News
Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Solow had the overflow crowd roaring with laughter from the very start of his introduction of Henry Louis Gates Jr. at the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival on Sunday.
“It’s not often,” he deadpanned, “that you get the chance to introduce a deserving but obscure scholar . . . .”
And people say Americans don’t understand irony.
The Dukes County sheriff’s department will come under control of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts starting in January 2010, according to state legislation awaiting the signature of Gov. Deval Patrick.
Backers of the legislation say the bill will improve a budgetary process which has left the state’s seven remaining sheriffs’ departments scrambling mid-year for additional state funding to cover costs.
A New Hampshire man drowned on Saturday in strong surf at Quansoo Beach in Chilmark, despite a dramatic rescue attempt by police, fire and ambulance workers at the remote location near the man-made cut at the barrier beach that separates Tisbury Great Pond from the ocean. Lawrence Shedd, 49, of Danbury, N.H., was pronounced dead at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital at 3:38 p.m.
Circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation by police.
Welcome Caroline
Aimee Blood and Paul Cotton of West Tisbury announce the birth of a daughter, Caroline Nicole Cotton, born on July 28, 2009, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Caroline weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces at birth.
Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard is sponsoring a forum — An Insiders’ Guide to Hospice: What’s Old, What’s New, What’s Up — on Tuesday, August 4, at 5 p.m. Featured will be Dr. Donald Schumacher, chief executive of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in Washington, D.C.
The forum is free and open to the public. It will be held at the First Congregational Church in West Tisbury at State Road and Music street. Refreshments will follow.
Island Voices
Island Voices at Che’s Lounge in Vineyard Haven offers a new poetry performance series continues on Wednesday, August 5 at 7:30 p.m. Ben Williams will perform and host the event with Island poets Janette Vanderhoop and Andrew Larsen performing their work. An open reading follows the featured poets. All Island poets are invited.