Health insurance administrators report fielding a rush of Island residents before a Jan. 1 state deadline that requires all commonwealth residents to have coverage.

Under the health reform law, signed by former Gov. Mitt Romney in April 2006, people without health coverage in 2007 will lose their individual personal income tax exemption, which amounts to a penalty of $219. State residents will not face the penalties until 2008 when they file their tax returns for the current calendar year.

The Vineyard Golf Club Foundation has announced the donation of about $66,000 in cash in the past year to nonprofit organizations on the Island.

The foundation also gave more than $24,000 in donated golf games in the past year. These games generated even more money when auctioned for the benefit of Vineyard nonprofits.

Over the past six years, the foundation’s cash and golf-game donations total more than $652,000.

To fund the foundation, each member of the Vineyard Golf Club is asked to give a minimum of $500 annually.

By LINDA BLACK

The egg, despite its bad rap for cholesterol, is a symbol of wholeness. It also is one of only a few so-called “complete” foods. Some nutritionists call it a perfect food, because it has the highest protein content of any one food and it kicks in a large part of your recommended daily intake of other vitamins and minerals such as iodine and riboflavin as well. In nature, the egg is second in nutritional value only to mother’s milk. Plus, there are fewer 100 calories in an egg.

Readers this year lost voices that long had thrived in the Island’s literary ecosystem, from the internationally acclaimed wag Art Buchwald to the perenially pot-boiling (literally — see his cookbook D’lish! for recipes) bestseller Philip Craig. Both left a rich legacy, however, with Mr. Craig’s latest (not last — another will be in stores in May 2008) mystery served up poshumously. His quahauging and crime-solving detective J.W. Jackson is back in the just-released Third Strike, another of Mr.

In the summer, birds and bees and buzzing things are easy to see. They are out and about at the beach and on the playground. But come winter, the Vineyard animals are harder to spot. Beginning in January, the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary will, for the first time, offer its popular Creature Feature program for young naturalists in the winter months.