By Tuesday, August 25, Susan and Pierre Guérin, owners of the Sweet LifeCafé, had pretty much given up hope that the President would make a return visit to their Oak Bluffs eatery. President and Mrs. Obama had come for a meal in 2007 during the presidential campaign, sharing a quiet dinner on the breezy restaurant sunporch. The then-sena tor and his wife posed for a photo with theGuérins, which is now framed along with a note of gratitude scrawled on Sweet Life stationary by Mr. Obama.

Funny that Patricia Neal attributes much of her success as an actress to the lucky breaks she got early in her career. The woman revealed in an unusual Monday Night Special event for the Vineyard Playhouse — held on Sunday — seemed largely shaped by those decidedly unlucky events for which she’s become known. In As I Am, Ms.

One of Richard Paradise’s favorite things about cinema is its ability to transport viewers in an instant to far-off places, foreign cultures and fanciful situations. At the 2009 Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival, Mr. Paradise will enhance these screen voyages by bringing a taste of the exotic right to our doorstep, or rooftop, in the case of opening night.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick led a strong cast of dignitaries that appeared in Oak Bluffs on Friday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Bradley Square affordable housing project.

The governor arrived shortly after 4 p.m. to speak on behalf of the Island Affordable Housing Fund and the Island Housing Trust, the two organizations that are responsible for the Bradley Square plan.

Three American soldiers were killed in combat in the Middle East during the week that President Obama spent vacationing on the Vineyard. Three more mothers lost their children, a sacrifice with which Cindy Sheehan is all too familiar. In 2004, her elder son Casey, then 24 years old, became one more casualty in a war she considers “a hopeless cause,” and “destined for ruin or disaster.”