Oak Bluffs

0

Now is the time of year when people’s fuses are getting short as they have to continually put up with the hot and humid weather, endless traffic, and ruder people. Just hang in there and use these events as a challenge: see if you can bring a smile to people’s faces or nudge them (gently of course) into more courteous behavior. Before we know it, the traffic, weather, and people’s behavior will change.

As it does every other year, the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival is coming to Chilmark on Sunday, August 7. The festival runs from 11 am to 5 pm and features 25 authors speaking in tents during the course of the day. Authors include both local favorites and those that are traveling from off-Island to participate in the festival. The event is free and books are available for sale by Edgartown Books. Authors will sign their books following their discussions. Food will be provided by the ArtCliff Diner Truck. For the complete book festival schedule, go to mvbookfestival.com.

Sara Craft has been appointed scribe for the very busy Ken Rusczyk. Five wonderful Welshmen and women visited for a week with Ken Rusczyk and friends on the Vineyard. One of their number, Michael “Mick”, wrote: “Out of the frying pan! Washed up like bad pennies, the 5 Brits visiting KR seemed blithely unaware of imminent default. They spooned in the Lagoon, availed themselves of Offshore Ales, and remorselessly abused the hospitality of credulous natives before drifting off east again towards the Eurozone. They’ll get theirs!”

Hopefully this wonderful group (besides Mick, there’s his lovely and long-suffering wife, Di, their beautiful daughter, Bethann, and newlyweds, Bernard and Kate) had as grand a time visiting as their hosts did.

Artist’s Reception for Cartoonist Paul Karasik will be held on Friday, August 5, at 4 pm at the West Tisbury Free Public Library.The public is welcome and refreshments will served. Paul Karasik’s cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, among other publications.

Adult Community Education (ACE MV), in collaboration with Haiti PeaceQuilts Project and the African Artists’ Community Development Project (AACDP) are honored to host an evening with Joseph Sebarenzi, author of “God Sleeps In Rwanda” on Saturday, August 6, from 5 to 7 pm at Howes House in West Tisbury. This event is free and open to the public.

You are invited on Saturday, August 6, from 3 to 8 pm to Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs as they will be celebrating 15 years of arts and community. Please join them for great free art activities, fun, food, music, dancing, and cake.

In honor of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s ongoing exhibit, Your Town, Our Island that is designed to celebrate the different characters and voices of the Island’s separate towns, the Museum is offering free admission to all seasonal and year-round residents of Oak Bluffs for the week of August 8 to 12.

The annual Rotary Club Pancake Breakfast and celebration of its 20th Anniversary takes place on Sunday, August 7, from 7 am to 1 pm at The Anchors, across from Memorial Wharf in Edgartown. For the cost of $8 for adults, and $4 for kids, there will be all-you-can-eat pancakes, bacon, sausage, juice, and coffee. This is a big fundraiser for The Rotary Club, which donates funds to many Island charities and organizations.

The schedule for the Martha’s Vineyard Camp-Meeting Association is filled with many activities. On Saturday, August 6, from 9 am to 3 pm there’s the Craft Fair at the Tabernacle with lots of crafts, art, collectables and free admission.

Also Saturday, at 8 pm there will be a presentation Window to the Sea with Brian Skerry, the New England Aquarium’s Explorer in Residence and an award-winning National Geographic Magazine photographer.

Monday, August 8, at 7 pm, The Tabernacle proudly presents “The Airborne Comedians.” Dan Foley and Joel Harris merge vaudeville, amazing juggling and comedy to produce wonderful family entertainment.

The Campground Cottage Tour 2011 provides an opportunity to view the interiors of six cottages on Wednesday, August 10, from 10 am to 3 pm.

The Community Solar Greenhouse (COMSOG) will present David Crohan’s Top Hat Concert on Sunday, August 7, at 4:30 pm at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown. David will perform with Jenny Friedman. A potluck reception follows. The money raised will benefit the Top Hat Fund (a new roof for the greenhouse).

The 5th Annual Federated Church House Tour will be held on Tuesday, August 9. This year, four beautiful and historic homes are included in the tour, all within 2 blocks of the Meetinghouse.

Running out of ideas for entertaining your children this summer? Go to the Oak Bluffs Library and enjoy some of their many programs, including Toddler Storytime, designed for ages 3 to 5 on Wednesdays from 10:30 to 11:15 am and Preschool Storytime, designed for ages 1 ½; -3 on Wednesdays from 11:30 am to 12:15 pm. Come have fun and develop early literacy skills with Sondra and read, sing, dance, and play instruments. Themes for these story times are Kate Feiffer Books.

Storytime with Madeline takes place on Friday, August 5, at 10:30 am and 3 pm.

We send August Birthday Smiles to Woodside Village residents Alyce Sylvia, Annie Smith, Eleanor Petricone, Roberta Mendlovitz, Henry Rancourt, George Thibault, Vincent Comunale, and Jean Silva. Birthday Smiles to Joann DeBettencourt and Susan Klein on August 5, Evamae Magee on August 6 followed by Ben deBettencourt on the 7th, Ken DeBettencourt and Bob Gatchell on the 8th, Danielle Sedlier and Sarah Trudel on August 10, and Deb Hammett and my favorite youngest daughter, Kati Alley, on the 11th.Enjoy your week.Peace.