A community forum on depression and suicide prevention Tuesday night revealed a startling statistic: The number of suicide attempts on Martha's Vineyard has tripled in the last year compared to the incidence in the previous 12 months.

Fueled by a federal grant aimed at countering a bioterrorist attack, scientists at a Providence, R.I., pharmaceutical company are banking on the collection of blood samples from nearly two dozen Vineyarders to help them develop a new vaccine against tularemia, the rare disease with an unexplained presence on Martha's Vineyard.

Vineyard residents enjoy good health, especially compared with the general population on the mainland. They smoke less, they are thinner and they visit their doctors regularly.

There are the reverberating smacks of the basketballs bouncing off the wooden floors, the squeaks of rubber soles starting and stopping in tandem,

With five seconds left in the biggest game of his life, with crazed fans screaming at him from every direction and with everything riding on his right foot, E.J. Sylvia delivered.

When taken out of context, listening to Gustavo Simoes talk about football can be quite confusing.

"I played football all the time as a kid in Brazil," the high school senior and Vineyarders center said after practice Monday. "And I had seen football on TV, too, but I never played it until I came here."

Put in context, the confusion is easily sorted out.