Tending Their Flocks

From earlier Gazette editions:

It is recorded that when Major General Sir Charles Grey made his raid upon the Vineyard during the Revolution he requisitioned 10,000 sheep and 300 oxen, together with hay for them. Apparently 10,574 sheep were actually supplied, under duress, to the British, the quotas of the different towns being as follows: Chilmark, 3,903; Edgartown, 3,919; Tisbury, 2,752.

As a man who is so bad at games of chance that I was once beaten in blackjack by my dog, I never thought I would be a high roller at a casino. That is why I had never been to a casino until I recently visited Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., where I defied the odds, despite being a bit odd myself, by hitting the jackpot on a slot machine and pocketing a grand total of $11.50.

Something to Celebrate

As well-resourced men and women from Washington and Wall Street jockeyed this week for a multi-billion-dollar bailout, a band of earthy Vineyarders was busy preparing a festival about living local. This ironic juxtoposition is an accident of timing, of course; still, the broader economic crisis does concentrate the mind on those aspects of living that Islanders can and should control.

Asters to Call Our Own

They come out just when the summer people go home, as if on cue for the Islanders who stop working so much and are out and about for fall walks and swims in the still-warm ocean.

They are the New England asters, sturdy, long-blooming and marked by more varieties than can be listed in this space. At least five or six varieties are in bloom right now, including stiff and showy asters. Their colors range from deep purple to pale periwinkle, and they look gorgeous in arrangements with goldenrod and rustic native grasses.

Caught Speeding

Autumn Arrives