmingly responsible for creating them. Do summer people create them out of ignorance? Or lack of taste? Or excessive pride? Or out of sheer, don’t-give-a-damn arrogance? In my opinion, all of the above. Many summer people believe that since a man’s home is his castle, why not build a castle?

There’s an old saying, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

The old cliche could be applied to the case of Renato Gomes Da Rocha, a 48-year-old Brazilian national who disappeared from the Island without a trace almost 18 months ago. On an Island where instances of missing persons are rare, the case of Mr. Da Rocha has largely remained under the radar of public attention, despite evidence that Mr. Da Rocha may have been the victim of foul play.

Thirteen point seven billion years, cosmologists now feel, is the time it took for our universe to get its act together and produce the primordial ooze from which intelligent beings eventually emerged.

25 Years Ago

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of September, 1982: