As spring approaches, students become stressed and anxious about MCAS tests. We are told “you’ll do fine” and “just do your best” by our teachers and parents. But these exams are still very stressful for students. MCAS is a standardized test. Based on your results, it puts you in categories ranging from receiving a warning to being considered “advanced.” Being put in a category just stresses us out even more. We all know that a student can be smart and not a good test-taker.

Thoughtful Disposal

Moore’s Law states that “the number of transistors and resistors on a microchip doubles every 18 months.” It’s technobabble to most of us, but its effect is real enough: our gizmos go obsolete every one and one-half years.

With the rise in popularity of gadgets like iPods and high-definition televisions, even the most frugal Island residents may find a growing cache of old technology collecting dust in the basement.

Man Bites Cow

From Gazette editions of March, 1934:

Almost everyone is familiar with the famed definition of news, that it isn’t news if a dog bites a man, but it is if a man bites a dog. But right here on the Island there is a new definition. A story has broken that should flash over all wires: a man has bitten a cow!

HEALTHY FOR VNA

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I have been reading about the VNA’s efforts to start a hospice and thought my experience with their agency might be instructive.

They called themselves the Pink Squid Yacht Club. They were a fun group of hardworking Vineyarders who liked to party and raise money for one worthy cause or another, but the PSYC has disbanded. Call it a sign of hard times. Call it a group of anglers and golf enthusiasts who have shifted their interests. The club is done.

The commodore, Glen Searle, of Edgartown, said: “I got tired. Everybody got tired.” Mr. Searle, 52, is an assistant manager at Your Market.

Beach Renourishment Stimulus

Vineyarders got their own shovels ready and recently delivered their own stimulus package to the area’s most critical infrastructure: the beach. Over a hundred volunteers planted beach grass on Joseph Sylvia State Beach, and crews followed them with dibbles at Bend in the Road beach in the days following. The community turnout showed a devotion to these sandy places that so enhance our lives, livelihoods and pursuit of happiness.