Commentary
By SUSAN KLEIN
Having lived a full life, Barbara Lipke was many things to many people. In addition to wife, mother, educator and author, she was also a storyteller. Her beguilingly gentle telling style would erupt into something bolder and humorous, delighting her listeners and showcasing her considerable skills.
I returned to the Island just after the Yard article appeared in the Christmas Eve edition of the Gazette.
As an Island creditor owed $18,000 by the Yard, I have been on the receiving end of a dismissive response to both my concern for Wendy Taucher — who did not leave but was asked to resign and when she refused to do so was fired — and my concerns about repayment.
My overall concern goes deeper than this lapse of respect.
For the record, Ms. Taucher was not paid this year for her work.
To most Islanders, the name Denys Wortman is most familiar as that of the former Tisbury selectman. But before that Wortman, there was another Denys Wortman, the painter-turned-cartoonist whose work could be found six days a week for more than 30 years in the pages of New York’s World-Telegram and Sun (and syndicated widely in other papers).
The Christmas Bird Count has been conducted since 1900, an amazing 111 years. It is a bird-watching activity that took the place of a Christmas side hunt, an old holiday tradition where teams of hunters would compete to see who could kill the largest number of wild birds on Christmas Day. It took Frank Chapman to change the tide. In 1900 he proposed that instead of killing the birds, shooters and others would count rather than kill the birds in their area.
Tale of Two Libraries
The West Tisbury and Edgartown library building projects are textbook examples of the right and wrong way to do things.
Mr. Keating Goes to Washington
William Keating on Wednesday swore an oath to represent the people of the 10th Congressional District, including us here on the Vineyard, in our federal government. Say what you will about this moment in time — the worst recession, the most vicious partisanship, the biggest government, the least effective government — it all has been said before, in fact, it’s been said since the beginning.