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Columnists
Unbridled youth
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Mar 4
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
“Lock ‘em up!” said a senior citizen. “He’s a criminal!” “Yeah, get that hippie out of town!” howled a grandmotherly type. “Your Honor! Can’t you see! He’s dangerous!” “Quiet!! Order in the court!” said the gavelling Judge, as more yelps, yawps, guffaws and applause followed as the young man being...
March wind
Martha Ball
Thu, Mar 4
Category:
Island Notes
I grew up in a house where watching the news was not a requirement, it was a given. Decades later I remarked to a friend that among my earlier memories of television was my father watching “Meet the Press” on Sundays. The response was a reflection of the huge shift in our lives from that time, from...
March’s Microseasons
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Feb 25
Category:
Ocean Views
March and October are my two favorite months of the year. Since we are on the eve of March, I’ll leave the charms of October for another day. March: what’s not to love? March is like that perfect morning slumber in those moments when you emerge from your warm blanket cocoon, stretch broadly and...
Every 38 years
Tony Pappas
Thu, Feb 25
Category:
The Solar Report
The year is 1983. The committee has organized its annual House and Garden Tour. This year’s theme is “Solar Energy,” featuring four residences, a business, and the Southeast Lighthouse was thrown in as a bonus! (Tickets were $5 but $4.50 if purchased in advance – and net proceeds of $1,300 were...
Blue Sky
Martha Ball
Thu, Feb 25
Category:
Island Notes
The snow started earlier than forecast last Thursday. It was soft, on the border between rain and snow and then turned heavier than we have had in a while. It stopped me for a bit, knowing the storm was expected to last through Friday night and despite it following the track that had been predicted...
February Fog
Martha Ball
Thu, Feb 18
Category:
Island Notes
Among the many things I have had reinforced over the time I have been writing this column is the cyclical nature of our weather. What seems extraordinary likely happened if not last year then within the past several. A while ago, now, someone called me — embodying the definition of “hair on fire...
Another spoke in the wheel of winter
Martha Ball
Thu, Feb 11
Category:
Island Notes
It is early February and the forecasts, if not the realities, are filled with snow and cold. In the fall of 2012, between Superstorm Sandy and the official close of hurricane season, before winter had even arrived, the first “named winter storm, Athena,” blew around us. It annoyed me beyond measure...
Everything you always wanted to know about heat pumps but were afraid to ask
Tony Pappas
Thu, Feb 11
Category:
The Solar Report
The Solar Initiative’s (tSI) heat pump subsidy program has proved to be very popular. Over 40 island families have signed up or are ready to learn more. tSI is offering up to $6,000 to offset the cost of a home heat pump installation. That sounds great, but what is a heat pump and how does it work...
Unbridled youth
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Feb 11
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
“Come with us, son. You’re under arrest,” said the Newport Policemen. “Just walk with me and don’t do anything stupid.” I’d already done something stupid, that’s why I was walking with two policemen. In 1967 while at the Newport Folk Festival and hanging out with a bunch of kids near the festival...
The backside of winter
Martha Ball
Thu, Feb 4
Category:
Island Notes
January departed cold and windy, but it did provide us its usual parting gift, a sun rising before 7 a.m. and setting after 5 p.m., the last in a series of winter-turning hurdles. The first is always that early December afternoon when the sunset plateaus out, no longer gnawing at the precious...
Why your next car should be an EV
Tony Pappas
Thu, Jan 28
Category:
The Solar Report
,
Features
There are many reasons to replace your current gas guzzler with an electric vehicle. Let me count the ways: 1. You can save money on operation. Green Energy Consumer Advocates did an analysis using the Block Island Power Company’s rates and determined that using an EV on Block Island in the winter...
The Big Apple
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Jan 28
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
I’ve taken very small bites out of the Big Apple in my seventy years; a little bit of that town goes a long way for me. Too many people inhabit the place for my liking; however, I doff my hat to anyone who has the sand (grit) to roll and make their bones in this ever-evolving metropolis. On the...
Castle in the Air
Martha Ball
Thu, Jan 28
Category:
Island Notes
The big pond behind my house is shallow, surprisingly so, and more surprisingly, it rarely freezes. Even these days of deep cold, a significant portion of it is open, moving water, one moment a roiling mass of diamonds catching the scant sun, another the deep blue of a suddenly cloudless sky. The...
February Celebrations
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Jan 21
Category:
Ocean Views
February is a maligned month. For all its detractors, February has much to offer: traditional celebrations and the subtle reddening and swelling of shad buds are among the offerings. The February moniker hales from the Roman words februum and februa, relating to festivals of purification, of light...
The Luddite
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Jan 21
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
Back in my school teaching days I proudly called myself a “Luddite raging against the machine,” because back in those days I truly hated the linear and newfangled technology of computers and word processors. Moreover, like the Luddites of the textile industry during the 19th century - who sabotaged...
From the road
Martha Ball
Thu, Jan 21
Category:
Island Notes
Today, the sun shone, and it was not terribly cold, the wind blew. The dog was happily outside, bounding about; when she came back in it was to lie in the sun, following the patch of warmth as it moved across the floor. Then the sun slid behind the clouds and the sunny bright was gone. I noticed...
The EV Revolution is Here!
Tony Pappas
Thu, Jan 14
Category:
The Solar Report
Well, at least an uprising. In the fall of 2020, the Solar Initiative offered subsidies towards the purchase of electric vehicles. From 14 applications, eight subsidies were awarded. And now the first six have arrived on the island. Look at these smiling faces (behind their masks). Pictured above...
To Windward in a pivotal 2021
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Jan 14
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
Just shy of a year ago we started hearing about the word coronavirus; however, it hadn’t yet entered the news cycle on a mind-numbing twenty-four and seven blast of baffling information. On 11 March, I had just returned from a trip to Martha’s Vineyard and I distinctly remembered going to George’s...
A Sin Against the Nation
Martha Ball
Thu, Jan 14
Category:
Island Notes
On most mornings, the light changes when the sun clears the horizon, and the soft, spreading promise of approaching dawn is realized. The difference is often enough for me to open my eyes and look out at the colors of the wakening sky floating over the ocean. I think, fleetingly, of how the sun has...
20th Annual Community Bird Census: Socially Distanced & Communal
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Jan 7
Category:
Ocean Views
This year’s Community Bird Census (CBC), on December 26, 2020, dawned cold and windy, but fortunately it was only partly cloudy; there was enough sun throughout the day to keep spirits up and bird watchers afield. My expectations for this twentieth anniversary CBC were low. The cold and wind...
To keep Christmas well
Martha Ball
Thu, Jan 7
Category:
Island Notes
It is from one of the take-away lines from A Christmas Carol, that Mr. Scrooge learned “to keep Christmas well...” variations of which we repeat every year, wondering why we cannot maintain the magic of the season throughout the cold of winter, the activity of spring, the wilting summer and — for...
Good news and bad news
Tony Pappas
Thu, Dec 31
Category:
The Solar Report
Well, I have good news and bad news for anyone hoping to go more solar in the immediate future. The bad news is that the Solar Initiative will be unable to accomplish installations at the present time. This is due to a couple of unfortunate factors. Firstly, the winter season makes roof work...
The Year 2020
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Dec 31
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
One day recently I was running our cairn terrier Maddox down at the Charlestown Navy Base and got to thinking how this year felt like it has been one of those decades. This has been a wakeup call for all of us to see the good, the bad, and the ugly of the human condition and figuring how to play...
Threads across time
Martha Ball
Thu, Dec 31
Category:
Island Notes
Advertisements for various Hope-to-be-Hot Items for Christmas usually pass by me. One, with an old, but unmistakable, annoying, but catchy, jingle, for “ch-ch-ch-chia” rang a little bell but wasn’t enough to make me pay attention until I saw it had morphed with a pop icon, Baby Yoda. These things...
Candle in the Window
Martha Ball
Thu, Dec 24
Category:
Island Notes
With this dark year coming to a close, the Historical Society launched a last minute effort to brighten our building and our corner, with sponsored battery-operated candles (blockislandhistorical.org for further info). I was reminded, again, of five years ago, when the Historical Society was...
The Solar Initiative subsidy programs are extended through March 31, 2021.
Thu, Dec 17
Category:
The Solar Report
Yes, Block Island homeowners can get a discount of $800 per KW on our rooftop mounted solar systems (up to 15KWs). This coupled with the Federal Tax credit for 2021 makes for a good deal through the first quarter of 2021. And up to $6,000 discounted off heat pump installations.
Contact Tony...
B.I. Resident purchases Chevy Bolt through the Solar Initiative grant
Thu, Dec 17
Category:
The Solar Report
“We are so grateful to the Solar Initiative grant for making the purchase of a fully electric vehicle possible for us. We are thrilled with our new Chevy Bolt. We charge it at our house each night so it’s always full and is very fun to drive and ideal for the island. It has lots of instant torque,...
Community Bird Census: One birder at a time
Kim Gaffett
Thu, Dec 17
Category:
Ocean Views
“December 26, 1920 – 7 a.m. Temp. 14. Loon 3, H. Gull 20, H. Lark 12, Starling 12, Meadowlark 5, Song 4. A little vapor. — Elizabeth Dickens Bird Journals On Dec. 26, 1920 Elizabeth Dickens had been keeping her daily bird journal for just nine years; and had not yet started leading the Christmas...
Crossing oceans, redux
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Dec 17
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
Newport Harbor has always been a place where boat people come and hang for the summer; however, once the weather turns and the thermometer drops, some yacht owners will move their boats to warmer climates. These owners must rely on yacht transport services, and have their own professional crews...
Angel Chimes
Martha Ball
Thu, Dec 17
Category:
Island Notes
A few summers ago I was wandering through the stuff amassed for a summer sale at the Harbor Church, feeling quite pleased with myself for having brought a collection of books, relatively new paperbacks I had read and would be happy to find on a sale table. They were all fiction, most set in...
Crossing oceans, fast
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Dec 10
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
“I hate being frightened, but, even more, I detest being prevented by fright.” — Sir Francis Chichester
During the 1840s and 50s, ship designers started to push the boundaries of what ocean- and coastal-going vessels could be expected to do in all weathers; they had to make time in strong...
Solstice Countdown
Martha Ball
Thu, Dec 10
Category:
Island Notes
It is the time of year when the sun drops the earliest, and darkness lasts the longest. A little more than two months ago, now, I came home from the hospital, a thankfully clean break high in my right humerus held together by what I somehow presumed to be a couple of pins — which I later saw to be...
This should rate your interest!
Tony Pappas
Thu, Dec 3
Category:
The Solar Report
The first major initiative of The Solar Initiative was to put solar panels on the roofs of the Block Island Power Company facility. The intent was to reduce the need for local diesel generation and/or decrease electricity purchase from mainland non-renewable suppliers. This has been accomplished to...
But that was yesterday
Martha Ball
Thu, Dec 3
Category:
Island Notes
Monday night I took Autumn to the door, my west-facing front door that is the only one I use, contrary to tradition. It is to an entry, a rather informal space that is as much a garden shed as anything. The storm door hasn’t opened properly in over ten years, since I came home after a trip away to...
The Shamrock and other memories
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Nov 26
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
It was a sunny day in late June 1970, and the new and freshly painted ferry plowed and lumbered into a light southerly swell. I was heading to Block Island for the first time since 1960 and my childhood buddy Tim and I were going to check this place out, and he’d help me schlep my gear up to the...
At Boat Time
Martha Ball
Thu, Nov 26
Category:
Island Notes
Back in the spring we had hoped by this time the spread of Covid-19 would have been contained and we would be in a holding pattern awaiting a vaccine. We feared the summer, and were haunted by historical reminders that the great pandemic of 1918 had abated in the warm weather only to surge in the...
Eight smiling islanders
Tony Pappas
Thu, Nov 19
Category:
The Solar Report
More solar-sourced energy; less fossil fuel emissions. That is the goal of Block Island’s Solar Initiative. Towards that end, the Solar Initiative (tSi) has recently awarded eight subsidies toward the purchase of an electrically-powered vehicle to island families. The subsidies run over three years...
Summer of 2020
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Nov 19
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
“The island got eaten alive.” — Anonymous.
Is there anyone on the south coast of Rhode Island who didn’t think that this summer was a combination of a Federico Fellini film and an apocalyptic zombie movie? Especially during and after the Fourth of July weekend? If there are, they must not...
The east side has the boat
Martha Ball
Thu, Nov 19
Category:
Island Notes
The afternoon is crisp, the line of the horizon off to the east sharp and clean, a seam binding the deep blue of the ocean to the paler hue of the sky, the two stitched with tiny, perfect, invisible stitches. Overhead there are no clouds but out over the water there are layers of white and violet...
Autumn Earthquake
Martha Ball
Thu, Nov 12
Category:
Island Notes
My dog is big and my house is old. The latter is a constant source of worry, what did some noise signify, every first-time-notice sound, be it an engine offshore or the clattering of metal at the transfer station across the Neck, more than a mile away. There is a spot in my dining room where Autumn...
Let’s have some fun in the sun
Tony Pappas
Thu, Nov 5
Category:
The Solar Report
We at the Solar Initiative hope that this series of columns has convinced you to at least consider installing a solar system at your home. It is a big step with financial and ecological ramifications, heavy stuff. So while you are deliberating, take a moment to look at the light side. Fun facts...
The right to read a book in your own way
J.V. Houlihan
Thu, Nov 5
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
A French writer named Daniel Pennac created, in 1992, the “The Rights of the Reader,” which is about a reader’s right to read anytime or anywhere as long as it is a joyful experience. Here is my spin on these inalienable rights: The Right to not read. This is my favorite right because it gives me...
In living color
Martha Ball
Thu, Nov 5
Category:
Island Notes
These days when I walk into my living room half-listening to voices, I glance reflexively at the space where the television used to be. It has moved all of a few feet, from a space between two west-facing windows — where a television has been most of my memory — to a different wall. I am of an age...
360 Video
Walk Crescent Beach
Rosemary Connelli,
at
rconnelli@blockislandtimes.com
Thu, Nov 5
Category:
News
,
Video
(360 VIDEO) Walk along Crescent Beach, courtesy of
The Block Island Times.
Take a break from the ongoing U.S. election and relax with the sound of the crashing waves! Video captured on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Note: Turn up the volume to fully immerse yourself in the environment, and pause, and...
The Red Trailer
Martha Ball
Thu, Oct 29
Category:
Island Notes
There is a horse trailer in the front field. It arrived nearly a week ago, all shiny and bright red. The three Icelandics who live down here have all been introduced to it, with appropriate fanfare, and it has moved a bit, but not much and never on its own. It still catches my eye when I walked...
Meet David Reidy
Tony Pappas
Fri, Oct 23
Category:
The Solar Report
Why should I meet David Reidy? Who is he anyway? David is the installation contractor for the solar systems sponsored by the Solar Initiative. David can save you money while you help save the planet! He is the President of Cool Energy — but let’s begin at the beginning: David is a native Rhode...
Theme Radio
J.V. Houlihan
Fri, Oct 23
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
Singer, songwriter, troubadour, wiseass, painter, and businessman Bob Dylan is stumping his own whisky brand around the ether these days, and is part of what brought him back to doing his radio show. He had such a show 11 years ago and then took a hiatus. The new show recently aired on Monday, 21...
One night in October
Martha Ball
Fri, Oct 23
Category:
Island Notes
On the long list of things I need to replace is a computer; it is old even by my standards, and keys stopped working over a year ago. It’s a MacBookPro, a plug in keyboard was absurdly expensive then someone suggested I try a generic, an “Amazon Basics” which even by my standards was inexpensive...
Shimmering October blue
Martha Ball
Thu, Oct 15
Category:
Island Notes
The boats did not run yesterday. The long spell of good summer weather was, I think, more a blessing than a curse. While it surely lured more people to Block Island, it also kept life outside, windows stayed wide open, air circulated and for all that went terribly wrong the over-riding fear of the...
EVs for EVeryone?
Tony Pappas
Thu, Oct 8
Category:
Columnists
What’s an EV and is it contagious? EV is short for “electric vehicle,” and while it is not contagious, we hope EVs will catch on out here on Block Island. At the moment gasoline is relatively cheap and so you may not be thinking of alternative ways to power your car or truck. But don’t count on low...
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This weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule
Posted By
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3/4
Check out this weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule at https:// www.natureblockisland.org
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