Every jittery Vineyard beachgoer is familiar with the iconic image of the restless great white patrolling the shallows, mouth agape, in search of a fleshy excuse to close it. Stacks of shark books celebrating the more lurid aspects of their behavior, particularly their extremely rare propensity to attack humans, already fill library shelves, but in Demon Fish, Washington Post environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin makes the case that the more fearsome animal is in the mirror.
The Emperor of All Maladies is a billed as a biography of cancer and author Siddhartha Mukherjee treats his subject with all the reverence of a living subject.
“Cancer cells grow faster, adapt better,” he writes. “They are better versions of ourselves.”
West Tisbury selectmen agreed this week to move a World War II memorial from an inaccessible and rarely visited site at the intersection of West Tisbury and State Roads to a location closer to town hall. The exact site near town hall has been up for debate as selectmen originally proposed placing it near a holly tree in front of the building, but others have suggested that the memorial be closer to a flag.
A year after his court-ordered reinstatement as fire investigator in Oak Bluffs, Peter Martell says the town is not honoring his position. Last June a Dukes County superior court judge found that Oak Bluffs fire chief Peter Forend had no legal or justifiable reason for dismissing Mr. Martell. In May a Dukes County superior court judge ordered the town to pay some $35,700 in attorney’s fees.
But Mr. Martell said the fire department has not made good on his reinstatement.
The historic Denniston House on Masonic avenue in Oak Bluffs was sold at a public foreclosure auction yesterday for $500,000 to a well-known Oak Bluffs architect, marking a final chapter in the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Fund’s troubled ownership of the property.
Island farmers were alarmed this week to learn of the possible presence of a visitor from the mainland: a coyote.
