Scheherazade, narrator of “The Thousand and One Nights” (or “The Arabian Nights”), escaped death through her resourcefulness, rich imagination and storytelling skills. Her husband, the Sultan, had threatened to kill her at dawn each day, but couldn’t bear to carry out the death sentence because he was so mesmerized by her tales of Sinbad the
Island residents speak their minds on war
Though we islanders may be isolated from much of the rest of the world, we are not immune to the politics and controversies that affect our nation. Lately this means differing opinions on the impending war with Iraq. Here on Vinalhaven, residents have had no trouble making their opinions known. Each Saturday since Feb. 15,
Seafood Handbook: The comprehensive guide to sourcing, buying, and preparation
How to avoid scromboid toxins, and other facts Diversified Publications, 2003 Intended primarily as a commercial educational volume, this book starts off with a guide to seafood processing and market presentation forms. Even as a fisherman, I had never really considered the differences between the J-cut and the V-cut fillet, so this section was interesting,
Local Knowledge and Local Stocks: An Atlas of Groundfish Spawning in the Bay of Fundy
Bringing local knowledge into focus A report of the Centre for Community-Based Management Book by: Jennifer Graham, Stephen Engle, and Maria Recchia This book documents Canadian fishermen’s knowledge of local groundfish stocks in the Bay of Fundy, taking a large number of interviews and distilling them down to a series of maps showing where and
Journal of an Island Kitchen A Warm Relationship
Last summer food writer Molly O’Neill had a piece in the New Yorker magazine about Viking ranges – those big, honking multi-burnered, chrome and burnished steel, all-gas-and-gorgeousness kitchen stoves that wealthy and sophisticated people (or the wannabes) purchase and install in their homes. Trophy stoves, she called them, next to which these same folks eat
The Long View Cold weather warmth
The true hospitality of island life opens itself up to visitors in winter, since islanders are generally happy to see strangers once the frenzy of the summer is a distant and painless memory. And who in Maine doesn’t love to share with a hapless visitor the communal experience of northern New England privation? Last month
Folks from away are just people
Summer’s coming. On Vinalhaven we’ll find our numbers swelled by four or five fold as tourists of every description descend on us from late May till mid October. While they certainly create congestion where there had been none, and while our capacity, emotionally and in terms of limited resources, is usually tested by Labor Day,
Land Bank supporters respond
The February issue of Working Waterfront/Inter-Island News included a letter from Eric Davis of Vinalhaven and an op-ed piece from members of the North Haven Board of Assessors, both critical of the so-called Chebeague Plan, officially known as the Maine Land Bank and Community Preservation Program. We would like to respond to these comments in
Island libraries celebrate children’s books
Island libraries, inspired by children’s book awards such as the Lupine Award and Vermont’s Red Clover Award, have launched their own children’s book award. As imagined by Susan Dempster, the Vinalhaven School librarian, the Golden Trap Award will be an opportunity for island children in grades kindergarten through four to voice their opinions on the
Islesford students head for Sugarloaf
Students and teachers of the Islesford School traveled to Sugarloaf Mountain Jan. 29-31 for their annual ski trip. After loading and unloading piles of gear and food into the ferry, then into the vans, and with the long drive behind them, the students unwound with a potluck dinner prepared by their parents, then headed out