Sunday, November 3, 2024
Home Islander Essays Minding Your MV P's & Q's

Minding Your MV P's & Q's

MV Ps and Qs: Going Viral

Dear Nicole,  I split my time between New York and Chilmark and wanted to come to the Island during this challenging and scary time, but I'm hearing a lot of negativity from Islanders. What gives...

MV Ps and Qs: Who gets to be called an ‘Islander’?

Dear Nicole, Help us resolve a long-standing disagreement between a friend and me. What’s the definition of an Islander? Who exactly gets to be called an Islander, and/or a Vineyarder, and who has to settle...

Ps & Qs: Seasonal shutdown

Dear Nicole, I am a seasonal resident who has had it with the entitled attitudes of the ever-so-holy year-rounders who tend to treat us like an invasion of fruit flies when, in fact, this is...

Ps & Qs: Ticks in private places

Dear Nicole, Holy cleavage! Guess where I found an embedded deer tick? Unable to disengage the tick from its private perch, I needed to enlist the help of — well, that was my problem —...

Ferry greeting

Please enjoy this recycled and yet timely piece.   Dear Nicole, "Where are you off to?" If I could count the number of times I've been asked that on the ferry. Do people really care? Nicole, I...

MV Ps & Qs: Is it OK to insult?

Dear Nicole, Thanksgiving weekend is over, and predictably I am Monday-morning quarterbacking. Whom did I insult? And should I apologize? If the discussion around the dinner table gets heated, and I am hosting, should I...

MV Ps and Qs: Do you have papers?

Dear Nicole: I am a teenager, Vineyard-born, of Mexican parents; I am bilingual (no accent in either language), and have lived and gone to school in both countries. My summer job here involves contact with...

MV Ps & Qs: About that free stuff by the road

Dear Nicole, While I am a believer in the sharing economy, I don't think people should be leaving their old mattresses, even if they're not stained, on the side of the State Road — or...

MV Ps & Qs: No thanks for that gift

Dear Nicole, A houseguest who visits annually gave me a host gift this year straight out of Baby's First Beach Cottage Collection. It's the kind of accessory meant to be prominently displayed, like a portrait...

MV Ps & Qs: Pocket money for the Paint Bar?

Dear Nicole, A few months ago, I gave a coworker $25 to hold for me until we had a chance to go to a Paint Bar together (I’m bad at holding onto cash, so I...

MV Ps and Qs: The cocktail party is over

Dear Nicole, I have attended numerous cocktail and dinner parties on the Vineyard this summer (as a caterer, that is) and have noticed a troubling trend. On several occasions, guests have chosen to linger long...

Ps and Qs: Summer Traffic Rules

Dear Nicole, Yesterday after disembarking the ferry in O.B., we drove past the Flying Horses and headed toward V.H. on Lake Avenue and saw, as always in summer, a small group of people about...

Ps and Qs: Seasonal Shutdown

Please enjoy this recycled and yet timely piece.   Dear Nicole, I am a seasonal resident who has had it with the entitled attitudes of the ever-so-holy year-rounders who tend to treat us like an invasion of...

Ps and Qs: Renting a friend’s cottage

Dear Nicole, I have a friend with a cottage she rents out for the summer. Months ago, I asked her if my family could rent it from her this summer. We can’t afford to pay...

MV Ps & Qs: Restroom or reading room?

Dear Nicole, My husband, son, and I had breakfast at the Black Dog yesterday. While there, a man got up from his table and took a section of the newspaper with him into one of...

Ps and Qs: Woods Hole friends

Dear Nicole, We are lucky to have a friend who lives in Woods Hole whom we stay with when the ferry gets canceled. Now that ferries are getting canceled with alarming regularity, our Vineyard friends...

P’s and Q’s: Why can’t I be your caretaker?

Please enjoy this encore column from Nicole Galland. Dear Nicole, I have a friend who has a very lovely home on the Vineyard in which she summers. This winter she was looking for a live-in caretaker...

You’re wearing that?

Please enjoy this encore column from Nicole Galland.   Dear Nicole, I recall a time around here when I could head out to a dinner party dressed like I just came from scalloping, or building my...

Ps and Qs: Don’t leave, please!

Dear Nicole, It's March, we've been battered by the weather, and like so many of us on the Island, the ferries have Lyme disease. Tack these issues onto the already high cost of living here...

P’s and Q’s: Nor’easter

Dear Nicole, Another week, another nor'easter to look forward to. Among the issues that these nor'easters have wrought, I’d like to ask you about one that isn’t being widely discussed, and that is the marital...