Indian Summer

September is the Island’s best-kept secret and many Islanders who work hard all summer consider it their own special gift. The ocean water is still warm enough for swimming, and beach days are still at hand for strolling, collecting shells and stones and, of course, one more plunge into the ocean. Will it be the last until next year?

The derby is on and fishermen line the shore, casting for blues and stripers in their waders, perhaps making us somewhat incongruous as we splash about in shorts and bathing suits.

The Oceans Plan Quid Pro Quo

Gov. Deval Patrick and his senior advisors in energy and the environment have an ambitious, aggressive agenda that is designed to regulate and encourage the development of renewable energy industries, especially wind. But the legislative initiatives that have grown from the this agenda would also eviscerate the protective powers of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, and this is an unacceptable trade-off.

Washashore

From a Gazette edition of 1928:

Recent Gazette articles on the state’s draft ocean management plan have raised questions about the plan, especially the renewable energy opportunities it identifies for Massachusetts waters. On behalf of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles, I would like to address a couple of them, namely, alleged “new” powers granted the Energy Facilities Siting Board to override local authority, and whether the Martha’s Vineyard community will have a meaningful role in potential development of wind energy off its shores.

AVIAN FACTS GARBLED

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

The Gazette called me to seek information about the effects of wind turbines on migratory bird population for an article in the Sept. 11 edition. Unfortunately there was a missing synapse along the line as a good portion of the information printed had no bearing whatsoever to what I said.

The skin drum in Tobias Vanderhoop’s hand was small, but the sound it made was huge, echoing off the venerable redbrick buildings of Harvard Yard as if calling forth the sound of other, older Native American drums that might once have filled that space.