Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby

September 15 – October 19

Never mind that the only stripers allowed this year are in the name and logo, the 79th running of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby is when the true legends of the fall will be made.

Tivoli Day 

September 21

A century ago, Tivoli was a dance hall in Oak Bluffs. Fifty years ago, Tivoli was a semi-professional bike race named after the dance hall. Now, Tivoli is a street fair on Circuit Avenue named after the race you couldn’t push a bike through if you wanted to. Go figure, but go.

Pumpkin Festival

October 19

Most pumpkin festivals feature the fall standards: pumpkin carving, cute photo opportunities, a smattering of pumpkin-flavored goodies. Morning Glory Farm in Edgartown kicks it up a notch with pumpkin bowling, then takes that notch and launches it across a field using the farm’s much beloved trebuchet. It’s a sight not to be missed.

Where to Go

A friend once explained that the autumn leaves of red and gold are actually more truly expressive of their personalities than the summer leaves of green and greener. Just as bankers might retire to take up their long-held dream of painting watercolors, this friend insisted, having shed their career of hosting green sugar-producing chlorophyll the leaves are finally showing their true colors. We don’t know if said friend was full of mulch, but we think we know who to ask. Which is why we will be seeing you in West Tisbury at the Polly Hill Arboretum’s guided Autumn Walk on October 12 at 10 a.m.

What We’re Listening To

Documentary filmmaker and Chilmark summer regular David Modigliani always planned to make the time to interview his grandparents on camera to capture the story of their escape from Fascist Italy as young lovers just before the outbreak of the Second World War. “But I didn’t prioritize it, and then my noni died,” he confesses early in episode one of his podcast Pack One Bag. 

The good news is his grandparents – the Nobel Prize–winning economist Franco Modigliani and his wife, Serena, who were also longtime summer residents on the Island – left behind a trove of detailed letters to one another. Written at the time the events took place, they are, for historical purposes, perhaps even better than memories. There are plenty of unexpected developments – Serena’s father was a friend of Benito Mussolini before turning against the dictator – to keep you hitting the “play next episode” button. There are also enough echoes from the past to make you wish it didn’t seem quite so relevant to today.

What to Read

Genus Americanus: Hitting the Road in Search of America’s Identity  by Loren Ghiglione with Alyssa Karasand Dan Tham (University of Georgia Press, 2024)

Way back in 2011, which is to say before Covid, before Donald Trump, before George Floyd, but after Mark Twain, Loren Ghiglione (a former professor and frequent contributor to this magazine) hit the road with two students and drove off to look for America. Roughly retracing Twain’s travels over the course of three months, they ventured 14,063 miles and interviewed 150 Americans about race, gender, and personal identity. The resulting award-winning book was recently re-released as a paperback and is, perhaps unexpectedly, seemingly more relevant and uplifting with the passage of time. As Twain himself said: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”

The Oyster Book: A Chronicle of the World’s Most Fascinating Shellfish – Past, Present, and Future  by Dan Martino (Agate Surrey, 2024)

Dan Martino – one half of the brotherly duo behind Cottage City Oysters in Oak Bluffs, the first open ocean oyster farm in New England – knows a thing or two about bivalves. Half-shell enthusiasts will find plenty to savor in his tome, including deep dives into the oyster’s cultural, culinary, and historical significance. And yet this is no cookbook or seafood primer. The author sets his sights on the future of the industry and the innovative solutions needed to survive a changing climate and a growing population, as only an aquaculture insider can. The Oyster Book is the tale of the hundred-thousand-year relationship between man and oyster written by someone who hopes to extend that relationship for a thousand years more. 

Numerology

2 - Number of people who tested positive for Alpha-gal syndrome at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in 2020. The allergy, triggered by a lone star tick bite, leaves people unable to digest red meat.

77 - Number of people who tested positive in 2022.

149 - Number of people who had tested positive partway through this year. 

“I don’t really know the solution, but it’s not for people to come and live in the state forest.” 

 – State forest superintendent Conor Laffey on the Island’s housing crisis and lack of year-round homeless shelter, which had led people to set up camp in the woods. Earlier this summer, crews hired by the Department of Conservation and Recreation removed the encampments.

What We’re Watching

Stop us if you’ve seen this one before: a young guy and girl venture into moonlit Vineyard waters when something big, scary, and mysterious sets off a widespread panic. If the opening scenes of Monster Summer, out October 4, call to mind a certain Island blockbuster of yore, fear not: the rest of the “spooky family adventure” lovingly calls to mind the likes of Stranger Things, The Sandlot, and The Goonies. 

Mel Gibson stars as a good guy who’s mistaken for a bad guy. Other surprise twists: the monsters of summer aren’t entitled tourists, nor is the Vineyard even really the Vineyard. The movie was largely filmed in North Carolina.

What You Missed

Maybe Just Pencil in the Date For Now

The Steamship Authority (SSA) announced that the sorely needed replacement to its current antiquated reservation system – freight reservations are still done by hand! – is several years off at best. As SSA general manager Robert Davis put it: “I think 2026 – my sense is that is going to be aspirational.”      

No Problem, We'll Just Raise the Fares

After complaints from lobster eaters about an ad on the ferries placed by the animal rights group PETA, which encouraged people to consider becoming vegan in order to limit the impact of fishing gear on North Atlantic right whales, the SSA board of governors voted to stop all advertising on the boats. According to the Vineyard Gazette, ads currently contribute about $100,000 to the ferry line’s bottom line. 

Blowing It

They said the blades wouldn’t fall off. Then again, they said we wouldn’t be able to see them from shore. And if you close your eyes, that’s true. Then again, you might just trip over a blade fragment. 

Winging It

Shortly after debris from a broken wind turbine washed up on beaches, officials promised to investigate the impact on the region’s seafood. Still, doing so would be difficult, they said, since microplastics and fiberglass have already been recorded in the food chain. In other words, what’s the harm in a little more?

Shooting Her Shot

A twenty-eight-year-old British woman seeking housing and love recently took to the Gazette classifieds to plead her case. “Looking for affordable rent, to stay 1–2 months in summer of 2025...” the ad says. “Will look after your child, elderly relatives, or marry your son as I am single despite being educated and attractive.”