Robert J. Carroll, the prominent Edgartown businessman, conservationist, raconteur and longtime Vineyard power player who was sometimes a lightning rod for controversy, died on March 31 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. He was 90. A celebration of his life will be held at the Harbor View Hotel on Saturday, April 4, beginning at 4 p.m.

The title of John Hough Jr.’s latest book is quite specific — The Fiction Writer’s Guide to Dialogue.

On Sunday, March 15, the Offshore Ale Co. in Oak Bluffs will hold an all day fundraiser for Samantha Caldwell, a third grader at the Tisbury School fighting brain cancer. Throughout the day, 100 per cent of food profits will be donated to the Caldwell family.

Dad’s a drunk named Bull, brother Jimmy is an ex con dealing heroin, and Cooper Harrison is stepping in a pile of donkey manure on a regular basis as part of his job as the animal control officer for a small New England town called Harmony Farms.

The high school theatre department is putting on Into the Woods this weekend. Performances are Thursday, Feb. 12, through Sunday, Feb. 15, and the production is a true community affair. The play was written by a Vineyarder - Tony award winner James Lapine.

Tonight at 10 p.m. the Discovery Channel premieres a new series called Big Giant Swords. The reality show features the Vineyard's Michael Craughwell, who creates swords of up to six feet long and weighing 80 pounds.