A celebration of Catboats begins this Saturday, July 19. The Parade of Sail will take place in the harbor starting at 12:30 p.m. with a flotilla of catboats of all shapes and sizes from near and far winding its way from the mooring field, past Memorial Wharf and on out past the lighthouse. In the lead will be Kurt Peterson’s big charter cat with the star and stripes sail.

An artist’s and captain’s reception will be offered at the Sculpin Gallery that afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. to introduce the one-week showing of catboat artists and artwork at the gallery.

A household hazardous materials collection this Saturday, July 19 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Martha’s Vineyard Refuse District transfer station near the big airport. See their website for full details and instructions.

The Chappy Book Club will be meeting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 29 at the community center to share thoughts on My Friends by Frederick Blackman.

The Chappaquiddick Island Association annual meeting is Saturday, August 2 from 9 to 11 a.m.

Over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, August 2 and 3, a doubles tennis tournament will be played for the coveted Plumb Cup. If you are interested in participating, please email Amy at [email protected].

A recent comment was made by a top-level bureaucrat down in Washington regarding the ruthless treatment of a very vulnerable group of young people by soulless adults. She said that there are “...hundreds of victims and no one victim will ever get relief. It’s just the volume.” I guess that it was her way of apologizing for shirking her most basic responsibility.

Reminds me of the fable of the little boy who is carefully picking up worms stranded on a sidewalk following a heavy rain. The sun has come out and the worms are now in danger as the concrete dries. One by one he very carefully picks them up and gently places them in the soft grass. A man walking by sees what is going on and says to the boy, “There are so many of them. It won’t make any difference.”

The boy shows him a worm in his cupped hand and replies, “It will make a difference to this one!”