Friday, February 11, 2011

spelling bee, quentin the quahog and a good blog to read

Many people think that there is not much to do on Nantucket in the wintertime; and for islanders, this is what we keep wanting them to think. But, it's not true, in fact, just the opposite. Winter is our time to socialize, to get out and spend time with friends, to take long walks in the Middle Moors, and to do things that make life on "the Rock" special. This is even more important this winter, when travel to "America" has been a bit more challenging.

Tonight, for example- there are at least 3 or more social events happening on island; all of which have the possibility of being uplifting, entertaining, and educational.

1) Sustainable Nantucket presents a screening of the Film "The End of the Line" with a Q&A with local fisherman:  more info at http://www.libraryinsight.com/eventdetails.asp?v=3&jx=nd&lmx=322281
2) one of the many "One Book One Island (OBOI): events this week. A showing of "The Tuskegee Airmen at the African Meeting  House; Len is organizing some music and the readings. http://www.nantucketatheneum.org/programs-events/for-adults/one-book-one-island-2011/
3) our normal Friday night event: trivia night at the Rose and Crown; we usually fill up two 6 person teams (boys and girls ;-)) Our team names are BassAckwards and Clueless; tonight's fun is a benefit for Family Planning and includes raffle items. Every week, almost everyone we knows shows up for trivia for a chance to win cash and bragging rights.

Speaking of bragging rights :-) the Civic League Team (Members include myself and Chris Lohmann and Peter Morrison) won our island Spelling Bee last week which is a benefit for the "Friends of the Nantucket Public Schools ( . Here's a picture of our team with our trophy and t-shirt costumes and a link to the story.  It was a hard fought battle- we have some amazing spellers on island, many of whom study and practice and come back every year (21 teams) and we just barely squeaked by Nantucket Bookworks! Example words: lederhosen, nachtmusik, dachshund, perestroika, knish, schloss, quixote (with the hard pronunciation), philhellenism, sayonara, sarsaparilla (both teams- down to two then, forgot the second "a" out of 4 "a"s, and jipijapa (pronounced "hippy-hopa").

the last two weeks have been full of other OBOI events, potlucks, superbowl parties, long chats in the produce aisle, seeing one another at the high school science fair, and competing in trivia and game nights. Quentin the quahog is our version Punxsutawney Phil. This year he squirted to the left indicating 6 more weeks of winter.

For the next few weeks, the political atmosphere will heat up on island as we prepare for Annual Town Meeting and our yearly elections as well as open a brand new public safety facility. Summertime, we become more serious, work 12-16 hour days, marvel/curse at the increase of population from 15,000 to 60,000 people not counting tourists, and while we enjoy the warmth, we look forward to our "social season".

If you have made it this far in today's entry, please go read and sign up for this excellent blog by my friend and colleague, Dr. Greg Smith! [http://natorder.blogspot.com/].... today's post covers a recent topic currently circulating among island biologists and conservationists concerning feral cats.

1 comment:

  1. Yep, I am commenting on my own blog post- a careful reader reminded me that quahogs don't squirt. My other two readers might not know that. the sad truth behind the Quentin prediction is that a secret method is used to make him "squirt". I know the secret and so does the reader, but if we told you, well, you know how the rest of that story goes.

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