Regional high school students start classes later than usual this year, but the fall athletes are already on the fields preparing for the upcoming season. Mornings and evenings bring a flurry of activity to the quiet school campus as football, field hockey, cross country, soccer and golf shake off the summer haze and get down to business.

It’s a time of tryouts, when varsity and junior varsity teams are created, and a time of camaraderie as teammates work through drills and circuits. It is also exhausting.

The Gazette continues its special project on coastal erosion. Two new stories explore the topic of planning for retreat, how scientists used to think about it and how that thinking has changed. Two new stories today explore the topic of planning for retreat, how scientists used to think about it and how that thinking has changed.

Put plainly, most of the movie footage is not terribly good. Some of it is out of focus or overexposed. Some of it lingers too long on fish lying dead on the rocks. Some of it wasn’t even shot on the Vineyard, and it takes a judicious eye to determine which scenes show the Island and which show Nauset, Cotuit or the jetties at the northern end of the Cape Cod Canal.

Never count your chickens before they are hatched or your cats before they walk out the door of the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard with a new owner. Our shy black tom cat, Michael, emerged from hiding into the arms of someone who promised him a home.