AUTHOR’S CORRECTION

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

In a piece I wrote that appeared in the Sept. 5 Gazette I said that Sarah Palin when a mayor in Alaska attempted to get the local librarian to ban certain books. That statement is fact. That the librarian refused is also fact. I erred, however, when I stated that Ms. Palin then had the reluctant librarian fired; she only tried to accomplish that dubious deed. She failed, thus casting some shadow on her vaunted ability to get things done.

Allan Manings

Edgartown

POND ALGAE

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

When we arrived in Aquinnah in mid-July, I noticed a substantial growth of green algae in the Herring Creek area of Menemsha Pond. The articles describing the algae problems in Edgartown Great Pond paint a picture much like what I observed, including the diminution of the algae later on in August.

I suspect the problems described in your articles may be Island-wide and not just confined to the Edgartown Great Pond. It’s time for all of us to start thinking about solutions.

Green and Ominous

The Edgartown Great Pond is in trouble, its brackish waters out of balance and at the outer limit of their capacity to carry nitrogen. This is a well-known fact, thoroughly documented in the Massachusetts Estuaries Project draft report for the pond which was obtained by this newspaper, published on its Web site and written about a year ago this summer.

Clearing Hurdles

Five years ago, federal investigators reported poorly on the efforts at the Oak Bluffs and Tisbury schools to serve their non-English speaking students. After a complaint that the schools’ lack of trained teachers, interpreters and appropriate materials were shortchanging Brazilian students, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights found indeed that staff were failing the needs of a growing population.

Some people when stressed turn to yoga to find the peace of mind that will be the hand maiden that gets them through the bedeviling snarls that bind them. Others choose a more earthbound route and find solace in Wild Turkey or other grains and spirits. I choose a road less traveled and seek for answers in the Oxford American Dictionary (paperbound edition).

Lobster Tales

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of September, 1983:

John T. Hughes joined a distinguished team of ocean scientists from around the world for a trip to the once-closed nation of China. His passport was his career here on the Island, as a leading biologist studying Homarus americanus — the American lobster. His expertise is unequalled and often sought out by those interested in the raising of lobsters. Mr. Hughes built and has managed the state lobster hatchery in Oak Bluffs since its inception in 1949.