From Gazette editions of January 1987: The Wintertide Coffeehouse reopens for its 1987 season on Saturday in a new location: the Manter Memorial Youth Hostel on the Edgartown Road.

Cribbing a famous line from an infamous late U.S. president, it is public enemy number one in Southeastern Massachusetts, although this time the enemy is not drugs but nitrogen. Nitrogen poses a serious threat to the health of our coastal ponds and saltwater embayments that were once pristine and are now in alarming states of decline. Eelgrass beds are gone or disappearing, and along with them the clean shellfish that both provide a rich source of food and form a key cog in the local economy.

Who doesn’t love a poet?

Chaucer for his keen observations. Frost for his spare elegance. T.S. Eliot for his dark insight. Billy Collins for the sheer joy and privilege of sailing around the room with him.

Who will gather leaves for the children’s craft?

Who will sort the harmless reds from the poison?

Who will fold and unfold the octagonal star?

Who will care less for the flower than for its unfolding?

Who will look at a rock and see a king, a loser, a lost you?

My name is Jesse Thomas, and I am an Islander and a Boy Scout. In response to the letters and events of this past summer, i.e.

What an amazing feeling it was to arrive at the Aquinnah old Town Hall and find myself amid over 100 well-wishing friends and colleagues.