Ryan Fisher was airborne, bare fingers closing around the football intended for the blue-and-white challenger behind him as the fourth-quarter clock flicked from 00:28 to 00:27. The Vineyard senior collapsed backwards across the 10-yard line, football pressed to his chest, players dressed in purple starting to swarm around him, shouts exploding from the right side of the bleachers at Vito Capizzo Stadium on Nantucket.

“Keep the Cup! Keep the Cup!”

Twinkling lights, bustling shoppers, cold nights, larger-than-life pine trees and the suggestion of an imminent snowfall that will transform the gritty streets — that’s Christmas in New York city, the holiday where imagination reigns and visions of sugarplums can really dance, if only in a storefront window.

And no one knows that better than 23-year-old Sam Ashford, a frequent Island visitor whose imagination helped create the window displays at Saks Fifth Avenue.

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

A conch fisherman working off the coast of West Chop got caught in a pot line last summer and was pulled underwater off the stern. He was hauled back in and revived by a quick-witted captain, and thanks to the Coast Guard, was rushed to the hospital where he was stabilized.

Just weeks before and a few miles away, Coast Guardsmen followed a 94-foot scalloper into the port of New Bedford, conducted a boarding and discovered an illegal catch in its hold.