The recent article by Sara Brown (Vineyard Gazette, March 22) illustrates clearly a few problems apparent in our boat line service. In their effort to provide “a little more capacity,” the addition of the vessel Island Home (second vessel of this name) has shown the fallacy of attempting to use a west coast design in Atlantic waters

Many remember the last time the small (west) entrance to Vineyard Haven harbor closed in 1997, and you could smell the decay far and wide. The small entrance is nearly closed again and in desperate need of dredging. The entrance is environmentally vital to water circulation and a clean harbor. It is also imperative to keep open for safety, so small boats and children can use this back channel entrance and avoid the commercial ferry channel.

As a painter, Pablo Picasso had nothing on me. Sure, he had a Blue Period, but it lasted only three years. My Blue Period has lasted almost 25 years. Every time I’ve had a painting project it’s made me blue, which is the color of the master bedroom and the adjoining bathroom.

Ray Hopper died the day our first child was born. It wasn’t a natural death, or a peaceful death. At the time Ray was the husband of the storekeeper and he had a daily ritual. He would load his antique dueling pistol and his muzzle-loading rifle, roll up a couple of dog-haired, dust-bunnied, washashore joints and head out looking for deer. His route was exactly the same every day, so when he did not show up by dark, the island went looking for him. They found him, still warm, with his much-loved antique guns, pack, wallet and one joint neatly stacked on a rock nearby.

From the Vineyard Gazette edition of May 1948: Martha’s Vineyard, virtually free of billboards and signs for many years, can breathe freely again, since the eagle eye of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club, noting encroachments upon the obstructed state of their Island domain, transferred its reproachful gaze to the companies responsible for the erection of new signs in the past year or two. The garden club has conducted an aggressive and successful campaign against roadside signs since its founding.

Martha’s Vineyard could be viewed as having a split personality. Regular folk live here year-round, going about the business of making a living and raising a family just like in any community, and they do it mostly anonymously, at least as far as the rest of the world is concerned.