Herbert Foster began teaching industrial arts for the New York city public school system fresh out of New York University, thanks to the G.I. Bill. It was Nov. 3, 1950 and his salary was set at $13.25 per day. He was 23 years old. On his first day teaching mechanical drawing and blueprint-making at Haaren High School in Hell’s Kitchen, Mr. Foster lost control of the classroom.

To go to the theatre or not to go? That could be the question, except here on the Vineyard this weekend. Shakespeare for the Masses is back and doing Hamlet, the first play the troupe performed when it began five seasons ago. Shakespeare for the Masses is, one could say, a return to the time of Billy the Bard — William Shakespeare to most. When he wrote and produced his plays, Shakespeare was indeed for the masses.

Since 1843, the Old Whaling Church, with its familiar white exterior, six grand columns and regal clock tower, has stood watch over Edgartown’s Main street.

But inside the Greek revival church, built during the town’s whaling heyday, was another feature that architect Frederick Baylies viewed as an integral part of the completed project: trompe l’oeil paintings graced the walls and the ceilings, and the church’s interior architecture was built with these sweeping features in mind.

Copper repoussè artist Anthony Holand of the Tuck & Holand Metal Sculptors has been featured in Boston Home magazine’s Best of Boston Home, Winter 2013 issue, which is available on newsstands now. The studio, based in Vineyard Haven, is renowned for custom weathervanes, as well as a line of limited edition compass roses, wall maps, burgees, chandeliers and sculpture. It has been placed on Massachusetts’s 1,000 Great Places list.

Uma Datta jingles around her kitchen in her bedazzled blouse as she pours a cup of Chai tea and gives her tamarind sauce one last stir before setting it down on the granite countertop next to some fried samosas.

“You get French fries here? You get samosas in India,” said Mrs. Datta. On the counter there are also cashew nut rolls, condensed milk squares, and raisin and nut mixes. From her refrigerator she pulls out curried chickpeas, roti and, for the last course, pistachio ice cream.

Take a look at a Vineyard book shelf and you’re likely to find The History of Martha’s Vineyard by Charles Banks or Moraine to Marsh by Anne Hale. For conservationists, Aldo Leopold’s book A Sand County Almanac published in 1949 is equally iconic. “I think anybody can be inspired by what he wrote,” Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation director Adam Moore said this week. “It’s one of the key pieces of literature in our environmental history in this country.”