Fall Tilt

The autumnal equinox will take place this Wednesday, Sept. 22, at precisely 11:09 p.m. At that moment the tilt of the earth’s axis will be inclined neither away nor toward the sun. It is as if the planet will be suspended, the sun hovering directly above the equator, for just a moment before the seasonal change begins to roll in.

Derby Number 65

The sea and coastline around the Island have been roughed up by hurricanes and tropical storms this September, beginning last weekend when Earl blew through and again midweek when more tropical disturbances cropped up. The weather has been unstable: thunderstorms crashed down on Edgartown on Wednesday while West Tisbury stayed dry and sunny.

But the forecast calls for weather patterns to settle down by Sunday, just in time for the opening of the sixty-fifth Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.

New School Year Begins

Picture it this way: If a doctor, lawyer or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job. 

Faded Beauty

Holiday Snapshots

Two trips to the beach, one family bike ride, three dinners out and roughly eighty-one holes of golf. One trip to the bookstore, one rainy day lunch. A couple of hours of pickup basketball at the Oak Bluffs School gymnasium. A game of Scrabble with an old friend (the President won). A quiet conversation with New York city Mayor Michael Bloomberg around the links at the Vineyard Golf Club. A plate of fried shrimp and a cold beer overlooking the busy Oak Bluffs harbor on an August day.

Late Summer Days

The northeaster that blew through the Island this week was right on schedule in this summer of early things: early spring, early dog days of heat and humidity and now an early storm more characteristic of September than August. Slickers and rain boots were pulled out of hiding in coat closets and donned for sloshing through wind-driven rain that fell from the sky in great sheets. It felt good, actually, to wash away the summer dust and spiderwebs that have woven themselves artfully around downspouts and on screened porches.