Not so long ago, it was commonplace for Vineyard towns to have multiple blacksmith shops: thriving places of commerce that sold items such as bolts, hinges, horseshoes, cooking utensils and iron gates.

But as the all-consuming age of the machine took hold, the old village smithy went the way of the horse and buggy. The last blacksmith on the Island was Orin Norton, who operated a shop in Edgartown for sixty years until his death in 1961.

In a return to form of sorts, Oak Bluffs selectmen on Tuesday clashed over what seemed like a relatively harmless plan to allow principal assessor Dianne Wilson to work a three-day work week with longer days instead of a traditional five-day work week.

Like an ominous dorsal fin appearing behind unsuspecting bathers set to the familiar theme music from Jaws, debate over the Boston Big Game Fishing Club Monster Shark Tournament resurfaced these past few weeks just as the countdown to the summer season began in earnest.

The Oak Bluffs selectmen have released the minutes of a May 9 executive session during which the board voted to terminate town administrator Casey

On the surface, the four candidates running for the open seat on the Oak Bluffs board of selectmen in next week's special election share the same ideas on most of the major issues in recent town politics.

Herbert A. (Bert) Combra Jr., Kenneth DeBettencourt, Ronald DiOrio and David E. Morris Jr. are all vying for the single seat vacated when former selectman Michael Dutton stepped down to take over as town administrator.

Using charts, graphs and an encyclopedic knowledge of sharks, a leading state marine biologist told the Oak Bluffs selectmen this week that the emb