Last night, while entertaining friends, I received an urgent call labeled code red from an Island-based public agency. The purpose was to inform me of a free flu shot. My first thought was that maybe a major massacre had occurred on the Island when they announced it was a code red emergency.

Thank you for publishing Mark Lovewell’s excellent article about Gannon and Benjamin building a whaleboat for the whaleship Charles W. Morgan. A number of people have contacted me asking questions about the ship’s Vineyard connections which I’ve summarized below for them and others who may have an interest.

I would like to give thanks to all the people who helped retrieve Thunder, the famous 400-pound Berkshire boar, on loan to me from Native Earth Teaching Farm. At the time I was away in Portland, Ore., and a family member was caring for my little farm that lies within Seven Gates Farm. The electricity in his fence went down late on Christmas Day and Thunder chose to visit neighborhood friends who often bring him scraps to eat. Many Vineyard phone circuits lit up, including mine from Oregon.

I was reading Eric Klinenberg’s article Adaptation in this week’s New Yorker and it occurred to me to wonder how this Island would have fared if Hurricane Sandy had scored a direct hit here. It’s worth considering that Hurricane Bob, the last major storm most of us remember, was merely a category two hurricane.

In reading some recent letters to the editor, I had to reflect on the existing gun laws of the state of Massachusetts, which already require that purchasers or possessors of firearms be licensed, that guns are registered at the point of sale, are required to be in locked cabinets or have trigger locks, and unfit individuals are, and have always been, barred from becoming licensed. Anyone who thinks that obtaining a license or buying a firearm in this state is easy and simple is someone who obviously has never tried it.

On Thursday, Dec. 27 at 8:30 a.m., I was driving on Lambert’s Cove Road and ran over some brush. There was no traffic. I pulled off the road just past Cottle’s. A Cottle’s truck leaving the yard stopped on the road beside me. The driver jumped out, pulled the brush out and headed back to the truck.