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Columnists

Fishing Report: Warm water means fish go deeper

By

Sol Schwartz

Sun, Oct 4

Category:

Fishing Report

It’s the beginning of October and the weather is amazing on Block Island! There’s still plenty of beach time left in the season and, with the smaller crowds, it’s a perfect place to be. However, this wonderful weather isn’t helping the striped bass much, especially off the beach. In order for the...
Grounded Autumn

By

Martha Ball

Sun, Oct 4

Category:

Island Notes

It is fall, it is the season my dog, Autumn, came to live with me, just over two years ago. She has gone back to the chair she eschewed the summer long, my chair, that is, not one of the others in the living room I would gladly cover with an old sheet were she to favor it. She pretends not to see...
Patriots face unknown Jaguars

By

Cassius Shuman

Fri, Sep 25

Category:

Columnists

"There's no crying in baseball," said Tom Hanks’s character Jimmy Dugan in the popular movie A League of Their Own. Too bad Hanks's character didn't make that spirited declaration about football. He could very well be espousing that refrain to the coaches of the teams that the New England Patriots...
The Gardening Report: Juice into jelly (or popsicles)

By

Renee Meyer

Fri, Sep 25

Category:

Gardening Report

It’s hard to ignore the abundance of fruit on Block Island this year. The old apple trees in the yard — survivors of the Hurricane of ’38 — are all but groaning with the weight of their fruit bending the branches towards the ground. Pears are plentiful, and Concord grapes are still, as of this...
Exotics among us

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Hank Hewitt

Fri, Sep 25

Category:

Fishing Report

To start this week’s fishing report, the pelagics — being the false albacore and bonito — are still running through the pond and at the Coast Guard Station. The striper bite from the shore still remains light, but fish are still being caught from the east beaches and southeast corner. The heavy...
Smoke on the Water...

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 25

Category:

Island Notes

It is the 21st of September, the day we grew up thinking of as the first of fall; this year the equinox does not come until early morning of the 23rd. There will still be an hour more of visible than actual daylight, a standard which holds true across the year. It is such both in summer when the...
Patriots face potential trap game

By

Cassius Shuman

Fri, Sep 18

Category:

Columnists

This week’s Patriots game presents some challenges indicative of a trap game. There is a caveat: I know that AFC East games are not usually considered trap games, but since the Patriots are coming off of an emotional win after beating the Steelers on Thursday Night Football, the potential is there...
Fishing Report: Bonito and albies, with a splash of bass

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Sep 18

Category:

Inactive Columns

Everyone knows September and October are the best months on Block Island. That only improves because of the smaller crowds and cooler weather. This last week has proven that; if you head out there with a fishing pole, you’re probably going to catch something. From boat, the fish seem to be mostly...
Sailboats, a fine obsession

By

J. V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Sep 18

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

“If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most. A small boat is not only beautiful; it is seductive and full of strange promise and a hint of trouble.” — E.B. White While sailing earlier this summer, the clew at the foot of...
September Sojourn

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 18

Category:

Island Notes

The cousins and their families are walking out to the North Light. My pace is not what it used to be I tell them and time is at a premium, I will stay behind; it is not until I look out along the beach that I realize they, too, have grown older. But I remain in the parking lot, looking at the big...
Fishing Report: Albie back

By

Hank Hewitt and Capt. Chris Willi

Fri, Sep 11

Category:

Fishing Report

We’re pleased to open up this week’s shore fishing report with confirmed first-hand sightings and hookups to false albacore (aka little tunny) and bonito. These pelagic terminators have made their annual appearance right on time and the Coast Guard Channel is the best place to cast for these drag-...
Summertime Dream

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 11

Category:

Island Notes

It has been the longest and the shortest summer of my life. It is warm, summer warm, too warm for after Labor Day when school starts but every conversation is of all the other years it has been too warm, another anomaly of the season that is not. But my yard looks like fall, the tiny apples on the...
Incoming!

By

J. V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Sep 4

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

We’re inundated on a daily basis with incoming information. Our gadgets have taken over both lobes of our brains with a relentless barrage of facts, figures and scads of minutiae. Once we get Facebooking or tweeting and texting and emailing, it is a wonder that we can think in a coherent manner. It...
Fishing Report: The Night Bite

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Sep 4

Category:

Fishing Report

It’s the beginning of September, and Block Island’s water temperatures have peaked. This means several things for fishing. The elusive monster striped bass typically move into deeper water, especially during the day. Bonito and false albacore (albies) start showing themselves at the Coast Guard...
For Denice

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Sep 4

Category:

Island Notes

Labor Day is as late as it can be this year, and the town feels September-quiet in the week preceding the holiday. The humid heat is back with a vengeance much like the cancer that returned last year and finally, yesterday, took my cousin Denice's life. The world conspires in odd ways. Today came...
Loose Ends: How Not to Make Friends

By

Zoe Estrin-Grele

Fri, Aug 28

Category:

Columnists

I am really bad at making friends. This wasn't always the case. For most of my life, developing a large posse of nerd pals was almost second nature. Even though I moved a lot, picking up new ones was never a big deal. It's not difficult when you live with, study with, and often work with the same...
Hope

By

J.V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Aug 28

Category:

Columnists

Rhode Island’s state flag has the word “Hope,” beneath an anchor and surrounded by stars. This is a word used often and in many contexts. It is a word that when used as a noun has many synonyms: goals, desires, expectations, plans, et al. As a verb it means to want, to expect and to look for—...
Another August's end

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 28

Category:

Island Notes

Years ago, I thought every year was so special, that every August was unique. Then I scrolled back through columns I had written other years at the same time and found “August Muggies” the year it was so damp the gaps between the planks in the old table in the editor's house briefly lessened and a...
Late summer fishing starts

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Aug 21

Category:

Fishing Report

Late summer fishing on Block Island is a time for changes. Striped bass fishing begins its lull before the fall and we start looking out for other species to show up. When our waters reach their warmest, the bigger stripers typically stay in deeper waters until the temperature drops near the shore...
Flashing Green

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 21

Category:

Island Notes

T he trees at the west end of Chapel Street are burnished, as is the great horse chestnut at the old Town Center. Yet it came as a surprise that the maple at the corner of my yard was not full and lush; only in a photo did I notice sky showing through its branches. Perhaps I do not notice it when...
Fishing Report: Anticipation of the speedsters

By

Hank Hewitt and Capt. Chris Willi

Fri, Aug 14

Category:

Fishing Report

This week’s report sees us firmly in a summer pattern. The Coast Guard Channel is producing a pick of porgies and short fluke for the light tackle anglers dragging squid strips and spearing across the bottom. There is a consistent bite of schoolie stripers, rolling through bait at first light until...
August

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 14

Category:

Island Notes

In the midst of a beautiful summer day, I want back all the time I have spent on the phone trying to get Verizon service to be Verizon service. Forty-six minutes today with no resolution to the problem I called about on Saturday. Weirdly, it is not the internet — just the email. I think I should...
Setting the hook

By

J. V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Aug 7

Category:

Columnists, The Ferry Dock Scribbler

I had a punitive writing assignment in the ninth grade. It was 1964. The deal was this, I either stayed after school and wrote what my teacher wanted or my folks were getting a phone call — not a good thing. Let’s just say that I wasn’t what you would call a good student — by any means — and school...
Tune in for tuna!

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Aug 7

Category:

Fishing Report

In the next few weeks, Block Island will see its highest water temperatures for the season. The warm water is definitely prime for baitfish, which in turn keeps the big fish around. Already for the beginning of August, we are seeing great catches from both boat and shore. One thing to keep in mind...
250 and Counting

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Aug 7

Category:

Island Notes

This year, the Harbor Church celebrates its 250th anniversary in October. “Gathered” is the word on the sign on the lawn of the current home of the congregation. Some place the date of origin to the earliest settlers meeting in the Bay Colony, seeking a different life in a place where they could...
Time for topwater

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Hank Hewitt

Fri, Jul 31

Category:

Fishing Report

This week’s report should be more aptly entitled a catching report, as the catching is solid for every avenue of angling. Most basically, and arguably the most fun for the family, is the huge volume of squid in the Great Salt Pond. They may be caught night and day; however, they are...
Sunday Night Still

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 31

Category:

Island Notes

S unday night and the Harbor Church is strangely still. Even for this building in summer, the activity of the past week was manic. In addition to our regular services and programs, scheduled meetings of outside groups, twice-weekly bridge gatherings and dinners for international students, we had...
Bob Dylan and Newport: 50 years on

By

J. V. Houlihan Jr.

Fri, Jul 24

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

The Newport Folk Festival starts on Friday, July 24 and runs through the weekend, marking a half century since Bob Dylan performed his genre-challenging show. Fifty years ago Bob Dylan strapped on an electric Fender guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, and tore into his songs —...
Eat. Sleep. Fish.

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Jul 24

Category:

Fishing Report

It’s business as usual on Block Island. The boats keep bringing in huge bass as the shore fishermen chase the fish around all the beaches. The warm temperatures this past week have definitely influenced the baitfish, which in turn has made fishing productive. From boat, Matt King of Hula Charters...
All Too Possible

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 24

Category:

Island Notes

Y esterday it was hot. The air, I think at first, was a heavy, sodden blanket then realize all that sun could not have gotten though such a cover. I wonder if even out here in the middle of the ocean we are feeling the impacts of the pollution that causes Ozone Alerts to be issued in the cities on...
Baling twine

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 17

Category:

Island Notes

T his morning I looked out to the east and had a strange flash of misplaced memory, sheep on my neighbor’s bank lot, between the big pond behind my house and the ocean. Once they were in those meadows, big wooly beasts sheared in the summertime, probably just as they were about to keel over in the...
Big bottom dwellers

By

Capt. Chris Willi and Hank Hewitt

Fri, Jul 17

Category:

Fishing Report

A mixed-bag species report highlights this week’s word from the land-based fishing scene. Large scup (porgies) have moved into casting range from the beach, all around the island. Squid and live minnows are accounting for their fair share of scup and fluke at the Coast Guard Channel. Most notably...
Gardening Times

By

Fred Nelson

Sat, Jul 11

Category:

Gardening Times

Here we are well into the month of July, and all that I have harvested from my vegetable garden is some lettuce that I had transplanted. Returning home in early May is a bit late for my normal gardening schedule. However, one must make do what one has to work with. One frustrating operation...
Tuppence

By

J. V. Houlihan, Jr.

Fri, Jul 10

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

A month ago I was making a donation to a great organization when I stumbled upon a group on Facebook that helps kids in foster families hopefully get placed in a loving and nurturing home. Our donation will send a kid to camp for a week this summer in upstate New York. This camp was founded by two...
Arc of history

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jul 10

Category:

Island Notes

We all have one of those youthful summers of exceptional remembrance, mine was the summer of 1969, historic by any account. It was the year Pete Seeger and his crew launched the sloop Clearwater and sailed into the New Harbor and came to town and performed on the stage...
Warm water improves the bite

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Jul 10

Category:

Fishing Report

Our water temperature is about 67 degrees and rising quickly these days. With that, the baitfish numbers around Block Island are growing. We are seeing a lot of fish caught by both beach and boat. The spring and early summer was all about fishing the west side mostly, but at this point it’s safe to...
Fishing Report: Fluke and porgies, bass and blues

By

Hank Hewitt and Capt. Chris Willi

Thu, Jul 2

Category:

Fishing Report

For all the surfcasters, the bite on the shore scene has been consistent with multiple species now bending the rods of those fishing. In fact, it’s been the best surf fishing for June in a few years. Both fluke and porgies have joined the bass and blues. Most of the fluke are in the 14- to 16-inch...
Gravity, Lift, Drag, Velocity, Flight

By

J. V. Houlihan Jr.

Thu, Jul 2

Category:

The Ferry Dock Scribbler

A very small percentage of people who climb into a sleek, shiny and very heavy commercial airliner have any idea how the machine stays in the air. Answers will vary: engines, clouds, air currents, and wings are some of the things people will say when asked how an airplane flies. The title of this...
Sirens and Summer

By

Martha Ball

Thu, Jul 2

Category:

Island Notes

A few minutes ago, the police stopped traffic at Fountain Square, something they do only when an emergency vehicle is expected. A moment or two later one of the ambulances, sirens blaring, came through and headed up High Street toward the Medical Center. Now, they have been followed by a fire...
Loose Ends: Make way for raptors

By

Zoe Estrin-Grele

Thu, Jul 2

Category:

Columnists

Earlier this spring, a whole crowd of mallard ducks wandered up onto my lawn to come say hello and ask for crackers. Luckily for them, I had a whole box of leftover matzos from Passover sitting around that looked like perfect duck enticement. I'm not, of course, sure if the ducks are kosher, but it...
Paul Bailey's has history of quality service

By

Arline Fleming

Sat, Jun 27

Category:

Trips Abroad

Maureen Bailey, daughter of Ernest, who established the roots of today’s Paul Bailey’s Chrysler Jeep Dodge RAM dealership at 425 Ten Rod Road, North Kingstown, recalls her father accepting chickens —and one time a cow—as payment at this Lafayette Village location. Ernest Bailey opened a small...
In the garden with Edie Blane

By

Renée Meyer

Sat, Jun 27

Category:

Gardening Report

The idea of a garden lush with blooms all season long is one that many gardeners aspire too, and yet few actually achieve. For most of us there is a particular stretch of the season when our gardens shine, when they are at their most glorious, when they are most worthy of being shown off. That time...
Columbine. Newtown. Charleston. Denver.

By

Betty and Fraser Lang

Fri, Jun 26

Category:

Publisher's Notes

Worshipers . Children. Muslim students. Moviegoers. Once again our news media is consumed with a story of violence and tragic death. Once again the terrible power of a gun in the wrong hands has ended productive lives. No other advanced society has the number of deaths by guns as the United States...
Rearview Mirror

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jun 26

Category:

Island Notes

A week before the Summer Solstice I picked some of the peonies by my front door, solid buds ready to open into glorious pink flowers, and brought them to town where I put them in a vase. These were joined by two creamy white boutonnieres, a sweet reminder chivalry is not completely dead...
Welcome to the squid

By

Sol Schwartz

Fri, Jun 26

Category:

Fishing Report

Let’s give a warm, Block Island welcome to the squid! This past week was Race Week on Block Island, but tons of boats weren’t the only thing that showed up. Squid have finally arrived in numbers around the island. For fishermen, this is very good news. Squid and sand eels are the primary baits that...
Week Of White

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jun 19

Category:

Island Notes

Of wild roses, legendary leviathans and great white sharks. It is a drab and rainy Monday, startlingly cool after a glorious summer weekend. Even Autumn, my golden retriever, who spent the winter whining to be out in the snow turns to me at the door with her plaintive “fix it!” look. It is both...
“Not what you look at, but what you see.”

By

Kim Gaffett

Sat, Jun 13

Category:

Ocean Views

Q. What do horseshoe crabs and Eastern spring beauty have in common? A. They both make rare appearances in May. And, both need more than merely to be looked at, in order to see their complete beauty. Eastern spring beauty ( Claytonia virginica , a.k.a...
In full swing

Fri, Jun 12

Category:

Columnists, Fishing Report

Spring fishing on Block Island is officially in full swing. The sand eels are bringing in all of the common fish that we see this time of year. We haven’t seen much squid yet, but that’s pretty normal seeing as the winter was so long and cold. If you have been out fishing in the last week or so,...
Don't worry (too much) about those tent caterpillars

By

Renée Meyer

Fri, Jun 12

Category:

Columnists, Gardening Report

At the risk of starting what may be the great caterpillar controversy of 2015, I will say, simply, do not worry too much about the tent caterpillars that are currently appearing in many locations throughout the island. The presence of the caterpillars’ tents in trees seems to elicit an automatic...
In the Water

By

Martha Ball

Fri, Jun 12

Category:

Island Notes

Then there are the nights I walk into my kitchen and see a white glow behind the old farm next door. It is not the color of flame nor is it in the right place for a beach fire, rather an other-worldly light from a source that is hidden, mysterious. It is too even to be any natural phenomena, surely...

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Island Buzz

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