The scenic rural roadway hugs the long stretch of bluff jutting into Nantucket Sound beyond the Oak Bluffs harbor before falling sharply to sea level as it curves around Crystal Lake, eventually reconnecting with Eastville avenue.

Oppressed minorities and those fearing reprisal for speaking out have good reason to remain anonymous. It’s harder to understand why others feel compelled to make comments using false names, but the practice has become widespread in the internet era.

Hello, darkness my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again. So goes the beginning of Simon and Garfunkel’s song the Sound of Silence. And so it goes each fall as Daylight Saving Time comes to an end once again. On Sunday evening the sun will set at 4:34 p.m.

It started with a headline. Two young Islanders won the derby. That was something to celebrate. Then on the Gazette website conversation stirred. They weren’t really Islanders, one reader said. Wrong at least on one count, replied the grandmother of Sam Bell, age twenty five, born and raised on the Vineyard.

The announcement by Cape and Islands state Sen. Dan Wolf this week that he is ending his bid for governor in 2014 came as little surprise. But his strange imbroglio with the Massachusetts Ethics Commission over the last few months has left more questions than answers, particularly about his future as a legislator representing the Island.

Giant tour buses line up outside the visitor center in Edgartown, letting out scores of tourists who wander streets where leaves now fall thickly and stray roses still bloom on fences like summer holdouts. Along the Beach Road in Oak Bluffs fishermen of all ages cast into the chilly, wind-roughened waters as the derby enters its final days.