When campers from the Vineyard's own Camp Jabberwocky went on an unusual tour in Canada this year, their slogan was a single question that was at once jocular and earnest. "How's your news?" they inquired in on-the-street interviews with everyday people.

As the year 2001 comes to a close, it is perhaps an apt question for the Vineyard: How's our news?

This is how it was:

Start talking to people about the state of the Vineyard economy, and you can detect an edginess, an air of concern that mirrors the condition of a nation in the midst of recession, war and ongoing fear of terrorism.

The impact of the fire at the Tisbury Inn and Health Club can't yet be measured in time or money. How many dollars and how many months will it take to rebuild?

The Tisbury Inn was destroyed Saturday night by a fire that started in mid-evening and wasn't fully extinguished until late afternoon Sunday. More than 100 firefighters and public safety personnel were called to the center of the town to fight the blaze at the landmark hotel.

How many pounds of flour, how many pounds of sugar, how many pounds of butter have passed through this place in the last 37 years? How many scones, how many shortbreads, how many jars of beach plum jelly, how many rhubarb pies?

No one ever counted. And no one ever wrote down the recipes.

New Bedford SSA Maneuvers Fail

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

The Falmouth Steamship Authority governor checked the city of New Bedford in its own game of ferry chess yesterday, refusing to honor an 11th-hour request from the Whaling City to extend a trial high-speed ferry project, after the city solicitor abruptly pulled the plug on the project two weeks ago.