Riding on Empty

Somewhere between the stable dirt and the saddle, girls who love horses find the women they will become. Up there, it’s not about being a girl. Riding requires toughness and gentleness, strength and smarts — characteristics that do not always sit easily together in a young girl’s world.

Too Quiet Downtown

Walking down Main street Vineyard Haven, you can still smell the smoke. It’s in a single spot directly in front of the Bunch of Grapes bookstore and before the site of Cafe Moxie, just a whiff of the charred smell that lingers long after a fire. It is an olfactory trigger that brings memories of Independence Day, when the restaurant burned to the ground and the bookstore was ruined nearly beyond recognition.

Island Plan for the Future

How much and how should the Vineyard grow?

This is the question that has been posed by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission and will be addressed tomorrow night at a public forum at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury, marking the second to last in a series of community discussions that have been held throughout the summer as part of the Island Plan, a fifty-year comprehensive plan for the Island.

E.B. Collins: 1925-2008

He was a consummate gentleman, a man firm in his beliefs, soft spoken in expression, sensitive to the views of others and deeply committed to the vital interests of the Vineyard. The death of E.B. Collins last Sunday recalls a period of political civility in a time of rising contention at the Steamship Authority.

Women’s Rights

On Monday the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver, and before it ends history will be made.

Senator Hillary Clinton, an Island icon after years so many stays here as First Lady, and the former presidential candidate who gave the presumptive nominee, Senator Barack Obama, his biggest challenge yet, is scheduled to speak on Tuesday.

Summer’s Last Hurrah