Saltwater Heroes

The idea came from an eight-year-old Chilmark boy. Three years ago young Jack Nixon was reading journalist David Kinney’s book The Big One, the hot new fishing read of the summer that year about the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. As Jack was reading, he gazed at a newspaper nearby and had a sudden thought: He wished that some of the men who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan could fish the derby.

Business Boosters

Many remember the bike race that used to anchor the annual Tivoli Day weekend in Oak Bluffs; it was a kind of must-do autumn event that we looked forward to every year. After a long summer of hard work, this was our time to get out and bask in the warm September sun, reclaiming the Island absent the crowds and traffic. Tivoli Day was a quintessential Vineyard event.

Blinders Off at the Blinker

The proposal to replace the blinker intersection in Oak Bluffs with a roundabout, under discussion now for a full decade, has become irresistible fodder for headline writers here and elsewhere. Facts and arguments are brought up and shot down, rising and falling like the Flying Horses, restated and refuted, over and over again. Will it improve safety? Will it reduce congestion? Will it change the character of the Island? Yes and no, yes and no.

Gone Fishing

Back to School Basics

One girl was buying more pencil sharpeners than she could hold in one hand at EduComp on Wednesday, the day before school. Her father asked, “Do you really need six or seven?” “Well, Dad . . .”

What student can be sure what she needs at school? Something cool to wear, or better, some certainty about what is cool. A kind classmate. Snacks. Maybe seven pencil sharpeners.

Debrief on Irene

It is tempting after the frenzied run-up to last weekend’s weather to pass quick judgment on Irene, who appeared on the Vineyard not as a ferocious hurricane, but a gusty harridan. Another Earl, some complained, referring to last summer’s Labor Day spoiler.