All right, we have been officially initiated as full-fledged year-rounders in Vineyard Haven. We participated in Halloween. What a scene. What a kick!

We have been hearing about this holiday classic for years and missed it last year. It would have been our first Halloween in Vineyard Haven but we were called off-Island to a wedding. When we returned, all our neighborly friends informed us that we had missed an incredible tradition, a fantastic three-hour piece of Americana in which Norman Rockwell meets Grand Guignol.

Thank you for coordinating the posture screening and injury prevention session on Saturday, Oct. 27. Special thanks to Kris Martin, Connie Hughes and Barbara Smith for making it happen.

From the Vineyard Gazette edition of Nov. 14, 1918:

The Great War began August 1, 1914 and lasted 1,567 days. The United States entered the Great War on April 6, 1917. Fighting on the battlefronts ended at 6 o’clock Monday morning, Nov. 11, 1918, Eastern time in the United States. The armistice with Germany was signed on the Eleventh hour of the Eleventh day of the Eleventh month.

In following the news coverage of Hurricane Sandy, I was struck by a strange reversal in reporting from before and after the storm. In the days leading up to landfall, the effect of climate change on the likelihood, strength or impacts of the storm was largely ignored; in accounts of the damage post-Sandy, the subject of climate change has been routinely raised.

On Tuesday Vineyard voters will join the rest of the country in going to the polls and casting ballots for President of the United States and an array of state and local contests. By any measure this election will be historic. After months of listening, reading, and no doubt at times wanting to tune out the rancor and high-volume messages blasting from every media outlet, voters have a deep well of information on which to base their choices.