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Columnists
On the corner of...
Martha Ball and Mary Anderson
Sat, Dec 23
Category:
Columnists
Ed. note: The Block Island Historical Society was founded in 1942. To help celebrate its 75th year, the Society’s Diamond Anniversary,
The Block Island Times
has been publishing sketches and photographs of items in its collection throughout the year. This is the final column in the...
The gifting season
J.V. Houlihan Jr.
Fri, Dec 22
Category:
Columnists
,
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
Here we are again at that
most wonderful time of the year
— Christmas! Yup, everyone is gearing up to go out and buy gifts for kids, wives, husbands, grandkids, friends, boyfriends, and girlfriends. It’s a time when UPS and FedEx packages come flying off trucks in prodigious numbers at the...
After the Snow
Martha Ball
Fri, Dec 22
Category:
Island Notes
Tomorrow brings the Solstice, the turn into the cold and the light. It falls on the 21st this year, the sort of generic default date assigned to the change of the seasons, that does not always hold true. “Watch the way of the wind when the sun crosses the line,” a statement by an old-timer down the...
Kindness shown to injured owl
Thu, Dec 21
Category:
Ocean Views
The following report came in from Kim Gaffett:
Kate Sprague Campanale and Heather Dippolito discovered an injured owl on Corn Neck Road early on Monday, Dec. 18. They called the Police Department dispatch, which called me. Kate and Heather protected the downed owl until I got there. It...
On the corner of... the old Adrian Hotel
Martha Ball and Mary Anderson
Sat, Dec 9
Category:
Columnists
Ed. note: The Block Island Historical Society was founded in 1942. To help celebrate its 75th year, the Society’s Diamond Anniversary,
The Block Island Times
will be publishing sketches and photographs of items in its collection. For those interested in joining or donating to The...
All for the life of the rolling sea
J.V. Houlihan Jr.
Fri, Dec 8
Category:
Columnists
,
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
A sleek and fast looking 70-foot motor yacht backed out of her slip on a sunny Sunday, in Newport Harbor. It was 3 July, 2008. As the sexy and shiny rig was making her way into the busy fairway, a loud, thumping Latin rhythm could be heard — booming. Aboard, there was a bevy of bikini-clad beauties...
To see or not to see... The Punisher
Mark Hunnewell
Sat, Dec 2
Category:
News
,
Columnists
It is such a lovely time to be into superhero movies, isn’t it? In just one day we have “Justice League” and “The Punisher” on Netflix. Now, I was planning on doing a comparison between the two, but after seeing “Justice” I figured it wouldn’t be exactly fair. And if I did write about “Justice...
Ocean Views: A Resiliency Roundtable
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Dec 1
Category:
Ocean Views
Block Islanders are nothing if not resilient. No harbor to support a fishing industry: design a special work boat – the Block Island double ender. No wood for building and fuel: salvage every stick that comes ashore, from driftwood, to cargo, to ship hulls run aground. Now, the Island –— like the...
Book nods for Christmas
J.V. Houlihan Jr.
Fri, Dec 1
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
One of life’s simple pleasures is reading
The New York Times
Book Review. I always feel a little more informed about things after I read a review — even though I may pass on the book — these reviews are thorough and expansive. There are so many good books out there, it’s sometimes hard to...
Maps
Martha Ball
Fri, Dec 1
Category:
Island Notes
There was a rumbling in the morning, the kind that sounds close and I walked across the yard thinking I might see the source of it; tree cutters, perhaps, although I could not remember if I had seen pink ties marking any trees on Mansion Road. It could simply be routine work on the old dirt road,...
Holidays, calories, and walking it off
Eileen Birk
Wed, Nov 22
Category:
Columnists
I’ve put on some weight since last winter... 11 pounds to be exact. Before you roll your eyes, I know I am not overweight, but I am not happy. I notice it when I try to put on some of my clothes that are a bit tighter; I notice my stamina isn’t what it was. As I reflect on the last 10 months, I...
On the corner of... Beginning a new era
Martha Ball and Mary Anderson
Wed, Nov 22
Category:
Columnists
Ed. note: The Block Island Historical Society was founded in 1942. To help celebrate its 75th year, the Society’s Diamond Anniversary,
The Block Island Times
will be publishing sketches and photographs of items in its collection. For those interested in joining or donating to The...
Block Island Summer
Martha Ball
Wed, Nov 22
Category:
Island Notes
The book “Block Island Summer” was published in 1971. Black and white photographs and eloquent little essays contained within its pages hold the island we think we remember but sometimes doubt truly existed. Yet, here it is, chronicled by Klaus and Elizabeth Gemming, printed and bound, a volume...
Travails in India
J.V. Houlihan, Jr.
Fri, Nov 17
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
The iPhone went off at midnight, and there was a text.
“Cindy had a pretty serious mishap the other day. She got near a bull, and he gored her. She had to go to the hospital. She is OK. No internal injuries, but she has a serious gash across her abdomen.”
This note was sent by my wife’s...
Osage
Martha Ball
Fri, Nov 17
Category:
Island Notes
On e week ago, the charger for my computer died. It was not sudden. I first noticed that the cord was starting to fray last summer, but in one of my habits that defies all logic, I did not order a new one as the delivery time seemed too many days away.It was a good three months before the little...
The first subdivision
Martha Ball and Mary Anderson
Sat, Nov 11
Category:
Columnists
Ed. note: The Block Island Historical Society was founded in 1942. To help celebrate its 75th year, the Society’s Diamond Anniversary,
The Block Island Times
will be publishing sketches and photographs of items in its collection. For those interested in joining or donating to The...
Remembering the songs
Martha Ball
Fri, Nov 10
Category:
Columnists
,
Island Notes
It was chilly, today. We seemed to have skimmed over crisp fall sunshine, like one of those flattish, roundish rocks my father tried to teach me to toss with a spin so they would skip over the surface of open water until a last, fatal, ker-plunk sent them to darkness below the waves. I am not ready...
Red Sky in Morning
Martha Ball
Fri, Nov 3
Category:
Columnists
Th e sky at sunrise held that warmth of promise, a deep golden rose that truth be told is quite orange but “orange,” the color of school crayons and morning juice, hardly does it justice. In late spring and early summer first light comes slowly, a gradually lifting of night that begins hours before...
On the corner of... 19th Century directions to Block Island
Martha Ball and Mary Anderson
Sat, Oct 28
Category:
Columnists
In the early 19th Century the country was still young. The west was being explored and mapped by Lewis and Clark, from the newly-acquired Territory of Louisiana to the Pacific Northwest. In the east, existing maps and measurements were being codified. Among the hidden treasures on the corner of...
Tales of The Dutch Inn
J.V. Houlihan Jr.
Fri, Oct 27
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
Last summer a guy rolls in to the standby lot to try to get on the ferry. I forgot his real name — but he looked like a Wally. He was a pleasant guy, and he got me a Diet Coke from the Portside where he went with his friends to burn up the clock and have lunch. Wally was a thoughtful guy — it was...
Small Miracles
Martha Ball
Fri, Oct 27
Category:
Island Notes
Wh en duties for this year's Roll Call Dinner were handed out many were the “what you did last year” default and so I happened to already have been assigned to the greeting of people and collection of money when I tumbled on Sunday and hurt my hand/wrist landing on the pavement. There were no...
Between Traffic and Wind
Martha Ball
Fri, Oct 20
Category:
Island Notes
It is a time of year between the traffic that becomes ambient noise — a background we do not notice, but think we do in the blaring horns and foolishly loud motors and pounding speakers — and the constant of our winter lives: wind. Now, after the morning cool is displaced by mid-day warmth and car...
Bashing to windward
J.V. Houlihan Jr.
Fri, Oct 13
Category:
News
,
Columnists
,
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
There was an article in Forbes magazine in 2012 that got my attention. It was a piece that dealt with the newly-released album titled “Wrecking Ball,” by Bruce Springsteen. It was an angry album, and some folks thought Springsteen was being a hypocrite for making this record. How could a guy write...
Day Is Done
Martha Ball
Fri, Oct 13
Category:
Island Notes
A few minutes before six, the land was near golden with the light of a lowering sun. The shadows were long, reaching down to the back lot, but still it was a shock to realize sundown was less than twenty minutes distant. It is not yet — quite — that heavy hammer of winter that falls swiftly and...
A living barn
John Willis
Fri, Oct 6
Category:
Columnists
It’s only a barn. Four walls, large hay loft, three horse stalls. A barn is usually the simplest of buildings with few windows, a few large doors, no plumbing, maybe a few overhead lights. Could have one staircase to the hay loft but sometimes just a ladder suffices. No heating system, cold during...
On the corner of... John Rose & Co.
Martha Ball and Mary Anderson
Fri, Sep 29
Category:
Columnists
The John Rose & Company, the gloriously asymmetrical building on Dodge Street that currently houses Lazy Fish and Persephone's Kitchen, was a shop and ship's chandlery, and a hardware store with a small lumber yard across the street. It was among a number of buildings constructed in the decades...
Fallen Leaves
Martha Ball
Fri, Sep 29
Category:
Island Notes
The last Monday in September, the first Monday of fall, it did not seem it would be as difficult as it proved to be to find the scant few seconds it required to take a photo of the Water Street curb, with no foot or vehicular traffic in the frame. It looked, strangely, like fall on the mainland,...
On the mainland... Paul Masse dealerships
Fraser Lang
Fri, Sep 29
Category:
Trips Abroad
This is a great time to buy a new car or truck and a visit to either of Paul Masse’s dealerships in southern Rhode Island is worth the trip. The Buick/GMC dealership on Route 1 near the tower is housed in a relatively new and spacious building appropriate for these high-end brands. When you enter...
Can Do Sailors
J. V. Houlihan, Jr.
Fri, Sep 22
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
“Yes, we ran like a scared chicken. After seeing Irma make her forecasted turn to the north up the east coast of Florida, we turned to the east, and chased her—like any badass sailor would—until she was safely clear of the Florida straits.”
—Captain Lisa Chaplin-Dixon, Master of the
M...
Forgotten Reality
Martha Ball
Fri, Sep 22
Category:
News
,
Island Notes
Mo nday and the sky is pale, almost without color, the mid-day sun diffused by a cover of fog. September, I am hearing, is never like this and I try not to say too quickly or emphatically, “well, actually. . .” September is remembered as crisp and sunny, a month of gentle breezes and warm water and...
On the Corner of... Pots & Kettles
Martha Ball and Mary Anderson
Mon, Sep 18
Category:
Columnists
Ed. note: The Block Island Historical Society was founded in 1942. To help celebrate its 75th year, the Society’s Diamond Anniversary,
The Block Island Times
will be publishing sketches and photographs of items in its collection. For those interested in joining or donating to The...
Ducks redux
J. V. Houlihan, Jr.
Sun, Sep 17
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
Over the past few years, the phrase “dust ducky,” comes flying out of my mouth when asked how I’m doing. It’s a corny way of saying that things are just fine. In the realm of the geezer, the idea of saying corny stuff is okay — it’s okey-doke — and the reason it’s okay to say a corny phrase when we...
September Hay
Martha Ball
Fri, Sep 15
Category:
Island Notes
I live on the Mansion Road, I grew up living on the Mansion Road. The Searles Mansion burned during school vacation in April of 1963 and in the twenty some years between that time and the purchase of the land and road by the town — with a healthy contribution from Block Island Conservancy — the...
‘Very L.D., dad!’
J.V. Houlihan, Jr.
Fri, Sep 8
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
“What fresh hell is this?”
— Dorothy Parker.
I first read this quote while studying American humor in a special topics class while in graduate school at URI. Parker was what we would call a
wit
. The quote informs a person who is already experiencing a situational hell, and the...
Scattered Showers and Dappled Sunshine
Martha Ball
Fri, Sep 8
Category:
Island Notes
It is going to be one of those days. The sun was out early, brighter and clearer than I expected it to be given last night's forecast. I dawdled but still made it to the dump with bins of recyclables, stacks of paper and three bags of trash. That seeming bounty represents no more than a long time...
Windy but Hopeful
Martha Ball
Fri, Sep 1
Category:
Island Notes
T u esday was gray and windy but hopeful. We are near the close of a summer of ever-escalating terrible traffic stories, mine capped, perhaps, by meeting a truck on Water Street, in its busiest section, between the turn onto Chapel and the statue of Rebecca. It came at me, not with great speed but...
The Journeyman
J.V. Houlihan, Jr.
Fri, Aug 18
Category:
News
,
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
Journeyman: A worker who learns a skill and then works for another person.
— Merriam-Webster
A young Christopher Walken came of age in the swirling and roiling cultural stew of Queens, New York — ensconced amidst the hustle, flow, drama, and color of that borough. This is where Walken...
Rain
Martha Ball
Fri, Aug 18
Category:
Island Notes
L ast week, I came home with every expectation of going back out in the evening, but I started reading an old document about a summer of disease on Block Island, written at the start of the 19th century, then fell down the vortex of old documents in archaic language. The forecast was not good and I...
Fishing report: Fishing comes to life
Capt Chris Willi and Capt. Hank Hewitt
Fri, Aug 4
Category:
Fishing Report
Kicking off the August fishing report, we’re pleased to say the catching is good. Starting with the surf zone, the stripers are cooperating at multiple spots around the Island, at sunset and through the night. Shortly prior to sunset, up to full dark, large, noisy, surface lures are turning their...
August Day
Martha Ball
Fri, Aug 4
Category:
Island Notes
It is August, long awaited by some, too quickly arrived for others. The already frenetic pace of summer on Block Island goes into overdrive as The End looms earlier and earlier, driven by school openings long before the once traditional Wednesday after Labor Day. When I was a child, the tourists...
Columbus
J. V. Houlihan, Jr.
Fri, Jul 28
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
While returning to Newport from sailing recently, I passed the
Nina
and the
Pinta.
They were docked at Fort Adams and open to the public for a little show and tell. As a I passed the stern of
Pinta,
I yelled out to a crew member if I could pick his brain about the...
Feathered Sunshine
Martha Ball
Fri, Jul 28
Category:
Island Notes
Chiicory was leaning into the road, still the vivid blue in mid-morning that is generally reserved for early day. It opens bright and hopeful before the sun climbs high and blanches it to a pale ghost of its early self. It is a weed, with a deep tap root, the enduring green of an old yard like mine...
On the corner of... Be our guest, be our guest
Martha Ball and Mary Anderson
Sat, Jul 22
Category:
Columnists
There has long been a restaurant in the spot today occupied by Ballard's Inn, a place that has withstood — and/or been rebuilt after — several hurricanes and one all-consuming fire. Before Ballard's existed, in any of its forms, there was Barber's, a “Shore Dinner House” located “First Building at...
Ocean Views... Two new walks of discovery
Kim Gaffett
Fri, Jul 21
Category:
Ocean Views
The Age of Discovery was a fantastic time in the history of human adventure. It was a time when wanderers of all ilk struck out towards the various compass points of the world to learn what was there. They returned to their port cities and filled the museums with giant tortoises, magnificently...
Ode to the Eagle
Martha Ball
Fri, Jul 21
Category:
Island Notes
A p lane roars by, seemingly outside my window, and I think of open windows and the sounds of summer they gift us, airborne engines as well as chirping birds. It’s a nice moment, before I remember that, of course, there is more air traffic in the summer. As there are more people, strangers, among...
Lobster cars and Ancient Mariners
Martha Ball
Fri, Jul 14
Category:
Ocean Views
It is raining, again. It did so in the morning, yesterday, a series of moving precipitation ranging from downpour to shower. By ten it had stopped and the sky to the east was oddly light, a reversal of what I expect of a storm sliding up the coast. The sky cleared, and by noon we felt the weight of...
On the Corner... of the past and present
Martha Ball and Mary Anderson
Sat, Jul 8
Category:
Columnists
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Block Island Historical Society. Throughout the year we will be highlighting some of the interesting items in its collection.
The United States Coast Guard’s first presence on Block Island was in the Lifesaving Service, one of...
Near Mansion Beach
Martha Ball
Fri, Jul 7
Category:
Island Notes
In summer, we are not surrounded by the great whoosh of the winter wind. The first day after a very long Fourth of July weekend celebration is not peppered with fireworks and boat horns, instead, softer, gentler, sounds fill the air. I realize it first when I go outside, to hang clothes on the line...
Just like riding a bike
J. V. Houlihan, Jr.
Fri, Jun 30
Category:
The Ferry Dock Scribbler
The best guitar-playing job I ever had was in the mid-80s, on Block Island. Vin McAloon hired me to play from 8 to 11 at a little bar in back of the Atlantic Inn. I’d work at the dock until 3, and then hop on the ferry. I’d hike up High Street and bring my guitar to the room. Then I’d go run a few...
Relocations
Martha Ball
Fri, Jun 30
Category:
Island Notes
“How do you do that every week?” someone just asked me, a question I find validating every time I sit down to a blank screen and the reality of not only a deadline, but of having to find a topic. Today I have loose ends swirling around me. Last week I wrote about the building that became Ernie's...
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Island Buzz
Antique Maps and Vintage Photographs
Posted By
Block Island Historical Society
1/25
The Block Island Historical Society has a great selection of antique maps; vintage photographs; unique posters & prints...
This weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule
Posted By
The Block Island Times
1/25
Check out this weeks Nature Conservancy Schedule at https:// www.natureblockisland.org
Still Looking for a Summer Rental?
Posted By
Sullivan Sotheby's International Realty
1/25
Sullivan Sotheby’s International Realty has some great options, if your still searching for that perfect Summer Rental. We...
New Year, New Hope, New You! Offers Await at Solstice at Groton
Posted By
Solstice Senior Living
1/25
New year. New hope. New you! Embrace your life to the fullest this year at Solstice Senior Living at Groton. Visit our...
History Happening Here
Posted By
Block Island Historical Society
1/24
*** Annual Meeting September 20th 11am Program 11:30 am Please join us on zoom ** Thank you for your interest in the Block...
In the Heart of Block Island https://liladelman.com/listing/1501-beacon-hill-rd-block-island/
Posted By
Lila Delman Real Estate
1/23
In the heart of Block Island, this captivating estate is nestled on almost 12 acres of rolling hills, pastures, stone walls...
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Island Religion
PART 4 HAVE TO? WANT TO?
Posted By
Block Island Christian Fellowship
1/21
PART 4 HAVE TO? WANT TO? What should be the basis for financial giving? CHAPTER 5 THE CHURCH AGE Now we come to the current...
Sunday Worship - in house and Virtually
Posted By
Harbor Church
1/16
Worship Experience Sunday mornings at 10 am In House or via live-stream. Live On our Facebook page: Harbor Church - Block...
PART 3 HAVE TO? WANT TO?
Posted By
Block Island Christian Fellowship
1/14
PART 3 HAVE TO? WANT TO? What was the protocol for giving financially during the time Christ lived on the earth? CHAPTER 4...