News
It jumps out at you. In paragraph thirteen of an article written by Mara Liasson in July 1976, then a Vineyard Gazette intern: “Right now in the up-Island swamps the bushes are covered with heavy clusters of cream-colored flowers and purple berries.”
Of course, by the time an elderberry bush bears berries, its flowers tend to be long gone.
With six confirmed cases of tularemia and reports of Lyme disease coming in, the Vineyard has begun another season of documenting tick-borne illnesses.
Although cases are still being confirmed, official numbers will not be released until early next year. But initial reports from state public health officials and the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital indicate no slowdown in the high rates of tick-borne illnesses on Island.
The names of Flip Scipio’s clients — Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder, and Carly Simon among them — are testament to him as a guitar technician.
Other names you’ve never heard of are testament to him as a person. They are the names of soldiers in Afghanistan, whose music he also enabled. Not that he even mentions it until it comes up in conversation at his Aquinnah home.
They are tallish, spare and almost laconic men.
The 22nd annual two-day monster shark tournament in Oak Bluffs ended Saturday with a total of 27 sharks caught and submitted, the largest of which was a 399-pound thresher. The team on the Waterbury caught the shark Friday, beating the other 200 boats in the tournament. Their prize was an $80,000 boat.
An Island institution responsible for giving a bang to the season is having a hard time.
The Oak Bluffs Firemen’s Civic Association, which collects contributions each year to cover the cost for the August fireworks over Ocean Park, is this summer struggling to raise enough money.
“It is getting harder and harder,” said Ken Davey, president of the association.
This year’s fireworks are scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 23.