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Columnists

Winter Visitors

Martha Ball

Fri, Jan 14

Category:

Island Notes

We didn’t have a lot when I was little, not many of us did. And we lived out here, in the middle of nowhere, it seems in retrospect. So, my mother used what we had to entertain me, in those early years of clear memory, when school started with the first grade and my only sibling was a convenient,...
Watt’s a Watt-Hour?

Wade Ortel

Thu, Jan 13

Category:

The Solar Report

“I lifted 25 degrees Fahrenheit at the gym today.” The above apocryphal statement is utter nonsense. This conclusion is not reached by contesting whether the speaker did, in fact, lift 25 of something at the gym today, but because it is obvious that they did not lift any quantity of degrees...
It takes a community...

Kim Gaffett

Sun, Jan 9

Category:

Ocean Views

The 2021 Community Bird Count held on December 26 was astounding in many ways. First, the weather was not ideal; it seemed a bit too cloudy and breezy to encourage bird activity. At first glance the day seemed unremarkable: the sky was blue-gray and mostly cloudy, the wind was northwest –at times...
Godspeed, Sailor

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Jan 7

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

One day my wife Cindy came home from work and said something regarding a man she was helping with the work she does as a family caregiver. What she said got my wheels turning on the quick step; hers had been already turning - they always are in regards to practicality, wants and needs. “I don’t...
The age of speed

Martha Ball

Fri, Jan 7

Category:

Island Notes

It was cold yesterday morning, 19 when I first checked the temperature, but sunny and bright for the first time in many, many days. Today, it seemed colder and I was surprised to see a reading of 52 — which until I die will be, in Salty Brine’s voice, a “warm” temperature for a winter’s day. A bit...
January: a sense of peace, and anticipation

Kim Gaffett

Sat, Jan 1

Category:

Ocean Views

As we leave the calendar year and a sense of celebration, we are headed to a season of rest – a season of quiet, reflective peace. Even though January can be known for its fierce winter winds and weather, it also carries with it a sense of peace. On the island, this essence of peace comes wrapped...
The drill for 2022

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Dec 31

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

This past year of 2021 felt like it was a decade to this scribbling senior citizen - full-on geezer - not only because of the way things were and are developing in the world, but because of the velocity of these incessant and random developments i.e., storms, the election of a new president, the...
Joyful Gaits

Martha Ball

Fri, Dec 31

Category:

Island Notes

Thirty years ago Peter Wood, BI Times co-owner and editor ran a little piece I had submitted, about my sitting with my niece on the cover of the old cistern, listening to the engine of the tractor the neighbor was running up and down the slope of his sister’s bank lot, a sometime sheep...
The first law

Wade Ortel

Wed, Dec 29

Category:

The Solar Report

While in daily life it is frequently useful to consider energy consumption, this concept is not scientifically well-defined. The process that is generally termed energy consumption is, in fact, energy transfer and transformation. The first law of thermodynamics mathematically states that the total...
Long-tailed Ducks: Not “Old-Squaw” or “Young-Brave”

Kim Gaffett

Sat, Dec 25

Category:

Ocean Views

On December 26, 1921 Elizabeth Dickens recorded in her journal the following bird species observations: Loons calling, Canada Geese, Long- tailed Ducks singing, Black Ducks, Horned Larks, European Starlings, Meadowlarks, Song Sparrow, and a Shrike. This journal entry was before she started the...
A living Christmas Carol

Martha Ball

Fri, Dec 24

Category:

Island Notes

The world and the nation have changed radically in the last several decades, gradually pulling Block Island into the vortex spinning forward. Much of the technology we take for granted has evolved during my lifetime, from the first spacecraft to orbit the earth to the moon landing that today’s...
A seasonal lift

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Dec 24

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

On 6 December it was blowing pretty hard and the ferry schedule was questionable because of increasing winds. After the first ferry left at 0630 I grabbed some coffee at home and went to the Sand Hill Cove beach parking lot to look at the ocean. A half hour later at first light, while leaving the...
The Escape

Martha Ball

Fri, Dec 17

Category:

Island Notes

Autumn stood in the yard in the snow, on high alert looking south to the wide open field. There might be geese out the field, although she saw no geese. There might be deer but, again, she saw no deer. Still, she sensed something was there, that elusive something that lurked around the edges of the...
Horses

J. V. Houlihan

Fri, Dec 17

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

There’s not much that grabs me via the tube these days; I’ll take a good book over vacuously staring at the screen and trying to get interested in the characters and the narrative. However, there are exceptions and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is a said exception. Even though I consider Larry David a...
Electric vehicles and miles per gallon

Wade Ortel

Wed, Dec 15

Category:

The Solar Report

Pure battery electric vehicles (EVs) do not consume gasoline or any other fossil fuel, at least not directly. However, they currently exist in a market where buyers might be cross-shopping between a gasoline model and an EV. In order to allow for comparisons between conventional vehicles and EVs,...
General Store

Martha Ball

Fri, Dec 10

Category:

Island Notes

There are two framed posters, made from Providence Journal photographs, dated only 1930, on the wall in the town hall. I wonder, increasingly, if we should affix to their backs details of the buildings shown. The photo shown with this column is of one of the buildings on the wall, one...
The Gray Seals of Block Island

Kim Gaffett

Sat, Dec 4

Category:

Ocean Views

It looks like we are going to have another winter with lots of seals around to observe and to revel in the knowledge that we exist on this precious island in their company. Thankfully seals have been making a region-wide comeback from their drastic reductions – if not near extinction – in the late...
The Lost Boys of Montauk

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Dec 3

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“See what you think of this one,” said Susan Bush, the owner of Island Bound Bookstore. I was checking in her car at the ferry when she handed me a galley of a book titled “The Lost Boys of Montauk,” by Amanda M. Fairbanks. Susan has never flipped me a book that I didn’t like; however, this...
Pumpkins on the steps

Martha Ball

Thu, Dec 2

Category:

Island Notes

The Thanksgiving weekend weather is always a wild card. I remember horrid trips on the Manitou going to visit relatives in the years the Manitou was new and ran in about any kind of weather; 35 years ago, now, standing on a stoop in Mansfield, smoking because no one wanted it in the house — I can’t...
Electric vehicles, renewables and the grid

Wade Ortel

Tue, Nov 23

Category:

The Solar Report

Operating the electrical grid is a constant balancing act between supply and demand. In order to keep voltage and frequency within specifications, careful oversight is required. Since demand is highly variable throughout the day and year, a grid operator faces the challenge of matching supply to...
December’s celebrations as prelude to a season of rest

Kim Gaffett

Tue, Nov 23

Category:

Ocean Views

For many, December is a month that launches our sense of celebration. Evidence of festive adornment and activities abound at this time of year: think of the bursting bittersweet and winterberries ablaze on their now leafless armature; think of splashing and ducking hooded mergansers and coots, and...
Remembering When

Martha Ball

Tue, Nov 23

Category:

Island Notes

Remembering When...
Captain Matty Rooney

J.V. Houlihan

Tue, Nov 23

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Where the Block Island Ferry runs between Point Judith and Old Harbor lies a patch of ocean that offers a variety of conditions and concerns for mariners. Wind direction, wind velocity, wave height, swell direction, poor visibility, tankers, tugs and tows, commercial fishing draggers, recreational...
Warhorse

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Nov 18

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“I cannot not sail.” E.B. White I had planned to write an homage to Reverie today, which is a day after the 12 November Purple Flag day at the Point Judith ferry docks. The wind showed up from the east southeast at 0700 just as predicted, and the ferry was canceled...
Low Sunshine

Martha Ball

Thu, Nov 18

Category:

Island Notes

A few nights ago a text came through while I was talking on the phone. “A car pole accident on Mansion Road tonight?” The reply to my “No idea” was: “On the BIBB from Jeff Wright” So I got up and walked around and there were flashing yellow lights up the road. I made out the form of the big white...
Thank you to all Veterans

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Nov 11

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

My dad lost both his parents when he was 17 years old; they died a month apart. He had no immediate family and had no place to live. He was a junior at Saint Raphael Academy in Pawtucket, Rhode Island at the time, and he had a best friend at school named John Cunningham. John’s mother Molly, a sin...
Heat your pan, not your stovetop

Wade Ortel

Thu, Nov 11

Category:

The Solar Report

Conventional electric stoves use resistive heating elements, much like a space heater, in order to heat the cooking surface. This heat is then transferred, through conduction, to the cookware and, in turn, to the food. An induction stove instead utilizes electromagnetic induction to directly heat...
Nightscape

Martha Ball

Thu, Nov 11

Category:

Island Notes

Long past are the early evenings when leaving the house for an hour or two, the thought of turning on the hall light is far from my mind. Daylight Saving Time ended last Sunday morning, a week into November. It has been the way things are for a while, but it was this year that that extra week made...
Fall 2021

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Nov 4

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The Endless Summer of 2021 is over, done, fini, kaput, and perhaps we’ll have a frost before Groundhog Day, and maybe we’ll even have a white Christmas! I know, the tone of that sentence is one of a curmudgeon, a geezer who is yawping about the weather and there is truly nothing worse than that. (...
Into November

Martha Ball

Thu, Nov 4

Category:

Island Notes

Eight years ago, when the damage - and repair – surrounding Sandy was new. It has been a year since Superstorm Sandy wreaked her havoc along the eastern seaboard. This day could not be more different from that one. Yes, I spent the summer telling visitors who asked it those pictures of devastation...
October Storms

Martha Ball

Fri, Oct 29

Category:

Island Notes

The high wind advisory that was supposed to end at two this afternoon was bumped up to three. It seemed on target, the wind was letting up in mid-afternoon when I finally decided to brave the storm, or what was left of it. A long night of intermittent pounding rain and howling wind had faded into a...
November will pique your sense of artistry

Kim Gaffett

Fri, Oct 29

Category:

Ocean Views

If you have an artistic sense, then November may be the month for you. Each Block Island month has its aesthetic allure, but November’s landscape is stunning. The combination of light, shadow, texture and color – may be subtle, but – is beautiful and captivating, and worthy of museum and gallery...
Erik Hedegaard, a writer’s life

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Oct 28

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“Hey Joey, whaddyagot?” asks journalist Erik Hedegaard. That’s a writer question loaded with sub-textual meaning. It asks: what are you thinking, what are you tracking down, what do you have that will get me thinking and set me off on a search-and-seize mission because I don’t have time for small...
Heat pump hot water heaters are highly efficient

Wade Ortell

Thu, Oct 28

Category:

The Solar Report

Heating water takes a great deal of energy, due to its high heat capacity. In fact, domestic water heating accounts for 19 percent of total energy consumption in the average American home, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Therefore, increasing water heater efficiency results...
Van Life

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Oct 21

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“L.A. is like an open air loony bin, and there are a lot of vans out there. Everybody seems to have a van.” —Anonymous surfer in the line-up at Narragansett Pier, 1967 We all know that cool and hip trends begin out in California: surfboards, skateboards, movies, clothes, food, hot tubs,...
October Red and Blue

Martha Ball

Thu, Oct 21

Category:

Island Notes

Until we hit that day in early December when the setting of the sun stops its race back toward noon and sets a spell, realigning its center of gravity before creeping back toward five, every day I think of how unbalanced the natural world is. In my perfect world, length of the orbit of the earth...
Changes at the Solar Initiative

Tony Pappas

Thu, Oct 14

Category:

The Solar Report

As any organization matures and goes forward, it undergoes various changes. No less so with the Solar Initiative. En route to a separate 501-c-3 status, a Solar Initiative board has been formed. Its members are Tom Durden, John Spier, Samantha Hester, Seth Draper, and Tony Pappas, who will serve as...
Van Zandt

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Oct 14

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

I don’t believe in luck; there’s no such thing. Period. What I do believe in is that we make our own luck by throwing down for ourselves and what our deal is. We show up for what drives us, hustle, connect some dots, and take a shot for what we want and need. In other words, we need to be ready to...
Roll Call Pivot

Martha Ball

Thu, Oct 14

Category:

Island Notes

October brings our last holiday weekend of the season. It has been a tough summer for seasonal resorts, help has been lacking, especially in restaurants, closures seemed to come earlier this year while visitors continued to arrive and the question “what’s a good place for lunch?” became a less...
October Dreaming

Martha Ball

Fri, Oct 8

Category:

Island Notes

The phone rang late last night, someone who knows I do not sleep early calling to talk about the baseball game I had missed, or had decided I did not want to Go Back There, to the land I had no idea I would so completely vacate a few years after 2004 — except for the year of the Marathon bombing,...
Summer of 2021

J.V. Houlihan

Fri, Oct 8

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

On 21 September, 2021 summer was packed and stowed into the archives along with some memorable files that stand out, and require a journalistic observation from this sailing scribbler of nouns and verbs. Sailing a boat slows things down so we can actually see things that we’d normally miss while...
Here we are-2021

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Sep 30

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The Covid -19 pandemic continues to do a Mr. Bill Bojangles Robinson-type tap dance on the psyches of people all over the globe. This virus has caused division, confusion, illness, death and a new kind of media-driven crackpot mentality. Ahem, I will leave the horse dewormer, Ivermectin, to the...
Use your sixth sense in October

Kim Gaffett

Thu, Sep 30

Category:

Ocean Views

I have a feeling that October is going to be spectacular. Of course, this feeling is based on a little more than my sixth sense. It has been a wet summer and there is still dampness in the ground, which is a clue that the color change of the foliage will be strong and brilliant. October is a...
Landmarks

Martha Ball

Thu, Sep 30

Category:

Island Notes

My topic this week was Landmarks of our Lives, not milestones or turning points but literal landmarks, one caught at the edge of a photo of the sky the other night. It was Cozy Cottage, the first house on the Neck Road north of Beach Avenue. It has been there my whole life, long ago, white then,...
Fog

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Sep 23

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

Because of some windy and nasty weather I got stuck in Potter Cove on Prudence Island in mid-May of this year. The winds were blowing steadily and well over thirty knots for a couple of days from the southeast and southwest; it was an easy sail getting to the island but I knew it would not be at...
Seasons Changing

Martha Ball

Thu, Sep 23

Category:

Island Notes

Most of us, I think, grew up with the convenience — and myth — of the seasons shifting on the 21st of a given month. I do not remember when I learned this was not always the case but I know I was still in school. This year I needed hear only once that the autumnal equinox fell on the 22nd of...
Spinning my wheels

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Sep 16

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

I’ll bet my nickels that all of you bike riders out there can remember getting your first bicycle. It’s a coming-of-age thing which is firmly imprinted in our memory bank. The reason for this is simply because a bicycle provides us with four profound things: balance, autonomy, freedom and most...
Late Summer

Martha Ball

Thu, Sep 16

Category:

Island Notes

Last week I pulled over by the monument along the beach road to watch the long rollers, the unspent energy of a named storm passing far from our shores. Earlier in the day a visitor had asked me about the water breaking out in the ocean, off Clay Head I finally realized, that line of white I see...
Why Wait!

J.V. Houlihan

Thu, Sep 9

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

A kitchen table, in an austere and no-frills setting a few feet above sea level on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, is command central for a musician named Kate Taylor whose life is rooted prodigiously in this raw and natural island place. This kitchen table is where we can see how this woman rolls...
Marine Critters

Kim Gaffett

Thu, Sep 9

Category:

Ocean Views

Here are a number of photos of marine critters seen along the island’s ocean shores and in the Great Salt Pond. Refer to the captions for: species name, normal range, where observed and by whom. Although not all the species are exclusively tropical, they all include regular existence in waters...

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