Julia Rappaport
Oyster growers are as competitive as they come. “Insanely competitive,” according to Bob Rheault. As president of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, Mr. Rheault also encounters cultivators of clams, quahaugs and mussels, but none rivals the oyster farmer for competitive spirit.
“We all have this conviction that our oyster tastes the best,” said Mr. Rheault, an oyster farmer himself, “and, if you don’t have this conviction, you probably shouldn’t be in this business.”
For Lani Carney, paintbrushes were not made for painting. Paintbrushes were made for dancing.
“I taught them how to dance with the brush,” she said, and by them, she meant her students. “Last week I said to them, ‘Today, the light blue of the sky really says spring is here! Will you dance with me and your brush and paint what spring says in your heart?’
“That fizz and the actual manner in which the color takes to that wet paper,” she continued, “It’s a delight you and I have never known!”
Two longstanding Chilmark residents may be forced to hand over to the town multiple mooring permits they hold and rent out, according to a letter submitted to the town selectmen this week by their attorney.
A sharply divided board of selectmen requested the opinion from Ronald H. Rappaport earlier this winter.
It was Emily Dickinson who wrote, “a letter always seemed to me like immortality.”
After spending the past two decades uncovering boxes of handwritten diaries, letters composed on old typewriters and files of personal documents, professor and sociologist Adelaide Cromwell would have to agree.
Russell H. Smith of Aquinnah has been named as the next Dukes County manager. In a special meeting Friday morning, the Dukes County Commission voted unanimously to appoint Mr. Smith to the position, which has been vacant since August.
As it has the past few years, the department of Dukes County Sheriff Michael McCormack will continue to face budgetary uncertainty this year.
So said Sheriff McCormack this week after news leaked that the effort from Gov. Deval Patrick to assume budgetary control of the seven county sheriffs still elected independently in the state appears headed for defeat.