Art Sale for Hope

Sunday afternoon, a line of hopeful Islanders snaked from Dragonfly Gallery’s front door around the corner in Oak Bluffs. Lines outside an art gallery? In October? That’s right — with a frisson of anticipation, even competition, pulsing up and down the street’s edge. “It’s like trying to get World Series tickets,” laughed one man as he took a number.

Reading the Fine Print

As big as the ocean itself, the Massachusetts Oceans Act adopted six months ago by the state legislature is an ambitious but largely hollow piece of legislation that remains to be filled out in the months ahead, partly through the development of an accompanying ocean management plan. The plan, which will be written over the next twelve months with the assistance of a broad-based advisory commission, is a crucial first step in regulating development in ocean waters within three miles of the state coastline.

Happy Birthday

One hundred and fifty years is a long time, but like a beautiful woman who ages gracefully, Alley’s General Store is hardly showing her age. She’s still the same venerable institution in the heart of West Tisbury, the one that deals in almost everything, from sheetrock screws to plastic sand pails, from fresh apples to The New York Times, from videos to hot coffee. And the front porch at Alley’s is still the best place to sit and watch the world go by — or perhaps meet a friend on the way up-Island or down-Island

Economies of Scale

The clock that ticks off the United States’ national debt ran out of digits yesterday. It could not register ten trillion dollars without dropping the dollar sign. Far as we are from Times Square, Vineyarders are well aware of our share of the burden (officially estimated to be about thirty-four thousand dollars for every American citizen).

Gone Quahuagging: Well, Almost

It was a long, hard summer for working Islanders, many of whom find their personal reward in the fall when things slow down a little and they can go out on a Saturday or Sunday and rake a basket of quahaugs, or maybe dig a mess of steamers for dinner. The water is still warm enough to wear shorts and water shoes and nothing tastes finer than a plateful of cold, briny littlenecks so fresh they are practically wiggling in their shells.

After the MCAS Dust Settles

As Island schools deal with the fallout from the annual Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams, their administrators will be tested. Voters will find their own commitments tested, as town and state coffers are scraped to find ways to pay for ever-higher scores demanded by the federal government’s punitive and never fully funded law, No Child Left Behind.