Before comedian Jimmy Tingle could start his newest gig, he had to make a visit to the roundabout.

Mr. Tingle takes up the gavel for the Art Buchwald Possible Dreams auction this weekend, and he visited the Vineyard last week to meet with event organizers and the staff of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services. The auction is the principal annual benefit for Community Services and takes place Sunday, July 28 at the Winnetu in Edgartown. The day and date are changed this year from the traditional first Monday in August.

Closing a chapter in a seven-year discussion and negotiation process, Tisbury selectmen signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday with Thomas and Ginny Payette regarding a stand of trees at the Tashmoo Overlook.

Under the terms of the MOU, which was signed at a well-attended selectmen’s meeting, the Payettes agreed to allow town crews onto their property to restore the Tashmoo viewshed.

Everybody growing up in the small town of Kingman, 
Kans., took piano lessons, Delores (Dee) Stevens, 83, explained, sitting at the table of her Chilmark home on a sunny summer morning. That was just what you did. “I was so excited when I had my first lesson. I think I was about four,” Mrs. Stevens said.

It’s been 65 years since the first Steamship Authority was created, signed into existence by Massachusetts Gov. Robert Bradford in 1948 as the New Bedford, Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority. Regular ferry service had existed prior to that date, beginning in the early 1800s. The arrival of the Old Colony Railroad in the 1870s brought train tracks right to the wharf in Woods Hole, spearheading the growth of both the Island summer tourism industry and the boat lines, which were then privately owned.

When Allie Joseph was a little girl, she would spot mermaids while on the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard, insisting to her mother that they were there, in the depths of Vineyard Sound.

On a recent Tuesday Allie, now in college, stood with parents David and Chris and sister Nikki.

The Martha’s Vineyard 13-year-old All-Star team competed in the Babe Ruth District 7 finals over the holiday weekend, earning their spot after a 6-5 defeat of Sandwich on Friday. The game was close throughout, with the Vineyard trailing by just one run in the bottom of the fifth. After starter Elias Fhagen-Smith turned in a solid start on the mound, Jack Sayre came in to hold Sandwich scoreless in relief.